MIAMI – There was snow. There was fire. And after years of planning, there was hockey on a baseball field in Miami.
The Florida Panthers and New York Rangers dropped the puck Friday night in the 44th outdoor game in NHL history. It was the first for Florida, which has won the last two Stanley Cup titles.
And this Winter Classic wasn’t the warmest outdoor game ever: It was 63 degrees Fahrenheit (17 Celsius) outside when the windows behind what usually is left field began opening at 8:04 p.m., under a calm and clear sky.
That made it the second-warmest outdoor game in league history, 2 degrees cooler than the 65-degree air on Feb. 27, 2016, when Detroit beat Colorado at Denver’s Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies. It was 1 degree warmer than the game on Jan. 25, 2014, when Anaheim beat Los Angeles 3-0 at Dodger Stadium.
The game-time temperature was initially announced inside the stadium as 61 degrees, before the NHL later said it was 63.
The Rangers — with a snow effect around their walkway — were called to the ice at 8:13 p.m. The Panthers — as fire shot skyward along their path — came out about a minute later. And that’s about when snowflakes began falling from the top of the stadium, as the roof continued opening.
There was another celebration before faceoff, when Rangers and Panthers players who will be part of the U.S. Olympic hockey team at the Milan Cortina Games next month were introduced. Panthers defenseman Seth Jones made the team earlier Friday, as did injured Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk.
Tkachuk placed an American flag over Jones’ shoulders and the crowd roared.
It was a spectacle, as expected. The Rangers showed up in all-white outfits, as if it was a beach day. The Panthers came with a “Miami Vice” theme, wearing white suits, pastel shirts and even showing up in Ferraris instead of a bus.
“If you would have asked me 25 years ago … this might be the last place that I thought it would take place,” Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said. “So, I just think it speaks volumes for technology and its advancements and the ability to put a sheet of ice down in this type of environment.”
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