The NHL went into its final outdoor game of the 2024-2025 season with historic expectations and still cleared them with room to spare.
The league drew a massive crowd of 94,751 on Saturday for the Stadium Series game between the Red Wings and Blue Jackets at Ohio Stadium in Columbus, normally home of Ohio State football. The figure, as expected, now stands as the second-largest attendance in NHL history, trailing only the 2014 Winter Classic at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, which drew 105,491.
Beyond raw numbers, though, the event was rife with competitive fire and emotion. The game, won 5-3 by the Blue Jackets, completed a two-game, home-and-home sweep over the Red Wings and solidified the team’s standing as the top wild card in the Eastern Conference. Columbus is seeking to break a five-year playoff drought while Detroit, right behind the Blue Jackets in the standings, is looking to end its own nine-year stretch out of the playoffs.
Throughout the evening, the league and the Blue Jackets also paid tribute to forward Johnny Gaudreau, who was killed last summer, along with his brother, after being struck by an alleged drunk driver. Among the many commemorations was a giant uniform No. 13 banner in Gaudreau’s honor being passed around the stadium by fans.
The famed Ohio State marching band even made its iconic script “Ohio” on the ice, extending the festive yet poignant tone for the day.
“I understand now why the football players want to go out and rip people’s heads off,” said an emotional Blue Jackets coach Dean Evason of the Ohio Stadium atmosphere. “My God, you’re just jacked. But to have the presence of Johnny with us in that setting, all your emotions, like you want to cry, fight. You want to get after it, right?”
National Spotlight
The Stadium Series event also gave Columbus a big and rather rare dose in the national spotlight—as well an international one given the game was broadcast in 191 countries. A quarter-century into the Blue Jackets’ existence, the franchise is still fighting for recognition to some degree, having reached the playoffs just six times and never advancing to the conference finals.
Saturday’s event was also the first outdoor game in franchise history, and was also the latest in a resurgent wave for the NHL in recent weeks that includes the hugely successful 4 Nations Face-Off and the Capitals’ Alexander Ovechkin and his GR8 Chase.
