MIAMI — 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.
“Next time,” it read, “let’s go OUTSIDE the box.”
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.
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 the first outdoor game to take place in Florida. The retractable roof on the ballpark — which has been shut while air conditioning has been piped in to help ice-builders create a playing surface suitable for hockey — will be opened not long before puck drop.
“I know it’s cliche, but it’s 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. “It’s 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.”
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.
For each of the last six years — Tampa Bay in 2020, 2021 and 2022, then Florida in 2023, 2024 and 2025 — a Sunshine State team has made its way to the Stanley Cup Final, with the Lightning and Panthers winning twice each in that span.
“We 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 — we did a lot of research, this just doesn’t happen — and now we’re here. I can’t believe we’re here, but we are.”
How ice happens
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.
And the NHL couldn’t have timed this cold snap any better.
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.
From there, ice — about 25% thicker of a sheet than usual — 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.
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.
Florida was one of two teams never to play in an outdoor game. The Utah Mammoth are the other.
Tkachuk update
Matthew Tkachuk is nearing his season debut after having surgery in August to repair a torn adductor and sports hernia — issues that dogged him since February and through last season’s run to Florida’s second straight Stanley Cup title.
He practiced Thursday when the Panthers skated on the Marlins’ field, but Maurice said he won’t play on Friday.