Outdoor NHL regular-season game, the Discover NHL Winter Classic, pitting the Utah Mammoth against the Colorado Avalanche at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
The Utah Mammoth take on the Colorado Avalanche at Rice-Eccles Stadium on Thursday, December 31, 2026, at 4 PM. It's the Discover NHL Winter Classic, the league's tradition of playing a regular-season outdoor game to ring in the new year. This will be the 18th Winter Classic and the 47th NHL regular-season outdoor game overall.
For the Mammoth, it's a big one. This is their first regular-season outdoor game, and they're in their third year of play, which makes them the 32nd NHL team to ever play outdoors. The Avalanche have been through this a few times before—this is their fourth regular-season outdoor appearance, and they're sitting on a 1-2-0 outdoor record. They lost 5-3 to the Detroit Red Wings at Coors Field in 2016, fell 3-1 to the Los Angeles Kings in the 2020 Stadium Series at Falcon Stadium in Colorado Springs, and picked up a 3-2 win over the Vegas Golden Knights in the 2021 NHL Outdoors at Lake Tahoe.
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If you're not going to be at the stadium, you can still catch it. The game will be broadcast exclusively on TNT in the U.S. and on Sportsnet in Canada. It's a 4 PM puck drop on New Year's Eve at Rice-Eccles Stadium on the University of Utah campus in Salt Lake City.
