Column | This year’s Stadium Series was every bit of the spectacle the NHL needs it to be

Sunday night was a big night in the entertainment world. 

On one side of the coin, at the 68th annual Grammy Awards, music’s biggest collection of stars gathered in Los Angeles to crown the best of the best each year. On the other side, a bunch of people dressed up as pirates, patriots, football players and skated around on a rink superimposed on a massive treasure map. 

I’m speaking, of course, about the NHL’s Stadium Series, hosted outdoors at Raymond James Stadium on a rare frigid night in Tampa Bay, Florida. In their second outdoor game in the Sunshine State this calendar year, the Boston Bruins and hometown Tampa Bay Lightning faced off in front of a sellout crowd of 64,617 fans. 

The league’s first foray into outdoor hockey in Florida didn’t pan out so well. A 5-1 win by the New York Rangers over the Florida Panthers on Jan. 2 at LoanDepot Park — home of MLB’s Miami Marlins — averaged less than a million viewers on television for the second consecutive year. Only when the methodology for tracking viewership changed did the NHL get some positive numbers. 

This year’s Winter Classic also felt pretty lifeless. Their venue choice was uninspiring, with a warmer climate requiring a closed roof at the ballpark all throughout prep week. Only when the game actually took place could it be considered an “outdoor” rink. In addition to that, the NHL’s decision to move it off of its usual New Year’s Day to avoid going up against college football led to a downturn in ratings.

The Stadium Series, however, felt like a spectacle. It had energy. It had life. It just felt different this time around. 

Both teams took wildly different approaches to how they arrived at the game. The Bruins all showed up wearing revolutionary-era patriot outfits, complete with powered wigs and all. They spent the afternoon posing for various pictures dressed in full costume, including recreating painted scenes on the boats that were set up for props inside the stadium. 

The Lightning, meanwhile, showed up dressed as members of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the usual tenants of the stadium. Led by Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield and offensive lineman Tristan Wirfs, Lightning players walked out in full football pads. 

The ESPN broadcast even committed to the bit, dressing up in full pirate gear and using barrels as a desk. 

Lightning head coach Jon Cooper, meanwhile, stole the fashion show when he showed up in a white suit with a deep V-neck cut red shirt. His outfit — which he wore as an ode to Tampa’s Cuban history — certainly strayed from the general theme of the event, but it was so dang cool it didn’t even matter. He even walked off the ice smoking a cigar after his boys stole a win from the Bruins. 

It was silly, fun and hard to take seriously for the majority of it. But that’s exactly what made it special. Everyone is acknowledging how wacky this is, but they’re having a good time with it. 

Then, with the famous 103-foot replica ship located in the north endzone looking on, this game started lightning quick — pun absolutely intended. Tampa’s Brandon Hagel scored just 11 seconds in, giving him the record for the fastest goal ever scored in an outdoor game. 

Boston would roar to score five unanswered goals over the next 29 minutes to establish a 5-1 lead. But, aided by several penalties, Tampa Bay slowly staged a comeback, scoring three goals on the power play to close out the second period down one. 

In the third, a bomb from Nikita Kucherov on the right side tied the game, which eventually went to overtime. In three-on-three play, Boston’s David Pastrnak thought he scored the game-winner until it was waived off. Pastrnak had actually taken a penalty several seconds before and was sent to the penalty box instead. 

It all culminated in a shootout, where the final shot rang just off the pipe to give the hometown Lightning the 6-5 win. It was the largest comeback win not just in outdoor game history, but in Lightning franchise history as well. 

Andrei Vasilevskiy and Jeremy Swayman dropped the gloves for the rare goalie fight that had everyone on their feet. Everyone yearns for a goalie fight. But a goalie fight in an outdoor game? That will bring a tear to your eye. In a night dominated by discourse over Grammys winners and snubs, two guys dressed as big pillows throwing fists at each other was trending on social media. 

If you had one game to try and convince someone to watch hockey, I’m not sure there was a better pick than this. This game was a massive, massive success. 

Sure, a highly entertaining game is a major help to any endeavor like this. This year’s outdoor game in Miami didn’t get the benefit of that. But with this year’s Winter Classic, it felt like everyone was taking themselves too seriously. The Winter Classic wasn’t able to lean into some of the goofy, wacky antics that this year’s Stadium Series was able to do with ease. 

A year ago at this time, I wrote about how the NHL needed to take the Winter Classic seriously again. What I meant by that was a need to push their own product more, to have faith in what they were selling to the general audience. 

Ironically, the less serious the outdoor game was itself, the more fun it was to watch. The NHL and their broadcast partners had a fun time promoting this game ahead of time, and then they followed through with a pretty enjoyable product. The Stadium Series was an infinitely better product than the Winter Classic this year. 

If you’re going to save any part of the novelty that is outdoor hockey, you have to find new and creative ways to make it fun. That includes more props, outfits, ideas and yes — more leaning into the silliness of this whole thing.