In 2008, the National Hockey League introduced the Winter Classic, a regular season game played at an outdoor venue, usually in a football or baseball stadium. The game takes place yearly and is always played on New Year’s Day; it also rotates around the league to big markets that will produce revenue and fill a 50,000+ seat stadium with fans. The original game was a huge success and it left faithful NHL fans thirsting for more nostalgic, outdoor, big time hockey. This led the league to produce the NHL Stadium Series, which began in 2014. The games usually take place once or twice a year in late January or February and are similar to the Winter Classic, allowing more markets and fans across the United States and Canada to experience the thrill of outdoor hockey. The NHL signed a television contract with NBC Sports to cover it for its first 6 years.
The NHL Stadium Series is coming to New Jersey, at Metlife Stadium in East Rutherford, the home of the NFL’s New York Jets and Giants, and will host two games coming up in mid-February. The New Jersey Devils will play the Philadelphia Flyers on February 17, and the New York Rangers will take on the New York Islanders on February 18. There has been a Stadium Series matchup in the New York Metropolitan Area once before, in 2014.
This year is the second year that the series will not air on NBC; instead it will be split between the ESPN family of networks and TNT, which will each get one game. Metlife Stadium has a good chance to break the attendance record for a Stadium Series game, as the capacity is expected to be slightly upwards of 80,000. Although the largest ever attendance for an NHL Hockey game will stay intact; USA Today states the most highly attended game occurred when the Detroit Red Wings played the Toronto Maple Leafs at Michigan Stadium in the 2014 Winter Classic, which drew over 105,000 fans.
Moving into this year’s games, there is definitely some bad blood and history between these teams. The Devils lost in the Eastern Conference Semi Final to the Carolina Hurricanes a year ago after beating the Rangers in 7 games the round prior. This has been a great year for the Devils and surprised many as the Devils had been one of the worst teams in the league during the 2021-22 season. The Flyers, on the other hand, did not play well last season, finishing 31-38 and missing the playoffs, but Coach John Tortorella has the team playing very well this season, sitting at 20-13 so far this year. The Rangers have gotten off to an extremely good start and sit at 26-10 atop the Eastern Conference, and the Islanders sit at a respectable 18-11.
As the Stadium Series approaches, expect big crowds, cold weather, and great outdoor hockey right here in New Jersey. Tickets are on sale now at ticketmaster.com; tickets will provide entry to either game and the pregame concert hosted by the Jonas Brothers.
