2023 Heritage Classic to be latest in long tradition of ‘amazing’ NHL outdoor games

EDMONTON -- The 2023 Tim Hortons NHL Heritage Classic will be the 38th regular-season outdoor game the NHL has held and the 37th that Dean Matsuzaki will have been a part of.

The NHL executive vice president of events said it never gets old.

“It is amazing the way people embrace these outdoor games,” Matsuzaki said Thursday, “and the excitement within the city that comes along with these games has been wonderful.”

That excitement is growing with the rink build underway for the game between the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames on Oct. 29 at Commonwealth Stadium (7 p.m. ET; TVAS, SN, TBS, MAX).

The only outdoor game Matsuzaki was not involved with was the first one, which happened to be the 2003 Heritage Classic, also at Commonwealth Stadium.

“I was definitely watching the first game here (on television) and I saw the spectacle that it was, and admit I still get goose bumps walking into the stadium on game day every time we do one of these games,” Matsuzaki said. “It is amazing and it will be amazing next week.”

Crews are hard at work installing a rink inside the 57,000-seat stadium, originally constructed for the 1978 Commonwealth Games. The venue has undergone numerous renovations over the years and is home to the Edmonton Elks of the Canadian Football League.

“Every stadium we go to has its unique challenges,” Matsuzaki said. “We deal with weather, sunlight. The game time is designed that if we’re getting weather like today (sunny, 68 degrees) the puck drop is after the sun goes down past the edge of the stadium. In terms of the different parks, it’s about field access and things like that. Every one is unique.”

Playing in different venues is part of the appeal of an outdoor game. Since the original Heritage Classic, when the Oilers lost 4-3 to the Montreal Canadiens on Nov. 22, 2003, Matsuzaki has overseen games at baseball stadiums such as Wrigley Field in Chicago, Fenway Park in Boston, Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, and Yankee Stadium and Citi Field in New York, among others, along with NFL and NCAA football stadiums.

The highest-attended NHL outdoor game was the 2014 NHL Winter Classic at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan, nicknamed “The Big House,” where the Toronto Maple Leafs won 3-2 in a shootout against the Detroit Red Wings in front of 105,491 fans on Jan. 1, 2014.

“I tell people they really have to come to one,” Matsuzaki said. “If you show up, it’s always an amazing feeling, an amazing event and we always have great entertainment.”

RELATED: More coverage of 2023 NHL Heritage Classic

The original Heritage Classic drew 57,167 fans to Commonwealth Stadium despite bitterly cold temperatures that dipped to minus 22 with the wind chill. It will not be as cold this time, with the forecast calling for a high temperature in the upper 30s.

Heather Seutter, director of Commonwealth Stadium for the city of Edmonton, attended the first Heritage Classic.

“The younger version of myself was up in the upper deck in one of the very cold seats,” Seutter said, “and not only did we stay for one game, we stayed for two because the alumni played first and the Oilers and [Canadiens] played second. There were a lot of people here in Edmonton that were here for the first event and get to come back and see it 20 years later. To be able to see how the NHL has been able to grow and develop this event from just a hockey game to many other events that are going on in this city over the next two weeks is amazing.”

In addition to the game, there will be concerts around the city. Nickelback, the Canadian Music Hall of Fame rock group, will perform after the first intermission, and all-female Canadian band The Beaches will play a pregame concert at Clarke Stadium, located next to Commonwealth.

“We know that the weather is going to be so much better this year with the date of the game being in October,” Seutter said. “And we’re going to be able to celebrate the Battle of Alberta with the Oilers and the Flames here in the stadium.”

The 2023 Heritage Classic is one of four outdoor games scheduled for this season. The Seattle Kraken will host the Vegas Golden Knights in the 2024 Discover NHL Winter Classic on Jan. 1 at T-Mobile Park, and the 2024 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, will feature the Philadelphia Flyers facing the New Jersey Devils on Feb. 17 and the New York Rangers taking on the New York Islanders on Feb. 18.

“Every year people come to us and tell us they want to do an outdoor game and we weigh a lot into it,” Matsuzaki said. “We try to accommodate everyone as best we can. The amount of technology that has gone into rink-building and how we’ve learned from each one of them, it’s allowed us to go a lot more places and schedule the games around certain things. It definitely has opened up a lot more possibilities around these games.”