The 2024 NHL Winter Classic is set to take place on January 1, featuring a matchup between the Seattle Kraken and the defending Stanley Cup champions, the Vegas Golden Knights.
The game, hosted at T-Mobile Park, marks a showdown between the NHL’s newest expansion teams. Click here to buy the tickets for the NHL Winter Classic 2024.
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The Winter Classic is a celebration of a lot of firsts
This marks the inaugural Winter Classic hosted in the Pacific Time Zone. It’s also Seattle’s inaugural outdoor game as well. Vegas had previously participated in the 2021 NHL Outdoors at Lake Tahoe.
Additionally, it’s the first Winter Classic hosted in a stadium equipped with a retractable roof. Organizers, anticipating Seattle’s rainy climate affecting ice conditions, have contingency plans to close T-Mobile Park’s retractable roof in the event of heavy rainfall.
This could potentially lead to the first “indoor” Winter Classic since the 2014 Heritage Classic held at BC Place in Vancouver.
A lot is at stake for the Defending Champions
No Defending Champion has ever lost a Winter Classic. Bet, Vegas don’t want that bad record either.
Jack Eichel is on the verge of scoring his 200th NHL career goal, with the chance to do so in an outdoor game, a feat accomplished by only three players before.
Meanwhile, Bruce Cassidy, the head coach of the Vegas Golden Knights, has the opportunity to make history as the second NHL head coach to secure victories in each of his first three regular-season outdoor games, following in the footsteps of Alain Vigneault’s impressive 3-0-0 record.
