<Table> <Tr> <Td> ← 2017 </Td> <Td> 2019 → </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> ← 2017 </Td> <Td> 2019 → </Td> </Tr> <P> The 2018 NHL Winter Classic (officially the 2018 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic) was a regular season outdoor National Hockey League (NHL) game that took place on January 1, 2018 . The game featured the Buffalo Sabres matched up against the New York Rangers at Citi Field in the New York City borough of Queens, home of Major League Baseball's New York Mets . The game marked the 10th anniversary of the NHL Winter Classic, following the success of the 2003 Heritage Classic in Edmonton, Alberta . The 2018 game marked the second Winter Classic for each team, following the Rangers' appearance in the 2012 event and the Sabres' in 2008 . It was the Rangers' fourth outdoor game, having also appeared in the 2014 Stadium Series . J.T. Miller of the Rangers scored on a rebound in overtime to give the Rangers a 3 - 2 win over the Sabres . </P> <P> On March 15, 2017, Arthur Staple of Newsday reported that the game had been awarded to the New York Rangers . The Rangers originally had planned to play at Blaik Field at Michie Stadium on the campus of the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York but were unable to come up with an agreement to use that facility in time . Yankee Stadium, which hosted the Rangers' games in the 2014 NHL Stadium Series, was ruled out for the Winter Classic because it hosts the Pinstripe Bowl a week before the event . Instead, the Rangers reportedly reached an agreement with Citi Field, home of the New York Mets baseball team, to host the event . The same article identified the Buffalo Sabres as the Rangers' opponent . The Sabres were also in negotiations to host the event, both because it marked ten years since the inaugural Winter Classic and because the 2018 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships had already scheduled an outdoor game at New Era Field for late December 2017, which would have allowed the outdoor ice surface to be used for both that and the Winter Classic . League vice president Bill Daly argued that having two major outdoor games in the same facility so close together would have stretched the resources of Pegula Sports and Entertainment too thin, hence why New York City was chosen as the host site . The Sabres were chosen as the opponents in a thank - you gesture from NBC and the NHL for taking the risk on the inaugural Winter Classic in 2008, and the team's poor performance and declining television ratings (at a time when the Winter Classic's ratings are also declining) did not concern NBC . </P>

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