February 16, 2024
Eric Hartline/USA TODAY Sports
Newly named captain Sean Couturier has played in all but one of the Flyers' outdoor games.
On Saturday, the Flyers will skate against the New Jersey Devils under the night sky and the bright lights of MetLife Stadium up in the Meadowlands for one of the NHL's two outdoor Stadium Series games.
It will certainly be a different atmosphere for a young and rebuilding team that's surprisingly chasing a playoff spot ahead of schedule, but at the same time, it's also going to be a game that suddenly contains a very important two points in the standings and against a Metro division rival.
There's fun to be had here, but work to do too.
"It's just a really unique game, right?" The Flyers' newly-minted captain Sean Couturier said earlier this week. "I've been lucky to play in a few, but for some guys, it's their first time and it's a cool experience. It brings back some memories from when you were a kid playing on the pond outdoors. But like I said, it's different.
"The fans are far away, the atmosphere is not quite the same, but you try to stay focused on what we're there for and get a win."
And while the setup will be mostly new for this particular group of Flyers, it's far from the first time this franchise has been sent outside.
So ahead of Stadium Series on Saturday, which felt like it snuck up quick, here's a look back at the Flyers' entire history of playing outdoors...
The Winter Classic was still in its infancy and the novelty of the NHL turning iconic football and baseball stadiums into wholly transformed hockey venues was still very fresh among the game's fans entering year 3, especially for the Flyers and the host Boston Bruins, who would be participating in the New Year's event for the first time.
The Flyers made their entrance from the visiting dugout at Fenway Park as a talented club, though one struggling to stay afloat. Mike Richards and Jeff Carter were their nucleus, Chris Pronger was brought in as the veteran backbone, and a young Claude Giroux was making considerable waves. The team, however, was marred by goalie instability and had to turn to journeyman Michael Leighton to face a high-powered Bruins squad by the time the outdoor game arrived.
Dan Carcillo and Shawn Thornton fought to get their teams and the crowd of nearly 40,000 going, Danny Syvret fired on an open net for a 1-0 lead because Boston goaltender Tim Thomas was too pre-occupied trying to hit Scott Hartnell, and the Flyers pressed and held on for nearly 58 minutes.
Then, on a late power play, former Flyer Mark Recchi tipped a shot past Leighton to tie it and force overtime, and in the extra frame, after the Flyers whiffed on some massive scoring chances, Marco Sturm redirected another shot down the other way to win it for Boston.
The Flyers and Bruins went on to meet again in the playoffs, after Philly famously squeaked in on the last day of the season. The series of a lifetime followed.
Two years later, the NHL tabbed Philadelphia for the Winter Classic again, and this time with the Flyers and the Phillies' Citizens Bank Park having the honors of hosting against the rival New York Rangers.
They fully embraced the opportunity.
The Bank, and the way it was transformed for that day – from the snowy decoration on the field, the added seats draped over the bullpen, the NHL imagery that overtook the concourse and Ashburn Alley, and the sound of PA announcer Lou Nolan introducing the teams against the backdrop of "Lets go Flyers!" chants and the Roots playing out in left field as the players made their way to the rink from the dugouts – it was all an unforgettable sight to behold.
And the adrenaline surging from it matched the game at hand.
The Flyers were good that season, but the Rangers were better, and the team suddenly left to Giroux – after Richards and Carter were traded away, and Pronger's career was ended by a stick to the eye – just couldn't find a way to beat the John Tortorella-coached Blueshirts.
But this game was looking different. Brayden Schenn scored the first goal of his NHL career with the Flyers' horn sounding and the Phillies' bell ringing in right-center, then Giroux flipped a backhander over star goaltender Henrik Lundqvist to make it 2-0, Philly.
Then it wasn't. Mike Rupp scored twice (throwing a Jaromir Jagr salute out after the first one), then Brad Richards buried a rebound to make it three unanswered goals and a 3-2 Rangers lead.
