Hockey in New York will head outside for the fifth time ever on Saturday when the Devils face the Flyers at MetLife Stadium.
That will be quickly followed by Round 2 on Sunday when the Rangers and Islanders renew the Battle of New York after the rivalry had a dormant 2023.
The Blueshirts have played in all four previous outdoor games in the Metropolitan area and gone undefeated in two Winter Classics and a pair of Stadium Series matches over the last 12 years.
The Post looks back at each of the previous outdoor games.
2012 Winter Classic
Citizens Bank Park
Rangers 3, Flyers 2
The Rangers’ first foray into the great outdoors came with a dramatic win and a hint of controversy.
The Blueshirts took victory in Philadelphia thanks to Mike Rupp’s pair of goals to tie it after the Flyers went up 2-0, followed by Brad Richards scoring at 5:21 of the third for a 3-2 lead that ultimately held.
But at the 19:40 mark of the third, Ryan McDonagh was controversially called for covering the puck in the crease, with the Flyers getting a penalty shot.
Henrik Lundqvist made the save on Daniel Briere, but that did not stop then-Rangers coach John Tortorella from using his postgame press conference to wonder if the NHL had conspired to send its marquee event to overtime.
“They called a penalty shot, which I still don’t understand. I’m not sure if NBC got together with the refs to turn this into an overtime game,” Tortorella said. “It started with a non-call on [Marion Gaborik]. [He’s] walking and he gets pitch-forked in the stomach and then everything starts going against us. [Ian Walsh and Dennis LaRue] are two good referees but I thought the game was reffed horribly. I just thought tonight, in that third period, it was disgusting. I’m not sure if they have meetings in there or what.”
Tortorella was promptly fined $30,000 by the league, with the NHL’s senior VP of hockey operations Colin Campbell blasting him in a statement that said, “There is no acceptable explanation or excuse for commentary challenging the integrity of the League, its officials or its broadcast partners.”
The Rangers coach later apologized for what he called “tongue-in-cheek comments” and apologized to then-Flyers GM Paul Holmgren, along with the two referees.
2014 Stadium Series
at Yankee Stadium
Rangers 7, Devils 3
The first of two games the Rangers played at Yankee Stadium turned into a rout, with a 41-year-old Martin Brodeur getting the hook and hitting a low point in what turned into his final season in New Jersey.
After the game was delayed a little over an hour due to sun glare, starting at 1:38 after a scheduled 12:30 puck drop, the Rangers scored four unanswered goals in the second period to turn a 3-2 Devils lead into a 6-3 rout, with Derek Stepan adding a seventh in the third after Cory Schneider had gone into net for the Devils.
Brodeur, who was already the backup to Schneider, approached Devils coach Pete DeBoer after the second period to say it might be better for him to sit the third.
“Tough break, tough game to be a part of,” Brodeur said afterward. “You’re looking forward to these kind of events and when you have a result like that, it’s not that fun.”
Of course, it was the opposite for the Blueshirts.
2014 Stadium Series
at Yankee Stadium
Rangers 2, Islanders 1
After the Rangers-Devils match was marked by pleasant weather, the Blueshirts and Islanders were treated to freezing cold temperatures for a tight game in which Daniel Carcillo scored the eventual winner at 4:36 of the third.
A few days after beating Brodeur, Lundqvist made 30 saves, outdueling a ski cap-adorned Evgeni Nabokov, who finished with 32 saves.
For the Rangers, the win was an exclamation point on a 12-game stretch in which they went 8-3-1, the first signs that 2014 could turn into something special.
They eventually made it as far as the Stanley Cup Final before losing to the Kings.
“We want to win these games to be able to look back in a couple years, a couple months, whatever and just have a smile on your face instead of thinking about the mistakes or a loss or whatever,” Lundqvist said. “Now it’s two days that I will remember for the rest of my life.”
With the benefit of time, even the Islanders remember the match fondly.
“I’m going to be honest, the game itself I don’t remember much of,” Cal Clutterbuck told The Post this week. “I remember it being super cold, way colder than we were used to. I remember the bench heaters being too warm, so when you’re sitting on the bench you’re overheating and when you’re on the ice, you’re freezing your nuts off.
“But I just remember it being a cool thing. Crowd noise is a bigger roar, but more distant. I think some snowflakes were falling.”
2018 Winter Classic
Citi Field
Rangers 3, Sabres 2 (OT)
Lundqvist and the Rangers alike improved to a perfect 4-0 in outdoor games courtesy of J.T. Miller’s overtime winner that saved an otherwise lacking performance against a struggling Sabres team.
It ultimately ended up being one of the last great memories for a Rangers era that ended just over a month later when management sent The Letter announcing the franchise would rebuild, trading the likes of Miller, Rick Nash and Ryan McDonagh before the deadline.
At the time and as ever, the greater details of the season were largely incidental to the event.
“The pregame stuff, the warm-ups, the anthem, the bald eagle, the flyover, those are moments you can’t beat,” Kevin Shattenkirk told reporters on the day. “And looking around from the stands to the bench, just taking it all in, I was smiling during just about the whole game.”
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