The National Hockey League hasn't hit a lot of public relations home runs on commissioner Gary Bettman's watch, but they definitely put one out of the park with the advent of outdoor games during the regular season.
Each of the four Heritage and Winter Classics to date has been an unqualified success, with sellout crowds ranging from 38,000 at Boston's Fenway Park to 71,000 at Buffalo's Rich stadium.
The Canadiens were part of the inaugural Heritage Classic in Edmonton and will play their second outdoor game this coming season in Calgary, but if it's going to throw around words like "heritage" and "classic," how can the NHL not include Toronto?
Love them or hate them, the Leafs don't take a back seat to anyone as a heritage franchise and there is not a more passionate and savvy hockey town than Toronto.
But so far, they've been shut out of what's ostensibly a celebration of hockey tradition.
The problem is profit
The ultimate Heritage or Winter Classic would pit the Canadiens against the Leafs, but the problem is finding an outdoor venue that would satisfy the league's lust for profit.
The Olympic Stadium is out, barring the fixed roof being ripped off by a good windstorm, which is always a possibility.
Technically, Toronto's Rogers Center would work, but with its retractable roof, it's a quasi-outdoor stadium at best. and like the Big O, it has the festive ambience of an abandoned mausoleum.
The no-brainer Toronto-Montreal scenario - if the NHL were looking for one - would be the Leafs and Canadiens at Molson Stadium, which the Alouettes have turned into the CFL's most picturesque if not its most profitable venue.
If it was about something other than making the most money possible, an outdoor game between hockey's two most storied franchises on the slope of Mont Royal with the Montreal skyline as a backdrop would be one for the ages.
But when was the last time it wasn't about maximizing profit?
