MIAMI – Giving fans memories to last a lifetime even in defeat, the Florida Panthers fell 5-1 to the New York Rangers in the 2026 NHL Winter Classic at loanDepot Park on Friday.
“The league does a phenomenal job -- year in, year out,” forward Sam Reinhart said. “You never know if you’re going to get an opportunity to do it once, so you never know if you’re going to be back again. It’s just disappointing we didn’t give [fans] a better result.”
The first-ever outdoor game hosted by the NHL in the Sunshine State, the Winter Classic got off to an eye-popping start after cranking the roof open on a 63-degree night in Miami.
With six-time Latin GRAMMY Award-winning global artist Luis Fonsi singing his hit song “Despacito” from a stage in what is usually the outfield for the Miami Marlins of MLB, the Panthers and Rangers made their way to the ice as fake snow fell throughout the stands.
Even when compared to previous outdoor games, this one was truly unique.
"The story really is the show that went on here today, the spectacle of it,” head coach Paul Maurice said. “It's not about the X's and O's. This was brilliant, just absolutely brilliant."
Suffering a big blow early, the Panthers lost Seth Jones, who was named to USA’s Olympic roster earlier today, to an injury after the defenseman was hit up high with a deflected puck.
Appearing in his 900th career NHL game, Jones unfortunately played only three shifts.
“Never a good thing when guys go down,” forward Eetu Luostarinen said of Jones, who will be further evaluated on Saturday. “He’s a big part of our team. We need him on the power play. He obviously plays a lot of minutes. Big loss there, but hopefully he’s OK.”
After keeping the Panthers off the board on two power plays, the Rangers opened the scoring on their first trip to the man advantage. Going to the net, Mika Zibanejad tipped in a tape-to-tape centering feed from Alexis Lafreniere make it 1-0 at 15:09 of the first period.
Just 1:04 after that, the Rangers doubled their lead when Artemi Panarin threaded a point shot through heavy traffic and past a screened Sergei Bobrovsky to make it 2-0 at 16:13.
Not letting up, the Rangers, who have yet to lose an outdoor game in their franchise history, tacked on another goal just 58 seconds into the second period when Zibanejad teed up a pass from Lafreniere and blasted home a one-timer from the left circle to make it 3-0.
His third assist, Lafreniere tied the record for most assists in a single outdoor game.
Standing tall all game, Igor Shesterkin made 15 of his 36 saves in the middle frame.
Cutting into the deficit for the Panthers in the third period, Sam Reinhart took a dish from Sam Bennett and ripped a shot past Shesterkin on the power play to make it 3-1 at 2:20.
In that moment, a sell-out crowd of more than 36,000 fans popped off.
“There was a lot of energy in the building,” Luostarinen said.
Stifling Florida’s comeback, the Rangers pulled off a one-two punch on special teams.
Not long after killing off a power play for the Panthers, the Rangers extended their lead on a power play of their own when Panarin sniped a shot from the slot to make it 4-1 at 12:25.
With 2:21 left, the Panthers nearly made it a two-goal game once again with a goal on the power play, but the goal came off the board after officials deemed the puck was kicked in.
Soon after, Zibanejad completed his hat trick -- the first-ever recorded in a Winter Classic -- and locked in the 5-1 win for the Rangers with an empty-net goal with 1:28 left in regulation.
With the loss, Florida falls to 21-16-3, while New York improves to 20-18-5.
Even though it’s technically just one of 82, this was a game neither team will soon forget.
“A great event,” defenseman Aaron Ekblad said. “It was an awesome experience. I’m really happy I got to experience something like this. I would’ve loved to get the win.”
THEY SAID IT
“It was just brilliant, the entire weekend.” –Paul Maurice
“It’s going to be a tough January. Everyone is going through it. It’s a lot of games at this time of year for a lot of teams. It’s going to be a big month for us.” – Sam Reinhart
“Never a good thing when guys go down. He (Seth Jones) is a big part of our team. We need him on the power play. He obviously plays a lot of minutes. Big loss there, but hopefully he’s OK.” – Eetu Luostarinen
CATS STATS
- Sam Reinhart scored the second outdoor goal of his career.
- The Panthers led 39-25 in scoring chances, per NaturalStatTrick.com.
- Evan Rodrigues won a team-high eight faceoffs.
- Aaron Ekblad and A.J. Greer each had five hits.
- Gustav Forsling saw a team-high 25:41 of ice time.
- The Panthers led 3.53-2.71 in expected goals.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Back to reality.
Moving back to Amerant Bank Arena, the Panthers will host the Western Conference-leading Colorado Avalanche (30-2-7) on Sunday at 5 p.m. ET.
For tickets, click HERE.
