In November, the NHL announced the Blackhawks and Bruins will play in the 2019 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic® on Jan. 1, 2019, at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Ind., home of the Fighting Irish. The game will be broadcast live on NBC, Sportsnet and TVA Sports at 1 p.m. ET. The 2019 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic® continues the tradition the League established in 2008 of hosting a regular-season outdoor game at the onset of the new year.
The New Year's Day matchup will be Chicago's fourth NHL Winter Classic® appearance and Boston's third. The Chicago Blackhawks previous NHL Winter Classic® games include hosting the Detroit Red Wings at Wrigley Field in 2009 (6-4 loss); a road trip to play the Washington Capitals in 2015 at Nationals Park (3-2 loss); and a matchup against the St. Louis Blues in 2017 at Busch Stadium (4-1 loss). The Boston Bruins were the home club in their two NHL Winter Classic® games; a 2-1 overtime win against the Philadelphia Flyers at Fenway Park in 2010 and a 5-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens in 2016 at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.
The 2019 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic® will showcase a host of the top talent in the NHL. The Blackhawks roster includes several NHL All-Stars, including captain Jonathan Toews, forward Patrick Kane and defenseman Duncan Keith, who have been a core of their three recent Stanley Cup® championships (2009-10, 2012-13, 2014-15). Four Bruins players remain from the team that faced off both against the Flyers at Fenway Park in 2010 and the Canadiens at Gillette Stadium in 2016: captain Zdeno Chara, forwards Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci, and goaltender Tuukka Rask. All four players were part of Boston's 2011 Stanley Cup® championship. In addition, Blackhawks Vice President/General Manager Stan Bowman graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1995 and Bruins forward Anders Bjork was an All-American for the Fighting Irish in 2017.
The Original Six™ clubs have had 588 regular-season meetings, with Boston holding a 48-point edge over Chicago since the 1926-1927 season (Chicago 243-264-81-567, Boston 266-239-83-615). They have faced off in seven Stanley Cup® Playoffs series, five of which the Bruins have won. Most recently, the two clubs met in the Stanley Cup® Final in 2013, where Chicago defeated Boston in the series 4-2 when Dave Bolland tallied the game-winning goal at 19:01 in the third period of Game 6 - the latest Stanley Cup® game-winner scored in regulation. In addition to the 2019 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic®, Chicago and Boston will matchup for a second time during the 2018-19 season on Feb. 12 at TD Garden in Boston.
Information on the 2019 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic® is available on
www.NHL.com/WinterClassic
. NHL Network™ and NHL.com will provide extensive coverage live from the event leading up to and after the game. NHL Social™ will provide coverage on all social platforms, including the use of the hashtag NHL #WinterClassic.
