The NHL confirms what's been reported for several weeks now: Detroit will take on the Blue Jackets at Ohio Stadium in the 2025 Stadium Series

It had been rumored for weeks, and now it's official: the Detroit Red Wings will take on the Columbus Blue Jackets at the 2025 NHL Stadium Series on March 1st, playing outdoors at Ohio Stadium, better known as the Horseshoe, the long-time home of Ohio State Buckeyes football.

On the occasion of the first leg of the '24 Stadium Series (taking place between the New Jersey Devils and Philadelphia Flyers at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey), the NHL officially confirmed the Jackets and Red Wings as foes for the '24 addition, after that match-up had been credibly reported for some time.

It will be the first outdoor game in Blue Jackets franchise history, while the Red Wings will be playing in their fifth official outdoor game (and sixth if you count a 1954 exhibition with the inmates at Marquette State Prison in Michigan's Upper Peninsula).  Detroit is 2-0-2 in those previous games, beating the Blackhawks at the 2009 Winter Classic in Wrigley Field (legendary home of the Chicago Cubs) and the Avalanche at the 2016 Stadium Series at Coors Field (home of the Colorado Rockies), while losing the 2014 Winter Classic at Michigan Stadium (better known as the Big House, home of University of Michigan Wolverines football) and the '17 Stadium Series to the Maple Leafs at BMO Field (home of Toronto FC).

There was some suggestion in the run-up to this game that there might be a corresponding outdoor game between Michigan and Ohio State's hockey teams, but now it's being reported that will not happen this time around.  (Early March would not be an easy time to fit a specialty game into an NCAA hockey schedule.)

While Blue Jackets-Red Wings might not carry with it the same animosity as Wolverines-Buckeyes, it should nonetheless be a wonderful occasion when the two teams get together at the 'Shoe.

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