The ball was dropped on the NHL's experiment to stage the Winter Classic on New Year's Eve. Tuesday's game between the St. Louis Blues and the Chicago Blackhawks in the open air at Wrigley Field garnered the worst viewership ratings in the 17-year history of the annual event,

Only 920,000 viewers watched the Hawks' blowout loss on Tuesday on TNT and TruTV, according to Sports Media Watch.

There were several other factors that likely affected viewership. The game featured two of the league's lower-tier teams (in fact the Blackhawks have the NHL's worst record), it was a blowout — the Blues won 6-2 — and the event had been played at Wrigley before so that novelty factor was gone.