The NHL Winter Classic featured the hometown Dallas Stars take on the Nashville Predators in a “Southern showdown.” The crowd of 85,360 got an incredible show, not only from the Stars 4-2 win, but from all the festivities that came along with it.
The south, and especially Texas, is known for its love of college football but with the incredible turnout at iconic Cotton Bowl Stadium on the site of the Texas state fair, it showed how much popularity hockey has gained. Jugglers, bull riders, and pig races were just some of the shows put on during the festivities.
The Stars came into the stadium dressed as cowboys, while the Predators dressed in all black as an ode to Johnny Cash. Nashville took a 2-0 lead in the first period on two power-play opportunities, but Dallas came back with four unanswered goals. The crowd erupted with chants of “Dallas! Stars! Dallas! Stars!,” only this time with 3 times as many voices as in their home arena at American Airlines Center.
65,000 seats were planned originally, but with tickets selling out quickly, many more sections were opened. It was the 12th Winter Classic and 2nd in attendance only to the crowd of 105,000 in the 2014 game between the Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
