Who Should Play The Dallas Stars In The 2020 Winter Classic?

As a Chicago Blackhawks fan I consider myself a bit of a Winter Classic expert at this point. I LOVE that the NHL is going to Texas next year. It’s a great fit. Everything is bigger in Texas and I am sure that they’ll put on a grand show at the Cotton Bowl. The Stars have players with name recognition and fun nicknames like “horse” and “shit”. The Stars aren’t a top tier team, but they’ve won Cups and it’s a big market. It would be cooler if they had it at Jerry’s World, but planning around another Jason Garrett first round playoff loss makes it logistically complicated.

Now, the NHL needs to find them an opponent who can get eyeballs across the continent. In theory there are 30 other teams to choose from, but it’s not easy find the right team.

Step one is eliminating the teams that nobody has ever or will ever give a fuck about:

Next in line are teams that are an utter disaster even their own fans don’t want to see them on National TV

This is really an American event so I’m just going to go ahead and eliminate all the Canadian teams. The NHL wants American eyes and American dollars.

I forgot a couple of teams that nobody gives a fuck about:

The next step is to make sure that there is real super stars to market. Any teams that don’t have household name guys that your aunt would be able to say “oh yeah, I know about Kane and Toes” is out.

Because the Stars don’t have that elite franchise cachet the NHL will probably to bill this as a fake rivalry. They’ll need to be playing a Central Division opponent.

Fuck the Preds

So there you have it. The 2020 Winter Classic should feature the Dallas Stars and the Chicago Blackhawks. Elite level franchise..check, star power…check, division rival…check. I can’t wait to spend New Years Day deep in the heart of Texas. See everyone down there for the annual Blackhawks Classic.