Coaches must adjust style, tactics for NHL outdoor games

The Coaches Room is a regular feature throughout the 2024-25 season by former NHL coaches and assistants who turn their critical gaze to the game and explain it through the lens of a teacher.

In this edition, Don Granato, a former assistant with the St. Louis Blues, Chicago Blackhawks and Buffalo Sabres, and head coach with the Sabres, writes about his experience leading a team in an NHL outdoor game.

The Blackhawks will play the St. Louis Blues in the Discover NHL Winter Classic at Wrigley Field on Tuesday (5 p.m. ET; MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS).

Before I coached the Sabres against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Heritage Classic on March 13, 2022, I asked the guys who had played an NHL outdoor game, "What's your experience? Do you have advice for the team?"

Goalie Craig Anderson had played in two outdoor games for the Ottawa Senators, including the NHL100 Classic against the Montreal Canadiens on Dec. 16, 2017, when it was 13 degrees Fahrenheit at Lansdowne Park in Ottawa.

Craig was adamant.

"Hey, stay warm," he said. "Make that a priority. I know you want to look good, but the warmest team in the third period has the best chance."

He made that message clear to the group.

And the funny, funny thing was, we go out for warmup at Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton, Ontario, and everybody's wearing a hat except forward Cody Eakin, who grew up in Winnipeg. Cody had that red hair flying all over. All he was wearing on his head was a pair of sunglasses. They got a great picture of it. It's just hysterical. It was freezing cold, 29 degrees at face-off. Only a guy from Winnipeg could have pulled it off, and I'll never forget it.

It's a different game. The sightlines are different. The ice is typically good, but you're outdoors. I mean, it absolutely feels like you're skating and playing outside as a kid. Just the sounds of it. Those are real factors, and it lends an unbelievable feel to the game. It creates a different atmosphere. It is nothing like a normal NHL game in a good way, in a very pure way. It's very easy to connect to your roots and where you started playing the game, the purity of it, the enjoyment of it.

As coaches, you work systems all year long, and first day of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, everybody pays attention to every detail there is, because you don't want to be the guy that makes the one mistake. The outdoor game is the opposite. You are so driven. You're not consumed by any mistake. You're soaking it all in, and you want to be that hero like you were when you were a kid, and you can see and feel that in your locker room and with your guys.

You're always reading your team and only want to coach as much as needed. You want to coach less. In every situation, you want to coach less. And to do that, you want to use the moment, what's happening. I could see and feel our guys were in the moment. You could feel the energy on the bench. We really made that game about just connecting to your love of the game and playing without fear and inhibition, and going after it.

Center Auston Matthews gave the Maple Leafs a 2-1 lead at 2:57 of the second period. But you could tell on the bench our guys were fully engaged and hungry, and you could see the way they were skating and the energy they had on the ice. I'd like to say I was very, very confident in our group.

Center Vinnie Hinostroza scored twice -- at 10:53 of the second and 5:16 of the third -- to give us 3-2 lead, and we went on to win 5-2. He was outstanding. He's an ultracompetitive guy.

What an incredible atmosphere to go into a Canadian market and face a geographic rival. We were a team that had just selected first in the NHL Draft. We were picked for 31st place again that year. We had a lot of measuring sticks. That was a big one for us, and our guys really fed off the atmosphere.

The League does an unbelievable job. You may not even consider that as something that would awe you, but it does when you go through it. You just go in thinking, "It's an outdoor game. Play hockey." But you go in there, and you see the way the League runs it, and it's like, "Wow, are these guys good." Everything is just on a whole other level.

The memory of it is incredible.