On New Year’s Day 2015, the Washington Capitals and Chicago Blackhawks are taking it outside. The teams will face off at Nationals Park for the NHL Winter Classic — an annual outdoor game that has been an outstanding success for the National Hockey League since the inaugural iteration of the outdoor game in 2008.

Outdoor pond hockey is a source of nostalgia for both players and fans of the game. The 2008 Winter Classic brought those childhood memories back, as a snowy Ralph Wilson Stadium in Buffalo, N.Y., hosted a dramatic game that ended with Pittsburgh Penguins forward Sidney Crosby winning the game against the hometown Sabres xxxx in a shootout.

The past three Winter Classic games were accompanied by the HBO franchise “24/7.” Weekly hour-long episodes featured an intimate look at NHL teams as they approached the outdoor game, offering an unprecedented view into the daily life of an NHL team with uncensored material and candid content.

Despite the show’s popularity among hockey fans, HBO recently announced it would not produce “24/7” for the upcoming Winter Classic. Instead, the network EPIX will attempt to produce a show in a similar style.

Since the show’s inception, “24/7” and the Winter Classic have been almost synonymous with one another. With HBO’s strong production value, a well-crafted mix of relatable, revealing, quirky and intense moments helped build hype in the weeks leading up to the Classic and added to the novelty of the game. One has to wonder if a lesser-known network like EPIX could create something of the same quality.

Does HBO’s departure signal the beginning of the end for the Winter Classic?

Ratings have been consistent since 2008. The game’s highest ratings were achieved twice, first in the 2009 game between the Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings and also in the 2014 game between the Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs. The 2014 game was also the most-attended NHL game ever, with over 105,000 fans in attendance at the Big House at the University of Michigan.

The game’s consistent popularity and novelty may make HBO’s withdrawal from the series seem strange, but the savvy and battle-tested network may be onto something. For the first time ever, the Winter Classic will be between two teams that have already participated before — the Capitals in 2011 and the Blackhawks in 2009. It is the start of a trend.

After the 2015 game, the Pittsburgh Penguins, Detroit Red Wings, Chicago Blackhawks and Washington Capitals all will have played in two Winter Classic games. The Winter Classic competition has been mostly composed of a handful of profitable American franchises. Limiting the game to this group of teams could get repetitive and the Winter Classic could ultimately lose its charm and novelty.

It is worth noting that the NHL is largely at the mercy of television partner NBC. The network owns the television rights for game and would be unlikely to want to air an a lesser-known team. While an old versus new matchup between the Dallas Stars — formerly the Minnesota North Stars — and the Minnesota Wild would excite many passionate hockey fans, casual fans would likely not tune in.

Last year the NHL began the Stadium Series, featuring several other outdoor games in addition to the Winter Classic. For the most part, the games showcased the usual suspects for outdoor games like the Penguins, New York Rangers and Blackhawks. The series did feature some teams in unconventional and growing hockey markets like the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks, who played in front of a sold-out crowd in Dodger Stadium.

However, just as rehashing the same teams could erode the novelty of the Winter Classic, so too could such an oversaturation of outdoor games. Between the Winter Classic, Stadium Series and the Heritage Classic in Canada, there were seven outdoor games in 2014.

Each “24/7” episode featured lengthy monologues about the organic beauty of playing hockey outdoors and childhood memories of playing pond hockey.

When there are seven games a year, however, outdoor hockey tends to seem forced, artificial and more corporate than grassroots. The 2014 Coors Light NHL Stadium Series did not illicit the same feelings in fans as that first Winter Classic game in Ralph Wilson Stadium did.

The Winter Classic will likely continue for years to come. However, the loss of HBO’s services suggests that the Classic may have lost its novelty.

Daniel Litke is a Senior in the College. Capitals Hill appears every Friday.