MIAMI (AP) \u2014 The NHL played its All-Star Game in Tampa in 2018, and when league officials were leaving town they couldn’t help but notice a billboard that was created for the occasion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNext time,\u201d it read, \u201clet’s go OUTSIDE the box.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The play on words was clear. A seed was planted. And for the next few years, the NHL, the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Florida Panthers kept talking about how they could bring outdoor games to the Sunshine State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Friday, the waiting ends. At loanDepot Park, home of baseball’s Miami Marlins, a sold-out crowd is expected to watch the Panthers host the New York Rangers in\u00a0the first outdoor game\u00a0to take place in Florida. The retractable roof on the ballpark \u2014 which has been shut while air conditioning has been piped in to help ice-builders create a playing surface suitable for hockey \u2014 will be opened not long before puck drop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI know it\u2019s cliche, but it\u2019s like little kids at Christmas,” Panthers hockey operations president and general manager Bill Zito said, when asked to describe the feeling going into the game. \u201cIt\u2019s anticipating this wonderful celebration of our game on all the levels and with our families and with our friends and new fans and our fans.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The outdoor game will be the first of two in Florida this season; the Lightning get their home game Feb. 1 against the Boston Bruins at Raymond James Stadium, home of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For each of the last six years \u2014 Tampa Bay in 2020, 2021 and 2022, then Florida in 2023, 2024 and 2025 \u2014 a Sunshine State team has made its way to the Stanley Cup Final, with the Lightning and Panthers both winning twice in that span.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe just kept on talking about it,” said Steve Mayer, the NHL’s president for events and content. “And then we got a lot more comfortable with the ice build, the temperatures \u2014 we did a lot of research, this just doesn\u2019t happen \u2014 and now we\u2019re here. I can\u2019t believe we\u2019re here, but we are.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By Miami standards, it’s cold these days. The high temperature has been struggling to get out of the 60s Fahrenheit, and lows have gone into the low 40s overnight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the NHL couldn’t have timed this cold snap any better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The league’s equipment arrived at the Marlins’ ballpark in mid-December. Custom refrigeration units were installed, and thousands of gallons of coolant will run through hoses onto the field to chill aluminum trays that were placed under what became the playing surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From there, ice \u2014 about 25% thicker of a sheet than usual \u2014 started being made in what is a long, slow, gradual process. A water-soluble paint was added to whiten the ice, and this week lines and logos were painted onto the surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The process in Tampa will be slightly different; with no roof on Raymond James, the league will build a tent to help build the ice, then take the tent down before the Lightning-Bruins game. The rink used for the Panthers-Rangers game will be trucked over to Tampa not long after Friday’s game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Florida was one of two teams never to play in an outdoor game. The Utah Mammoth are the other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some Panthers players have taken part in outdoor matchups \u2014 Brad Marchand is about to play in his fourth \u2014 but many are getting to experience it for the first time. And Marchand said the idea of playing in front of 35,000 or so fans in Miami will only continue the growth that hockey is enjoying all over Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey’re opportunities that don\u2019t come around very often,” said Marchand, who went 3-0-0 in outdoor games with Boston. “They tend to be kind of crazy, a lot of mayhem, but they\u2019re moments that when you look back on your career they\u2019re some of your favorite times. They\u2019re the ones that you always go back and talk about. That’s a great opportunity for everyone. … I just think the environment that we\u2019re going to be in will be very unique and special. It\u2019s not often you get to play outdoors in a climate like this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky played in his first outdoor game 14 years ago. He’s about to set a record for the longest span between outdoor game appearances. And Panthers coach Paul Maurice will coach an outdoor game for a third time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said putting on a good show for fans is important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not going to look like anything we normally are doing,” Maurice said. “And for some guys, it\u2019ll be the only one they ever play in. So, you want to make sure you appreciate it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Matthew Tkachuk is nearing his season debut after having surgery in August to repair a torn adductor and sports hernia \u2014 issues that dogged him since February and through last season’s run to Florida’s second straight Stanley Cup title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He practiced Thursday when the Panthers skated on the Marlins’ field, but Maurice said he won’t play on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2 \u2014 Golf carts will be utilized to carry the goaltenders from the ice to the locker rooms, simply because the distance involved would make it impractical to have them walk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5-0-0 \u2014 The Rangers’ record in outdoor games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
15 \u2014 loanDepot Park will become the 15th Major League Baseball stadium to host to an outdoor game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
44 \u2014 It’ll be the 44th outdoor game in NHL history, dating to 2003. Wayne Gretzky and the Los Angeles Kings played an outdoor preseason game in Las Vegas in 1991 against the Rangers; the Kings won, but it’s not part of the official outdoor game records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
65 \u2014 It was 65 degrees Fahrenheit (18 Celsius) for a 2016 game in Denver pitting the Colorado Avalanche against the Detroit Red Wings. That’s the warmest game-time temperature in NHL outdoor game history (not including that 1991 preseason game in Las Vegas, when the temperature exceeded 90 degrees). Forecasters do not believe Friday’s game will break the 65-degree record.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"