To say that the Women’s Outdoor Classic was a great success would be a lie.
This cannot be blamed, for the most part, on the CWHL or the NWHL. This was an NHL-sanctioned event, making the failures theirs alone. When the NHL agreed to put on this event, they raised the expectations for women’s hockey fans not only in the NWHL and CWHL’s markets, but all across the country.
The news leaked via Hockey Night in Canada during their Saturday night broadcast on December 5. The press box at Bright Hockey Center in Boston suddenly filled with excited chatter and speculation about the event.