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The venue and teams for the 2016 Winter Classic, undoubtedly the league’s worst kept secret, will finally be confirmed by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman this upcoming weekend, per multiple media outlets and sources. The teams, of course, are the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens.
And the venue, again of course, will be Gillette Stadium, home of the NFL’s New England Patriots.
The 2016 Winter Classic will make Boston the first city to twice host the event -- though Foxborough is located almost 30 miles south of Boston -- and first in town since the B’s hosted the event against the Philadelphia Flyers at the legendary Fenway Park in 2010. The Bruins won that game by a 2-1 overtime final, becoming the first home team to win the league’s annual New Year’s Day contest. (The Washington Capitals became the second home team to win, defeating the Chicago Blackhawks earlier this month.)
Given the inclusion of Canadian teams beginning with the 2013 -- er, scrap that, 2014 -- Winter Classic with the Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs, the Habs were the easy pick for any second Winter Classic featuring the Bruins.
The only real variable seemed to be the game’s venue, with Boston holding more than a few options between Fenway, the historic, U-shaped Harvard Stadium, or even Boston College’s 40,000+ seater Alumni Stadium. But bigger is always better when it comes to this undeniable cash cow for the league, making Gillette, with a mammoth capacity just under 69,000, the obvious first choice.
A game at Gillette does come with some rather weird circumstances for the Bruins’ comrades in Boston sports, the perennial Super Bowl contender Patriots. Given the NFL schedule, and the process behind putting a rink down on a football field, the Patriots would likely need to end their season on the road or earlier than originally anticipated (like a Week 16 Thursday night game or something).
Even then, the field could be a sloppy mess for a potential (and likely) first-round playoff game at Gillette. But with all the advancements they’ve made when it comes to artificial grass and surfaces, I’m sure they’ll cope all the same.
The good news, above all else, is that you can't really deflate a puck.
Ty Anderson has been covering the Boston Bruins for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, is a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com