For the primary time within the occasion’s historical past, the Winter Traditional will likely be headed to South Florida. Per an announcement from the NHL, the league introduced the Florida Panthers will tackle the New York Rangers within the 2026 Winter Traditional on Jan. 2 at loanDepot Park, which is the house of the MLB’s Miami Marlins
Along with the Winter Traditional, the Stadium Sequence will even be occurring in Florida in 2026. On Feb. 1, 2026, the Tampa Bay Lightning will face off in opposition to the Boston Bruins at Raymond James Stadium, which is the house stadium of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“Stanley Cups, strings of sellouts and the exponential progress of youth and highschool hockey all through the state have demonstrated that Florida is a hockey hotbed,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman mentioned in an announcement. “Outside NHL video games within the Sunshine State? By no means let it’s mentioned that our League is not keen to simply accept a problem.”
The Lightning and Panthers have known as the Sunshine State house because the early Nineteen Nineties. The Lightning’s inaugural season befell in 1992-93, whereas the Panthers made their NHL debut in 1993-94.
The final 5 Stanley Cup Finals have featured a group that hails from the state of Florida with the Panthers most lately capturing the franchise’s first Stanley Cup in 2024. In the meantime, the Lightning have received three Stanley Cups within the group’s historical past, together with back-to-back crowns in 2019-20 and 2020-21.
The 2026 installment will mark the primary time the Panthers have competed within the Winter Traditional in group historical past, whereas the Rangers will take part of their sixth Winter Traditional. The Rangers final took half within the Winter Traditional in 2018 once they recorded a 3-2 time beyond regulation win in opposition to the Buffalo Sabres at Citi Discipline.
Then again, the Lightning will likely be taking part in of their second out of doors sport look. Tampa Bay recorded a 3-2 win in opposition to the Nashville Predators at Nissan Stadium within the 2022 Stadium Sequence. The Bruins will likely be competing of their sixth out of doors sport, and have a 4-1 report in out of doors video games. Boston final performed open air within the 2023 Winter Traditional, once they defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 2-1 at Fenway Park.
The 2026 Winter Traditional and Stadium Sequence matchups will likely be uncharted territory for the NHL. The Winter Traditional has by no means been performed within the southern area of america.
Nonetheless, the Stadium Sequence has seen hotter temperatures turn into a consider previous out of doors video games. Within the 2021 Stadium Sequence, the Colorado Avalanche confronted the Vegas Golden Knights in Lake Tahoe on Feb. 20 in a day tilt, however ended up having to droop play after the primary interval as a result of ice melting after being uncovered to daylight.
The sport was postponed till 9:02 p.m. PT (12:02 a.m. ET) when the solar went down, and did not wrap up till about 10:50 p.m. PT (1:50 a.m. ET). The Avalanche received the sport 3-2 with star ahead Nathan MacKinnon tallying a purpose and two assists.
