The Winnipeg Jets will face off against the Montreal Canadiens on Sunday in the first Heritage Classic since 2023. Winnipeg, nestled in the heart of \u201ccottage country\u201d on the Canadian Prairies, and Montreal, located amongst the rich forest and mountain \u201cchalets\u201d across the province of Quebec, are two distinct Canadian geographies that have shaped the cultures of each region. These rural areas, too, are where many Canadians still play hockey recreationally on outdoor ice.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe felt (this) was part of the heritage part of the Canadian landscape,\u201d Mayer said. \u201cThis is a little about Manitoba, Winnipeg, Quebec, Canada, and the history of the Jets as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
The NHL is returning to Winnipeg for an outdoor game for the first time since the 2016 Heritage Classic.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Winnipeg, I think the pressure was on the second we announced that we’re coming back,\u201d Mayer said. \u201cThis was the first place where we covered the entire field in a graphic in the 2016 game. And now we’ve advanced from graphics to \u2014 we built, essentially, a set. It’s got a lot of dimension. We take advantage of the high walls (and) we actually get way more creative now than we did back then\u2026 We realized it’s the crowd that’s here that we have to blow away. We want people to walk in the stadium and go, \u2018Wow.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayer is hoping fans beyond the 32,343 in attendance will also be impressed when the puck drops on Sunday evening.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re really excited about this one. It pops,\u201d Mayer said. \u201cIt looks amazing from a television standpoint when the game airs on Sunday. We think this one is going to be one of our better looking field designs, and we’re really excited to be here in Winnipeg.\u201d<\/p>\n
The League says the design features iconic hockey and cabin-themed elements that celebrate the rivalry between the\u00a0Canadiens\u00a0and\u00a0Jets, with oversized pennants, vintage-style memorabilia, and wooden hockey sticks adorned with antlers to convey the feel of a curated hockey lodge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Winnipeg Jets will face off against the Montreal Canadiens on Sunday in the first Heritage Classic since…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":939437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-939436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=939436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/939437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=939436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=939436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=939436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}