Outdoor Games, Are They Prize Worthy?

The Winter Classic is set to go in Washington, D.C. on January 1st this year, one of the best ways to nurse that hangover from the night before.

This year, I'm hoping possibly find a prize for some of these special games, as I'm trying to make some of these blog posts a little bit more relevant on an annual basis.

In the 2015 edition, we'll see the Washington Capitals play host to the Chicago Blackhawks, two teams that are seemingly regulars in the American version of the outdoor classic games, which will put Alexander Ovechkin and Patrick Kane back in the spotlight, selling the game of hockey to the American public.  If I am able to snag a prize or two, you may want to consider bumping up those Capitals and Blackhawks in your draft priority.

Scoring has been all over the map in the previous Winter Classic match-ups, Eric Fehr and Semyon Varlamov led the Capitals in the 2011 Winter Classic, while the Blackhawks were led by Martin Havlat and Kris Versteeg in the 2009 Winter Classic.

Last season, we saw the emergence of the Stadium Series outdoor games, where there were four games throughout the US on a number of different dates and they kept everything quite interesting.

In 2015, we'll only have one game that isn't the Winter Classic outdoors and that will go February 21st, with a Pacific Division battle between the Los Angeles Kings and the San Jose Sharks... another California classic.

Last season, the Kings hosted the Ducks at Dodger Stadium and for all intensive purposes, the game turned out pretty well.  So, warm weather hockey games could be the new niche before too long.

I think there is going to be a lot of Kings taken at the draft and there will be a few Sharks taken as well, so there might need to be an overall outdoor award, based on the two games this year.  Stay tuned!  We'll probably know more after the draft.