After an unbelievable weekend of outdoor hockey, twenty goals in two nights, two heated rivalry matchups, and a massive overtime win for the Rangers, I’m finally back home on Long Island. It’s a beautiful work holiday Monday night, there’s a massive slate of NHL action, and it’s Daytona 500 day in America. There’s no better way to enjoy a day like today than on the couch, button mashing on FanDuel, ice cold beer in hand. I just can’t stop thinking about how great of a time the Stadium Series weekend was, and I know all of our readers here live and breathe the game of hockey, so the long and short of it is this: If the NHL comes to an outdoor stadium near you, don’t cheat yourself out of the experience. Buy tickets, get a hotel, and go enjoy life as a hockey fan. That’s gonna be a great time in itself, but if you want to actually have the time of your life, take some pages out of my playbook from my 2024 Stadium Series journey.
I got to my hotel in Secaucus Saturday afternoon with three of my buddies, two Islanders fans and one Devils fan. I know, I gotta get better at picking my friends. I love them for some reason though, and there’s no way we’d ever not have a good time going to two hockey games in one weekend.
First order of business: keg for the hotel room. The weekend kicked off with me rolling a keg on a luggage cart through a hotel lobby mobbed with Flyers fans. They all wanted to know what room I was in. Sadly for them, I don’t associate with Eastern PA trash. (In all fairness, I met some really cool flyers fans throughout that night.) Now we’re cooking with fire. We started gassing beers from the keg to chase the Applebee’s wings we housed before we got to the hotel. A high quality bluetooth speaker is key for blasting dad rock while you pregame. Before I knew it, we all had a major collective buzz rolling into the appetizer game for the weekend, Devils vs Flyers.
I had been to MetLife Stadium once prior, I was actually at week one Jets Bills where Aaron Rodgers folded like a omelette just a few snaps into his Jets tenure. That game was my first NFL game ever and it was an amazing OT thriller. (Foreshadowing.)
MetLife is a really weird place. It’s a hideous building, resembling a shitty air conditioning unit you’d see in your buddy’s apartment. Inside, the entire place smells like hot sausage. It’s truly everything that embodies New Jersey, it’s so ugly that it’s almost endearing. As you ascend the escalators, the shit talking escalates too. Walking the concourse, dueling chants of “Fuck the Flyers” and “Fuck the Devils” come from every direction. I got to my seats in section 305, sat down, and took it all in. I was at my first outdoor NHL game, and it was a sight to behold.
The bright lights under the night sky, the snow lining the edges of the field, the cold february air. It was an atmosphere I always dreamed of as a hockey fan. The alcohol was flowing and I was surrounded by Delco accents. Every time I talked to a flyers fan it felt like I was talking to Bam Margera, but before he completely ruined his own life. 96 Quite Bitter Beings by CKY echoed through the stadium. I have to respect it, Philly knows how to get down.
The puck dropped and almost instantly the Devils were on the board. Nico Hischier banged in a breakaway tickle, the place erupted, and Gaslight Anthem performed the Devils goal song live for the first of six times that night.
The flyers were never really in the game all night long, but it was still an entertaining tilt. Three different players had two goal games, Hischier, Owen Tippet, and… Nathan Bastian? My friends that are Devils fans have wanted him to be shot into the sun all year long, but his first goal made the score 4-1 and would stand as the game winner. It wrapped up as a 6-3 final and the Devils stood tall with their home field advantage. The regulation win over their divisional rivals was massive as their pursuit for a playoff spot rolls on.
After the game, it was back to the hotel for us, and we went to work on the keg. We got reinforcements when two more of our friends arrived, and I finally wasn’t the only Ranger fan in the group anymore. Six dudes in a hotel room, deleting beers, blasting all kinds of music, and doing WWE wrestling moves on eachother into the wee hours of the morning. Not a single chick in sight. The way God intended. I eventually passed out around four in the morning, and it was later brought to my attention that someone was given a John Cena attitude adjustment onto my legs while I was asleep. I didn’t react at all, and I had no idea it even happened until I was told the next day. We were having some good old wholesome fun.
We finally got moving the next day around noon and missed the hotel breakfast by several hours, so naturally we started eating more beers instead. We had one more friend arrive around two hours later, and we were headed back to the stadium. It was time for the main event. Rangers, Islanders, outdoors once again ten years after their showdown at Yankee Stadium.
The start of the game was delayed roughly 45 minutes as a result of the ice surface taking direct sunlight (who could have ever imagined that would be an issue?), and you could feel the anticipation in the air. Crossing the pedestrian bridge from the parking garage to the stadium, I got that feeling you get as a kid running down the stairs on Christmas morning. We stepped out of the covered bridge, back into the sunlight and a massive sea of New York hockey fans.
