Panthers might have an advantage, will it matter when the puck drops

Friday at loanDepot park is Florida's first outdoor game, and it is also the southernmost outdoor game in NHL history. The New York Rangers are the visitor, and the whole thing feels unreal for a South Florida crowd.

What makes it fun is how much of this Panthers room has been here before, just in different sweaters. A bunch of them have already lived the weird ice, the long TV breaks, and the extra noise.
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As a fan, I swear you can picture the bench leaning in when the outdoor stories start rolling. It is not just hype, it is a little confidence injection that says, we know this feeling.

Bobrovsky is the easiest example, because he played in the 2012 Winter Classic with Philadelphia. He faced 33 shots and allowed three goals, which lands at 30 saves in that 3-2 loss to the Rangers.

Sam Reinhart had his outdoor-game moment in the 2018 Winter Classic at Citi Field, scoring on the power play while finishing with two shots, a block, and two hits, and Evan Rodrigues added two shots in Buffalo's 3-2 overtime loss to the Rangers.

The next season, three future Panthers were part of the 2019 Heritage Classic at Mosaic Stadium in Regina, with Matthew Tkachuk putting six shots on net and Sam Bennett posting one shot and two penalty minutes for Calgary, while Dmitry Kulikov helped the Jets win 2-1 with a shot, two blocks, five hits, and a giveaway.

Brad Marchand has been through the pageantry too, including scoring in the 2019 Winter Classic at Notre Dame Stadium. If you are Florida, you want that guy keeping shifts honest when the moment gets big.

Jeff Petry got a taste of the outdoor spotlight in 2017 when the Montreal Canadiens met the Ottawa Senators in the NHL100 Classic at Lansdowne Park. He recorded two shots, two blocks, three hits, two giveaways, and a minus-2 rating in a 3-0 Montreal loss.

Luke Kunin and Niko Mikkola aren't new to the outdoor vibe, and neither is Tomas Nosek, who's already done the whole frozen-lake theater with two different teams. A.J. Greer has also lived the outdoor-game chaos, and Seth Jones knows exactly what it's like when the cameras, the cold, and the noise all crank up at once.

For Daniil Tarasov, even being on the bench for one of those events still counts as a front-row lesson in how weird, and how fun, outdoor hockey can feel. Mackie Samoskevich is the newer face to the NHL version of it, but he's still had a taste of the outdoor experience before. And you can't leave out Paul Maurice, either, because he's been through it behind the bench, which matters when the game feels more like an event than a normal night.

The tactical side matters more than people think, because outdoor ice can make clean exits messy. When the puck hops, the smart play is simple support, short passes, and getting pucks behind their defense fast.

The Rangers also arrive with their own outdoor comfort, and the team itself calls this their sixth outdoor game. They are also celebrating their Centennial Year across the 2025-26 season, so they will not be shy about the spotlight.

For the Panthers, that is why having veterans who have already felt this circus helps. The hype stays high, but the details stay tight, and that is how you turn a party into two points.