When the St. Louis Blues earned the right to host a Winter Classic, there was not a ton of blow back from around the league. It was nice to have a new team as the host and Chicago being the opponent made sense since the rivalry was at its strongest in decades.
Swing things around to 2020 and its a little different. The NHL announced the Minnesota Wild would host the 2021 Winter Classic back in January, but waited until late February to announce the Blues as the opponent.
Whether that was a league decision to withhold the news or whether Minnesota literally had not decided yet is up in the air.