News about Alec Martinez

Outdoor hockey has a tendency to be losing its appeal among NHL fans. On New Year's Day, the Seattle Kraken defeated the visiting Vegas Golden Knights at the Mariners' T-Mobile Park, with the league's annual Winter Classic hitting a record low in Nielsen ratings. The game was sold out, more or less, and it praised the reigning Stanley Cup champions in the Golden Knights, but the 2024 Winter Classic saw only 1.1 million viewers, according to the Toronto Maple Leafs or Boston Bruins. In 2022, when the Blues-Wild matchup from Minneapolis' Target Field averaged just 1.36 million viewers, the all-time low was set. A year ago, the Penguins-Bruins game at Fenway Park in Boston averaged 1.78 million. The matchup on Monday, like previous Winter Classics, saw fierce competition from college bowl games, especially the first of two national semifinals matchups, which began during the third period of the hockey season.

The Vegas Golden Knights made it clear that the Stanley Cup would be a complete whitewash, rather dismantled the Florida Panthers in Ga me 2. With a 7-2 victory on Monday night, the hosts blasted into a 2-0 series, establishing their kingship across the ice. And they were even more active than in Game 1; they couldn't be banned from playing.

Many hockey fans were not expecting a second all-Sun Belt Stanley Cup Final in NHL history. Boston was the best regular season squad in the league's history going into the playoffs. They were knocked out by the worst team that made it in. Canada wished that they would win their first Stanley Cup since 1993. Rather, the Jets were quickly dismissed and the Maple Leafs and Oilers' star power was snuffed out.