2020 NHL Winter Classic

The 2020 NHL Winter Classic was an outdoor regular season National Hockey League (NHL) game, part of the Winter Classic series, that was played on January 1, 2020, at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas. The Dallas Stars defeated the Nashville Predators by a score of 4–2. This was the first NHL outdoor game for both teams. With a sold-out crowd of 85,630, it was the second-most attended game in NHL history.
==Background==
The league announced on January 1, 2019 that the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas would be the site of the game, with the Dallas Stars as the host team. The league then announced on January 25, 2019 that the Nashville Predators would be the visiting team.
The Cotton Bowl has been the home of the First Responder Bowl, a college football bowl game played on or near New Year's Day, since 2011; to accommodate the Winter Classic, the December 30, 2019 edition of the First Responder Bowl was moved to Gerald J. Ford Stadium in University Park, Texas. The Cotton Bowl previously hosted the Cotton Bowl Classic, another New Year's bowl game, from 1937 to 2009. The stadium has been used for other college football special events such as the State Fair Classic and the Red River Showdown.
On April 23, 2019, the day tickets went on sale to the general public, the event officially sold out, becoming the second-fastest Winter Classic in history to sell out. The crowd of 85,630 became the second-most attended game in NHL history, behind only the 105,491 attendance set at the 2014 NHL Winter Classic.
==Game summary==
The Dallas Stars defeated the Nashville Predators 4–2 after overcoming a 2–0 deficit. Stars forward Corey Perry received a five-minute major and a game misconduct for elbowing Predators defenseman Ryan Ellis in the head at 2:44 into the first period. Ellis did not return for the rest of the game. The league would later give Perry a five-game suspension.
After Dallas forward Blake Comeau's delay of game penalty at 4:22 gave the Predators a 5-on-3 advantage, forward Matt Duchene scored the icebreaker at 5:46, then defenseman Dante Fabbro gave Nashville a 2–0 lead at 7:36 moments before Perry's five-minute major expired.
The Stars would then score four unanswered goals en route to the win. Comeau would give Dallas its first goal with 1:08 remaining in the second period. Then after forward Colin Blackwell was called for delay of game at 19:11 of the second, forward Mattias Janmark scored the equalizer on the ensuing power play 58 seconds into the third. Forward Alexander Radulov scored a power play goal at 5:06 to give the Stars their first lead, and defenseman Andrej Sekera added his team's fourth goal at 6:35.
Both goaltenders, Ben Bishop of the Stars and Pekka Rinne of the Predators, made 31 saves.
Scoring summary	Scoring summary	Scoring summary 	Scoring summary 	Scoring summary	Scoring summary
Period 	Team 	Goal 	Assist(s) 	Time 	Score
1st 	NSH 	Matt Duchene (9) – pp 	Filip Forsberg (14), Roman Josi (26) 	05:46 	NSH 1–0
1st 	NSH 	Dante Fabbro (4) – pp 	Matt Duchene (19), Roman Josi (27) 	07:36 	NSH 2–0
2nd 	DAL 	Blake Comeau (5) 	Jason Dickinson (7), Esa Lindell (11)	18:52 	NSH 2–1
3rd 	DAL 	Mattias Janmark (5) – pp 	John Klingberg (15), Roope Hintz (6) 	00:58 	2–2
3rd 	DAL 	Alexander Radulov (12) – pp	John Klingberg (16), Jamie Benn (11) 	05:06 	DAL 3–2
3rd 	DAL 	Andrej Sekera (1) 	Radek Faksa (7), Mattias Janmark (9) 	06:35 	DAL 4–2
:Number in parenthesis represents the player's total in goals or assists to that point of the season
Penalty summary	Penalty summary	Penalty summary 	Penalty summary 	Penalty summary	Penalty summary
Period 	Team 	Player 	Penalty 	Time 	PIM
1st 	DAL 	Corey Perry (served by Alexander Radulov)	Elbowing 	02:44 	5:00
1st 	DAL 	Corey Perry 	Game misconduct 	02:44 	10:00
1st 	DAL 	Blake Comeau 	Delay of game (puck over glass)	04:22 	2:00
1st 	NSH 	Matt Irwin 	Tripping 	08:38 	Penalty shot
1st 	DAL 	Radek Faksa 	Roughing 	11:27 	2:00
1st 	NSH 	Colin Blackwell 	Roughing 	11:27 	2:00
2nd 	 	 	 	 	
2nd 	DAL 	Tyler Seguin 	Boarding 	11:00 	2:00
2nd 	NSH 	Roman Josi 	Cross-checking 	16:44 	2:00
