[3] The NHL delayed the start of the 2020–21 season to January 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic having forced the 2019–20 playoffs to conclude in late-September.

[1] The league further announced on September 27, 2021, that it would be the first Winter Classic scheduled for primetime,[Notes 1] avoiding a repeat of the sunlight and heat issues that occurred during the previous season's NHL Outdoors at Lake Tahoe.

[8] With various December 2021 games being postponed league-wide due to COVID-19 outbreaks among a large number of teams, the NHL remained adamant about holding the Winter Classic as scheduled.

VocalEssence Singers Of This Age, a group of Minneapolis–Saint Paul high school students, performed the national anthem arranged by their director, G. Phillip Shoultz, III.

Former Minnesota Twins players Justin Morneau, Joe Mauer, Kent Hrbek, and Tony Oliva participated in the ceremonial puck drop.