Once more we ascended the many levels of MetLife up to the 300s concourse, but this time “Fuck the Flyers” chants were replaced by “Let’s go Rangers.” The Rangers jerseys were even sexier in person than I could have ever imagined, even from all the way up in section 325. It was finally go time.
And go they did. Erik Gustafsson found the back of the net just under 90 seconds in to the game, and the Rangers goal song roared through the Meadowlands. They lined back up at center ice, the puck dropped, and Matt Rempe’s and Matt Martin’s gloves followed. The heavyweight bought of the weekend ensued. They stayed on their feet chucking bombs for what felt like an hour. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a crazier crowd pop in the first period of a hockey game in my life prior to that. Rempe put on a great show in his NHL debut, the first ever debut in an outdoor game, and I couldn’t be happier for him knowing his family was at the game too.
Then the tide began to turn. Three minutes later Brock Nelson put the Islanders on the board. Three minutes after that, Bo Horvat put the Islanders up by one. About fifteen seconds later, Mat Barzal extended the lead to two on the power play. Igor Shesterkin was having a rough start, as were the Rangers as a whole, and the Islanders fans were letting everyone know.
Just a minute into the second period, the Islanders power play struck again, and the Rangers were staring down the barrel of a three goal deficit in front of 80,000 fans. Then, something happened. The “Igor” taunts began raining down from the islanders fans. The last time I heard that in person was during game seven of the Rangers first round series against Pittsburgh in 2022. It almost seemed like Shesterkin used the taunts as fuel to drag the Rangers back into that game. They won in overtime that night on the back of an Artemi Panarin goal. Interesting. Suddenly, I didn’t feel totally hopeless, but there was still a lot of work for the blue shirts to do.
They went back to work on the power play, and Vinny Trocheck did his best Chris Kreider impression with a deflection goal off of a Panarin shot. Back within two. Trocheck wasn’t finished. Just a minute and a half remained in the second period, and he buried his second of the game. The boys were back within one going into the third period.
The Islanders were doing their best to stop the run, and they answered very early in the third with a D to D goal off the stick of Alex Romanov. Noah Dobson had the only assist on the play, and it was his third of the game, all primary assists. I have to give Dobson his flowers, I’ve been beyond impressed with him this year. Him and Mackenzie Weegar are the two defensemen in the league having breakout seasons that not enough people are talking about, and Dobson gives me a reason to turn on an Islanders game.
The third period rolled on. The five minute mark passed, then the ten minute mark. Time was running out on the Rangers. Then the referees pulled the whistles out. Mayfield was called for a trip halfway through the period. The Rangers failed to convert on the power play, but remember that last sentence for later. Just a minute after the power play ended, a scrum ensued and Trocheck and Romanov would go to the box for coincidental roughing minors, and almost right after that, Barzal would sit for hooking. With over five minutes left in the game, the Rangers had a six on four opportunity with an empty net, and they would cash in. Kreider would strike for his 28th goal of the campaign and his 11th on the power play.
Down by one goal with time winding down, the Rangers fans were the only ones you could hear in the building. You could see in the faces of Islanders fans they practically knew what was coming. Remember Scott Mayfield? He was headed back to the box for tripping. Again. Igor would once again head to the bench and the Rangers went back to work on the two man advantage. Mika Zibanejad had the tying goal on his stick, and he didn’t waste the opportunity. Pandemonium at MetLife. with a minute and a half in regulation, overtime was on the horizon. The score clock hit zero, and two teams and 80,000 fans prepared for the extra frame.
It didn’t last long. Dobson made a rare blunder in the form of a turnover up the middle of the ice, and away the rangers went. Panarin would score the game winner just ten seconds in to overtime. Or did he? The net had come completely dislodged in the chaos around the net, but after official review, it was found the puck had crossed the line while an Islanders player crashed into the net resulting in it coming loose, and it was official. The New York Rangers completed the comeback from being down 4-1 in the second period, and it was time to let Frank Sinatra sing. The rest of my time spent in the stadium was kind of a black out, between all the beers I drank and how completely crazy what I just witnessed was, everything was a blur, but I loved every second of it.
It was time to go back to the hotel, finish the keg, and then meet up with more friends and head to Hoboken for some celebration. Not only because the Rangers won, especially since less than half of the group were Rangers fans, but to celebrate a great weekend of hockey and memories with good friends.
I’ve gone on long enough, but I’ll leave you with this. The NHL absolutely nailed every single outdoor game this year. Everyone raves about the experiences in Edmonton and Seattle, and now they’ll be raving about the weekend at MetLife Stadium. Despite being in a swamp in New Jersey, a weak live music performance lineup, and some pretty cold weather, it was a spectacle I will never forget. Anyone who says the NHL should stop doing outdoor games is simply wrong, it gets more eyes on the game during the regular season than any other game, and it creates amazing memories for fans, friends, and families alike. Heed my advice, make your way to one before you die. You won’t regret it. Thanks for reading, have a great week.
The Morning Skate 