On New Year's Day, NBC televised a game that has become that sport's centerpiece attraction. Hint: It's not a bowl game. It's the now three-year-old Winter Classic presented by the National Hockey League. Played before a sellout crowd of 38,000-plus at Boston's Fenway Park and viewed by the second-largest TV audience for a regular-season game since 1996, it serves as perhaps the league's best vehicle to energize its loyal fans and draw interest from casual observers.
This is a huge shift ...