A late push from the Flyers, a pile-up in front of the New York net to keep the puck out by the Rangers, and a closed glove on it by defenseman Ryan McDonagh brought the game down to a penalty shot awarded to Danny Brière. But in the defining moment, Lundqvist made the save.
The Flyers still hadn't figured the Rangers out, and wouldn't all season.
A few years passed, the NHL expanded the scope of its outdoor games with the addition of the more forward-thinking Stadium Series, and that was used to finally get a Flyers-Penguins rivalry matchup going outside.
Serving as the first leg of a long-term outdoor home-and-home series, the Flyers met the Penguins at the Steelers' Heinz Field, but did so as an underachieving club in Dave Hakstol's second season as head coach and right in the middle of the Claude Giroux-Jake Voracek-Wayne Simmonds led era.
Jake Guentzel and Sidney Crosby cooked the Flyers for the opening tally, and though Jake Voracek and Shayne Gostisbehere managed goals to make it look close, the Penguins were never in any major danger and left with a 4-2 win.
The Flyers went on to miss the playoffs, while the Penguins were on their way to a second straight Stanely Cup title.
Two years later, it was the Flyers' turn to host, and Lincoln Financial Field's.
But it was another lost season for Philadelphia. Ron Hextall was fired as the GM in November and replaced with Chuck Fletcher. Dave Hakstol was handed his pink slip in December, and with the Flyers going nowhere – again – by the time Stadium Series arrived and with the trade deadline looming, rumors were swirling that fan-favorite power forward Wayne Simmonds was on his way out too.
Under the bright lights and some miserable rain at the Linc, the Flyers fell into a 3-1 hole and looked headed for another defeat in another indifferent year.
But then, within the final few minutes of regulation, a rebound fell right to James van Riemsdyk's stick to make it a one-goal game, and a prayer of a shot by Jake Voracek from way out wide with 20 seconds left slipped through the pads of Penguins goaltender Matt Murray to tie it, 3-3.
In overtime, Claude Giroux carried the puck up the ice, cut over to the middle, and then fired home the game-winner to complete the comeback in one of the defining moments of his run as captain in Philadelphia – a win in a wasted season, which says a whole lot about that era of Flyers hockey.
Nevertheless, the rain-soaked Philly crowd went home happy, and Simmonds went out on a high note. He was traded to the Nashville Predators a couple of days later.
This was also Gritty's outdoor game debut, and did he ever make a show of it.
You'd be forgiven if you completely forgot about this one – I nearly did, and I have a hoodie with the patch from this game on it.
Still in the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic, when no one could do much of anything, the NHL tried to break for a bit from the 2021 season's universal scenery of empty arenas with a makeshift outdoor rink built along the 18th hole of Nevada's Edgewood Tahoe Resort.
In theory, it was a cool idea at a time when there weren't many of them. But in execution, it was a mess.
The first game between the Colorado Avalanche and the Vegas Golden Knights the day before had to be suspended into the night because the sunlight was causing the ice to melt.
Then the Flyers, facing the Bruins, iced a roster ravaged by injuries and COVID cases and got crushed, 7-3.
The Flyers on the whole were also a total mess during that COVID-condensed season, so again, you'd be forgiven if you didn't remember this one.
All of that brings us to the Meadowlands on Saturday, though in a scenario many probably didn't expect.
In front of an expected crowd of more than 80,000, the rebuilding Flyers, pushing for a playoff spot against all odds, will take on the rival New Jersey Devils, who are struggling to find consistency and, for the moment, are clinging on for their playoff lives.
This was always going to serve as a major showcase for the direction of the Flyers' long-term future, but now it'll suddenly count for a major game in the standings, and with Sean Couturier emerging from the tunnel with a newly-stitched C on his chest in front of a likely heavy orange and black contingent making the trip up 95.
Let's see what it brings.
The Stadium Series ice up at MetLife Stadium.
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