2nd 	NSH 	Colin Blackwell 	Delay of game (puck over glass)	19:11 	2:00
3rd 	NSH 	Ryan Johansen 	Hooking 	03:42 	2:00
Shots by period	Shots by period	Shots by period	Shots by period	Shots by period	Shots by period
Team 	1 	2 	3 	Total 	
NSH 	10 	12 	11 	33 	
DAL 	8 	16 	11 	35 	
Power play opportunities	Power play opportunities
Team 	Goals/Opportunities
Nashville 	2 / 4
Dallas 	2 / 3
Three star selections	Three star selections	Three star selections	Three star selections
 	Team 	Player 	Statistics
1st 	DAL 	Blake Comeau 	1 goal
2nd 	DAL 	John Klingberg 	2 assists
3rd 	NSH 	Matt Duchene 	1 goal, 1 assist
==Team rosters==
Nashville Predators 	Nashville Predators 	Nashville Predators 	Nashville Predators
# 	 	Player 	Position
4 	 	Ryan Ellis (A) 	D
5 	 	Dan Hamhuis 	D
8 	 	Kyle Turris 	C
9 	 	Filip Forsberg 	LW
13 	 	Nick Bonino 	C
14 	 	Mattias Ekholm (A) 	D
15 	 	Craig Smith 	C
19 	 	Calle Järnkrok 	C
23 	 	Rocco Grimaldi 	C
33 	 	Viktor Arvidsson 	LW
35 	 	Pekka Rinne 	G
42 	 	Colin Blackwell 	C
51 	 	Austin Watson 	LW
52 	 	Matt Irwin 	D
57 	 	Dante Fabbro 	D
59 	 	Roman Josi (C) 	D
64 	 	Mikael Granlund 	C
74 	 	Juuse Saros 	G
92 	 	Ryan Johansen 	C
95 	 	Matt Duchene 	C
Head coach: Peter Laviolette	Head coach: Peter Laviolette	Head coach: Peter Laviolette	Head coach: Peter Laviolette
Dallas Stars 	Dallas Stars 	Dallas Stars 	Dallas Stars
# 	 	Player 	Position
2 	 	Jamie Oleksiak 	D
3 	 	John Klingberg (A) 	D
4 	 	Miro Heiskanen 	D
5 	 	Andrej Sekera 	D
10 	 	Corey Perry 	RW
11 	 	Andrew Cogliano 	C
12 	 	Radek Faksa 	C
13 	 	Mattias Janmark 	C
14 	 	Jamie Benn (C) 	LW
15 	 	Blake Comeau 	LW
16 	 	Joe Pavelski 	C
18 	 	Jason Dickinson 	C
23 	 	Esa Lindell 	D
24 	 	Roope Hintz 	LW
30 	 	Ben Bishop 	G
34 	 	Denis Gurianov 	RW
35 	 	Anton Khudobin 	G
45 	 	Roman Polak 	D
47 	 	Alexander Radulov 	RW
91 	 	Tyler Seguin (A) 	C
Head coach: Rick Bowness	Head coach: Rick Bowness	Head coach: Rick Bowness	Head coach: Rick Bowness
: Juuse Saros and Anton Khudobin dressed as the back-up goaltenders. Neither entered the game.
===Scratches===
*Nashville Predators: Jarred Tinordi, Yakov Trenin, Yannick Weber
*Dallas Stars: Justin Dowling, Taylor Fedun
==Entertainment==
The country music group Midland performed before the teams took the ice. Jake Hoot, the winner of season 17 of the talent competition The Voice, sang the national anthem. The pop music duo Dan + Shay performed during the first intermission. The second intermission entertainment was a tribute to the State Fair of Texas, featuring the SMU Mustangs and Texas A&M Aggies dance teams and a rodeo show.
==Television==
NBC broadcast the game in the U.S., as it has done since the Winter Classic's first game in 2008. In Canada, Sportsnet televised the game in English, while TVA Sports broadcast it in French. Due to the postponement of the following year’s Winter Classic, this wound up being NBC’s last Winter Classic, as they would concede their NHL rights to ESPN/ABC, and Turner Sports following the 2021 Stanley Cup Finals. Turner would pick up the rights to the Winter Classic.
===Ratings===
The 2020 Winter Classic was the least-watched game in the event's history, drawing only 1.97 million viewers. An error in the Nielsen reporting counted the hour-long pregame show as part of the game itself, which appears to be the primary factor in the ratings drop, as the game's primary competition—college football bowl games on ESPN and ABC—also saw lower cumulative viewership (though the two bowls scheduled opposite the Winter Classic individually had higher ratings than the year before, when there were three bowls in the slot). WGRZ in Buffalo, New York was the highest-rated local station, ahead of even Nashville (WSMV) and Dallas (KXAS),https://twitter.com/AdamVingan/status/1213191318794584065 both of which set market records for NHL viewership with the contest.https://www.dallasnews.com/sports/stars/2020/01/03/stars-predators-the-least-viewed-winter-classic-ever-but-highest-rated-game-in-dallas-and-nashville/
==References==
 
Category:NHL Winter Classic
Winter Classic
Category:Dallas Stars games
Category:Nashville Predators games