the first outdoor game<\/a> to take place in Florida. <\/p>\nThe retractable roof on the ballpark \u2014 which had been shut while air conditioning was piped in to help ice builders create a playing surface suitable for hockey \u2014 opened just before puck drop, revealing a clear dark sky with the Miami skyline hovering behind the ballpark. Artificial snow cascaded into the stands, accompanied by pyrotechnics and a performance by Puerto Rican artist Luis Fonsi.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey said it couldn’t be done,\u201d the public address announcer shouted in front of a roaring crowd. \u201cThey said it shouldn’t be done. But tonight, history and modern science meet here in the Sunshine State.\u201d<\/p>\n
After a ceremonial puck drop by Hall of Famer Roberto Luongo, the game was on.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would have never thought that I would play in a Winter Classic in Miami and be a part of this cool experience,” said Florida center Anton Lundell, wearing a baby pink shirt and pastel blue handkerchief to accent his all-white suit. \u201cObviously we still have the game left, but everything building up to this game has been awesome. It’s been very unique and an experience we’re all going to remember for the rest of our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though nowhere near as chilly as Winter Classics of years past, temperatures in Miami hovered around 60 degrees Fahrenheit just an hour before puck drop, and lows were expected to be in the low 40s overnight.<\/p>\n
For the Rangers, forward Will Cuylie said the plan was for a day-at-the-beach look, but bathing suits were a non-starter. Not professional enough, he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thought the all-white was a good solution for that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Florida coach Paul Maurice arrived in what he jokingly deemed an \u201cappropriate\u201d mode of transportation. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was happily on the bus,\u201d Maurice said ahead of Friday’s game. <\/p>\n
But on his ride into the arena, Maurice took in his surroundings: the palm tree monikers lining the outside of the ballpark and the thousands of fans clad in Rangers and Panthers gear. In past decades, it would have been hard to imagine such a scene in South Florida, where the success of the back-to-back defending champion Panthers has helped exponentially grow the popularity of hockey.<\/p>\n
\u201cI took about 10 minutes just to think about that idea,\u201d Maurice said. “How much different the game was 30 years ago, 20 years ago that you\u2019re in Miami, you’ve got your whole team getting in the Ferraris. I didn’t really think there would be that many fans outside. It was like a version of our parade.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is an awesome spectacle. The game itself \u2014 not just in Florida \u2014 but the pure hockey game, for me, is better than it\u2019s ever been.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Panthers general manager and hockey operations president Bill Zito, the game \u2014 one that\u2019s filled with \u201cwonderment,\u201d he said \u2014 represented a full-circle moment. His career path started in baseball, and on Friday, his team was playing on a baseball field.<\/p>\n
Zito was a batboy for the Milwaukee Brewers in the early 1980s and still credits general manager Harry Dalton for what became the start of a career that saw him become an agent and then one of the top executives in the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe lessons I learned from that experience impact me, and really then via me, our organization on a daily basis,\u201d Zito said. \u201cI\u2019m not here today if I hadn\u2019t had that good fortune.\u201d<\/p>\n
That said, his baseball ways were long ago. When he first arrived at loanDepot Park to see the setup, he asked where the locker rooms were. Baseball doesn\u2019t use that term.<\/p>\n
\u201cI forgot,\u201d Zito said. \u201cIt\u2019s a clubhouse.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP Sports Writer Tim Reynolds contributed.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NHL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nhl<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI — The Florida Panthers arrived in Ferraris, cigars lit, dressed in all-white \u201cMiami Vice\u201d attire \u2014 and,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[42245,597,993,3180,9,11,10,7622,319],"class_list":{"0":"post-87933","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-42245","9":"tag-article","10":"tag-baseball","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-news","15":"tag-nhl-hockey","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}