The Washington Capitals have participated in two outdoor games since 2011, including their very own event at Nationals Park in 2015.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman is now reporting that the Caps may be on the verge of hosting another one in his latest edition of 30 Thoughts.
Annapolis’s Naval Academy is one of the NHL’s potential targets and it could potentially happen as soon as next season.
5. As for the United States, the league has something interesting brewing with some branches of the military. We’ve mentioned before the idea of playing at Army, with the Rangers as the visiting team. It sounds like they are also considering the Naval Academy, too. No one is saying what this all means right now, but I have to assume that would be a Washington game. And it’s also possible the games would be played simultaneously or at least on the same day. I’m really curious to see the exact plan, but it sounds very interesting. Could be a great idea and spectacle.
6. However, this may not happen next season. As you can imagine, such a combination would take a ton of planning. The NHL really wants to take these games to the “next level,” which moves them out of current markets and into big-name third-party locations. That’s got Notre Dame written all over it, and South Bend is very much on the mind for New Year’s 2018.
According to CSN Mid-Atlantic’s JJ Regan, Navy’s football stadium could serve as the venue.
Though Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, Navy’s football stadium, has a capacity of only 34,000, the NHL has already showed it’s not opposed to playing in smaller venues. The 2016 Heritage Classic was played at Investors Group Field in Winnipeg and that stadium actually seats slightly fewer than 34,000. The smaller capacity, however, would almost certainly mean this game would be a Stadium Series event rather than a Winter Classic.
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