Praising the Stadium Series, the NHL's wilder outdoor game

It was the end of the KISS concert at Dodger Stadium in 2014, when the group hit the final bombastic notes of «Rock and Roll All Nite» and the pyrotechnics illuminated the palm trees near the hockey rink. That was the moment I fell in love with the bizarre, audacious spectacle that is the NHL Stadium Series.

Picture the Winter Classic as the nicest wedding you've ever attended. The Stadium Series is the after-party. Picture the Winter Classic as a Norman Rockwell painting. The Stadium Series is a black light poster with a flying saucer on it.

«The Winter Classic is more traditional, historic. It's got that touch of snow — whether it's real or fake,» Steve Mayer, the NHL's senior executive vice president and chief content officer, told ESPN.

«The Stadium Series is a little more modern. Colorful, graphic-oriented, progressive, interactive,» Mayer said, entering into a brief word association mode, «nighttime, lighting, pyro… let's go. It's where we do a lot of future thinking.»

Mayer was speaking from Raleigh, North Carolina, the site of Saturday night's game at NC State's Carter-Finley Stadium between the Washington Capitals and the Carolina Hurricanes (8 ET, ABC and ESPN+).

It's the 13th edition of the Stadium Series. There have been 14 Winter Classic games, with the next edition scheduled for T-Mobile Park in Seattle in January 2024.

The Heritage Classic, the NHL's outdoor series held in Canadian venues, actually predates the Winter Classic. Its first edition was held in 2003 at Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium, which is the site of the seventh Heritage Classic scheduled for October. There have been special edition outdoor games like the NHL 100 Classic and Centennial Classic in 2017, and those two melty 2021 outdoor