Foligno is a proud guy, so with 40,933 fans watching his Hawks disintegrate on such a huge stage, he had to have asked for the fight. He wanted to didn't want to go down without one. Right?

With a New Years' Eve party just hours away, Schenn's knuckles not split open and his face still intact, he was the one who wanted it? Yes. In fact, he took teammate Jake Neighbours' spot on the ice for that shift, and if Foligno had turned down the bout, the captain was going to skate back to the bench.

"You look back on these moments in your career and why not, eh?" Schenn said. "You're squaring off at Wrigley Field at center ice against a tough customer. You never know if you're going to play in another Winter Classic, so get in a fight while you're at it. You want the memory."

The Winter Classic is often criticized for clubs such as Chicago playing in too many of them, and for the rest of the country outside of the two cities not contributing to the ratings. But the event is about memories, whether they're for the winning team, the fans who were fortunate enough to have tickets or even the individual players themselves. And the Blues did that with a 6-2 triumph over their rivals.

Think about this: Schenn lost the fight to Foligno, and he's still leaving with something he'll never forget.

"Oh, he landed a couple (punches)," he said. "But I was walking down the stretch to the dressing room and I just felt like a UFC fighter or something. I was just walking by myself with a bunch of people screaming at me."

Blues players were aware of what happened on the ice.

"That just shows what type of captain he is," Jordan Kyrou said. "No matter what the score is, he's going to go out there and get that done. It was pretty cool to see that -- captain vs. captain, Winter Classic game, and then watching him walk off and all the fans cheering. It was a pretty exciting and special moment for him."

Off the ice, however, people like Blues chairman Tom Stillman and actor Jon Hamm were dumbfounded when they heard.

"You're kidding?" Stillman said. "I had just assumed that it was Foligno trying to fire his team up. That's unreal to me. That's hilarious. What a captain, leading the team and making memories and just adding to the whole specialness of the event."

"Good for him!" Hamm said. "I wish he would've not taken that one on the chin, but he's sparking them up. That's what he does."

There were plenty of other moments that made Tuesday special.

"I wasn't a part of the other ones, but just the adrenaline you have," Jake Neighbours said. "You get out there for that anthem, specifically this one -- that singer is so iconic -- and just the roar of the crowd, the fireworks, everything about just gives you chills and I couldn't be more excited to play when you're out there listening to that stuff. It was pretty easy to get up."

Then after the puck dropped, you had Blues defenseman Cam Fowler, playing his 1,000th NHL game in the Winter Classic and scoring not one but two goals in the victory. That gave him 99 career goals and the only development that would've made it more dramatic was if he had a hat trick and hit 100 goals in 1,000 games.

"It's pretty surreal," Fowler said. "I've been going through a lot of emotions the last few weeks, getting adjusted to a new team. But I couldn't have asked for anything more for this experience, getting to share it with my family and all these guys, how they've made me feel so welcome. It was an awesome night for all of us, but more special because we got the win."

"That's just one of those storybook games -- 1,000th game, scores the first goal, scores again!" Kyrou said. "Right when he scored the first goal, everyone was like, 'Woooooo,' like fired up. It's unbelievable scoring in your 1,000th game, let alone it be an outdoor game."

Fowler's former Anaheim teammates wore custom T-shirts honoring his milestone to their game against the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday.

"(Darren Pang) told me in the locker room," Fowler said. "Those guys are unbelievable guys. I'm super thankful for those guys for even thinking of me. It goes both ways -- I have great friendships in Anaheim and I'm building great friendships here with this team. It was very cool for me to hear that they honored me in that way."

"I think that speaks volumes about the character of the individual and how he's impacted peoples' lives," coach Jim Montgomery said. "(NHL player) Troy Terry texted me as soon as we got Cam Fowler and and was telling me (not just) how good of a player, but how good of a person we just acquired. It's not surprising to me that they honored him the way they did."

As Fowler exited the Blues' locker room after the game Tuesday, he ran into Hamm.

"Cam, how are you? I love to see you lighting it up and congrats on your 1,000th game, too!" Hamm told him.

The Blues improved to 3-0 in Winter Classics, and they've scored a combined 16 goals in those three games. The fans at Wrigley Field were counting the goals -- a la "Towel Man" at Enterprise Center.

While the Blues were changing out of their uniforms and into their dress clothes after the game, there was a loud "Let's Go Blues!" chant in a nearby concourse that was reverberating in the locker room.

"It was such a great win," Hamm said. "When you come in here, to this particular building, and to take it to them like that, it was never in doubt. Three-for-three, man, how about that?"

"Someone was saying we're going to tear the roof off Enterprise Center (making it an outdoor rink)," Stillman said. "This is a real tribute to the players because there's a lot going on -- the family plane and all sorts of press, but then they put the game faces on, they're pros and they take care of business.

"It's a reward for our fans, too, who have been so loyal. They get to see their team in an event like this. Many fans come up and see it live, others at home, and they see that their organization is well thought of and it's a treat for the players. To be able to play an outdoor game on a big national stage like this, it's a real treat."