BOSTON – It's easy to be cynical about the Winter Classic.

The NHL launched the event in 2008, but has now held 38 outdoor games between the Winter Classic, Heritage Classic, and Stadium Series games in the past 19 years. 

Add in all the NCAA, minor-league, women's professional, and junior games since the turn of the century, and you're well over 100 outdoor games in North America alone, all of them billed as extra-special events, both treated and priced as such. But once you hit triple digits in less than a quarter-century, it's hard to feel excited about this sort of thing.

In fact, the NHL seems so bereft of ideas that it recycled a venue for the first time this year, playing Fenway Park first in 2010 and again this time around. This is the Boston Bruins' third time hosting a Winter Classi