Centennial Classic

The NHL Centennial Classic is an upcoming regular season outdoor National Hockey League (NHL) game that will be held on January 1, 2017. The game will feature the Toronto Maple Leafs taking on the Detroit Red Wings at newly renovated BMO Field, home of Major League Soccer's Toronto FC and the Canadian Football League's Toronto Argonauts. Announced on March 9, 2016, the game will serve as a celebration of the centennial seasons of both the Maple Leafs and the NHL as a whole. It will be one of four outdoor regular season games during the 2016-17 NHL season, the others being the 2016 Heritage Classic, 2017 NHL Winter Classic (which will be held the following day) and the 2017 NHL Stadium Series game.
== Background ==
Toronto and Detroit previously faced each other in the 2014 NHL Winter Classic. The NHL had originally considered having BMO Field and the Maple Leafs host the 2017 Winter Classic against the New York Rangers; however in the wake of the record-low ratings of the 2016 Winter Classic (which included the Montreal Canadiens), president of NBC Sports programming Jon Miller argued that the presence of a Canadian team can affect U.S. ratings, as American teams guarantee local audiences. Despite the presence of the Leafs, the 2014 Winter Classic still managed to tie the 2009 Winter Classic as the second most-watched NHL regular season game in U.S. history, and was the most-watched regular season in NHL history in Canada and the U.S. combined.
As January 1, 2017 falls on a Sunday, the NHL followed the precedent of the 2012 Winter Classic and college football bowl games by scheduling the game for Monday, January 2 instead of its customary New Year's Day scheduling. This decision also opened the January 1 date for the Centennial Classic.
==References==
Category:2017 in hockey