The Colorado Avalanche are having a fantastic 2025-26 season. At the time of this writing, they have a ridiculous 30-2-7 record and are 10 points ahead of the second-place Dallas Stars in the NHL standings. The Avalanche have also won each of their last nine games, so they are showing no signs of slowing down. 

One of the many reasons for the Avalanche's dominant first half of the season has been the play of former San Jose Sharks goalie MacKenzie Blackwood. The 29-year-old is having himself an incredible 2025-26 campaign and is only getting better as the year rolls on. 

In 16 games so far this season with the Avalanche, Blackwood has recorded a 13-1-1 record, a .924 save percentage, a 2.07 goals-against average, and two shutouts. He has also won all seven of his last starts and has had a .920 save percentage or better in each of them. With this, there is no question that the former Sharks goalie is on fire right now. 

Yet, as awesome as Blackwood has been playing this season, he was snubbed from Team Canada's Olympics roster. This has naturally made some hockey fans surprised, as Blackwood has been simply marvelous in 2025-26. 

When Gary Bettman took command of the National Hockey League 33 years ago, the idea of major league hockey succeeding in The Sunshine State was iffy, to say the least.

The Tampa Bay Lightning had just been born and from one season to another the Bolts' players couldn't tell whether they'd be playing in a makeshift arena or a baseball field or – with

cockamamee ownership – if they'd wind up playing at all.

Flash forward to January 2, 2026 and the Lightning have become one of the league's most successful franchises artistically, monetarily and ownership-wise.

Drive across Alligator Alley to beautiful Downtown Sunrise and there you'll find yet another Floridian success story, the two-time Stanley Cup champion Panthers.

But tonight, the title-holders will take a sentimental journey of sorts to Miami, the Panthers original home, and face the Rangers on, of all places, a baseball field – LoanDepot Park.

Bettman, Inc. is pulling off what once was considered an impossibility, an outdoor NHL game surrounded by the sheltering palms of the Florida Marlins home field. So, how amazing is this?

Floridian author-beat writer for Florida Hockey Now – who grew up at old Madison Square Garden – Alan Greenberg, puts it best:

"This game is a tribute to how hockey has grown in Florida in recent years," says Big Al. "With the Panthers or the Lightning having been in the Stanley Cup Final for six straight years, hockey interest has grown exponentially, especially on the Panthers side which had lagged for years."

If it takes Two to Tango, the franchise also needed player support to make this work.

Greenberg: "The players love it. Even guys like Brad Marchand and Jeff Petry, plus head coach Paul Maurice, have been here twice before. This Winter Classic is unique because of the Florida venue."

The NHL creative geniuses showed their worth, dividing the stadium into a winter wonderland right out of Northern Ontario on one side and, as for the Floridians, I'll let Greenberg explain:

"On the other side, the decor simulates the Tropics with beach chairs and a mural of the ocean. It's a perfect contrast to the fake snow and  simulated ice for the Canadian sport of curling on the cold side." 

Credit for this amazing event goes to the league's leaders, Commissioner Bettman and Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly and their make-the-seemingly-impossible-happen, NHL President of Content and Events, Steve Mayer.

Let this most astonishing Winter Classic begin!