St. Louis coach Jim Montgomery walked around before the Winter Classic. He looked at the growing crowd soaking in the festive atmosphere.

St. Louis Blues defenseman Cam Fowler, playing his 1,000th game, scored twice in a 6-2 rout of the Chicago Blackhawks in the Winter Classic.

Winter Classic between the St. Louis Blues and Chicago Blackhawks was the 15th edition of the annual outdoor game held by the NHL. While the event is always a joyous occasion for the host city, the game between the Blues and Blackhawks caught the fewest number of eyes in its history.

The NHL may have saturated the market on outdoor games. With a one-to-two other games played outdoors each year in the NHL Stadium Series — in addition to the trends in broadcast television viewership, the Winter Classic has seen a steady decline over the past ten seasons.

Classic audience dipped below 1 million viewers for the first time with its move to a New Year’s Eve late afternoon window this season. TNT and truTV drew just 920,000 viewers for the Blues-Blackhawks game from Wrigley Field with a 5pm ET start,

The NHL and its broadcast partners moved the Winter Classic game from its traditional Jan. 1 slot to New Year's Eve in an effort to boost declining TV viewership for the league's showcase outdoor event,

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