2018 NHL Winter Classic

On March 15, 2017, Arthur Staple of Newsday reported that the game had been awarded to the New York Rangers. The Rangers originally had planned to play at Blaik Field at Michie Stadium on the campus of the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York[1] but were unable to come up with an agreement to use that facility in time. Yankee Stadium, which hosted the Rangers' games in the 2014 NHL Stadium Series, was ruled out for the Winter Classic because it hosts college football's Pinstripe Bowl a week before the event. Instead, the Rangers reportedly reached an agreement with Citi Field, home of the New York Mets baseball team, to host the event.[2] The same article identified the Buffalo Sabres as the Rangers' opponent. The Sabres were also in negotiations to host the event, both because it marked ten years since the inaugural Winter Classic and because the 2018 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships had already scheduled an outdoor game at New Era Field for late December 2017, which would have allowed the outdoor ice surface to be used for both that and the Winter Classic.[3] League vice president Bill Daly argued that having two major outdoor games in the same facility so close together would have stretched the resources of Pegula Sports and Entertainment too thin, hence why New York City was chosen as the host site.[4] The Sabres were chosen as the opponents in a thank-you gesture from NBC and the NHL for taking the risk on the inaugural Winter Classic in 2008, and the team's poor performance and declining television ratings (at a time when the Winter Classic's ratings are also declining) did not concern NBC.[5]

On May 10, 2017, commissioner Gary Bettman officially announced that the 2018 Winter Classic would be played at Citi Field, and feature the New York Rangers against the Buffalo Sabres.[6] In order to maintain the tax-exempt status of the Rangers' home arena, Madison Square Garden, the Rangers are designated as the away team for this game as a legal fiction. The tax exemption stipulates that it only applies if the Rangers do not "cease playing" home games at MSG, generally interpreted as playing any "home" game outside of MSG. Hence, the Rangers' Stadium Series games in 2014 were also subject to this fiction, and all games that the Rangers play at neutral sites (such as the 2011 NHL Premiere) have likewise listed the Rangers as the away team.[7][6][8]

Despite being the designated home team, the Sabres wore a white throwback uniform during the game (current NHL custom has the home team wear color and the away team white). The uniform is primarily based on the Sabres' 1970s jersey and colors, with some elements borrowed from the team's Buffalo Bisons-inspired 40th Anniversary third jerseys from 2010 to 2012.[9] The Rangers wore navy blue jerseys with the diagonal "RANGERS" lettering on the front of the jersey in white, inspired by the lettering worn by the team in the late 1920s, with the sleeve and waist striping inspired by the uniforms of the early 1930s.[10]

The temperature at the puck drop was 20 degrees. The Rangers went up 2-0 in the first period with goals by Paul Carey and Michael Grabner. Buffalo's Sam Reinhart had a power play goal in the second period, and then Rasmus Ristolainen tied the game early in the third. The game went into overtime, where J. T. Miller scored on a power play goal with 2:17 left in the extra period to win the game.[11]

Number in parentheses represents the player's total in goals or assists to that point of the season

The game was broadcast, as it has been since the Winter Classic's inception, by NBC in the United States. In Canada, Sportsnet simulcast the NBC feed, while TVA Sports used NBC's video to dub their French-language commentary. Mike Emrick called the game on the play-by-play with Mike Milbury filling-in for Eddie Olczyk as color commentator while he recovered from colon cancer treatments, and Jeremy Roenick taking over Milbury's pregame role.

The broadcast of the game set a record low for viewership of the game, with 2.48 million viewers and a 1.4 Nielsen rating, both down slightly from the previous year's record low and continuing the game's continuous decline in ratings since the event's peak in 2014. NBC, however, stated that viewership was still two times higher than the average viewership of regular season games in the previous season.[12] Audience burnout, the Sabres' poor play (which drove ratings for the Sabres' regional telecasts for that season down 20 percent compared to the previous year),[13] competition from a strong slate of bowl games (including the UCF Knights football team's bid for a perfect season airing on the 2018 Peach Bowl opposite the Winter Classic), and fan hangover after the Buffalo Bills broke their 17-year playoff drought the previous day were cited as factors in the continued ratings decline.[14]

During the team introductions, Ace Frehley performed New York Groove

The anthem was performed by New York City Children's Choir Every Voice Choirs

The ceremonial puck drop was done by first responders from NYPD, FDNY, and New York State Police

During the first intermission Goo Goo Dolls performed