Winter Classic will see NHL raise the roof in Miami

MIAMI -- NHL officials sat in a control room at loanDepot park Tuesday night, counting down to what could have been a dramatic moment.

As a test, they were opening the sliding glass panels in left field and the retractable roof overhead as they will at some point before the Florida Panthers host the New York Rangers on Friday in the 2026 Discover NHL Winter Classic (8 p.m. ET; HBO Max, truTV, TNT, SNW, SNO, SNE, TVAS).

"We were like, 'Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one …'" NHL executive vice president of events Dean Matsuzaki said. "'Open!'"

The result?

A palm tree and a few flamingos fell amid the decorations on the field, but that's about it.

"It was like, 'OK, that was a little anticlimactic but definitely necessary,'" Matsuzaki said. "Trust me, anticlimactic was what we were looking for."

The temperature was 58 degrees Fahrenheit at ice level when the roof opened and never exceeded 59. That made it about the same as a typical NHL indoor game.

Conditions are expected to be similar Friday night, which means the temperature at face-off might not set the record for an NHL outdoor game. It was 65 degrees Fahrenheit at Coors Field in Denver on Feb. 27, 2016, and 62 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on Jan. 25, 2014, for the Stadium Series.

"If you look at the forecast coming up, the nights are cool," NHL vice president of hockey operations Derek King said. "By the time we get to puck drop, it could be great conditions. It's exciting."

The NHL was confident it could pull off this event despite the challenges, after staging 43 previous outdoor games in all kinds of conditions and learning from the experiences. The League wouldn't have scheduled the game in Miami otherwise.

It has kept the roof closed and cranked the air conditioning to 60 to 64 degrees during the day while workers have been building the ice, planning to open the roof for the game.

Still, it wanted to do a test.

This will be the first NHL outdoor game in the Sunshine State, and loanDepot park is normally the home of the Miami Marlins of Major League Baseball. When the roof opens for baseball, no one worries about ice or decorations like palm trees and beach umbrellas.

Matsuzaki recalled a press conference at BC Place in Vancouver before the NHL played the Heritage Classic there March 2, 2014. That stadium could be sealed from the elements like this one. When the League opened the retractable roof, it was cold outside and warm inside. That caused a swirl of wind, blowing down bike racks that workers had set up to outline where the rink was going to be.

"That, for me personally, was one of the reasons why I really wanted to see this test, because I remember that experience," Matsuzaki said. "Let's just make sure nothing doesn't surprise us on game day."

On Tuesday night, the only surprises were pleasant.

The sliding glass doors in left field opened in about four minutes, revealing the lights of the Miami skyline. The retractable roof opened in about 15 minutes afterward, pulling back from left field toward the first base side. There was little change in the temperature, so there was no swirl of wind, just a cool breeze. The palm trees swayed; the umbrellas stayed put.

"I think we learned that we're in a pretty good spot," Matsuzaki said. "There are a couple things we want to button up. We may have had a couple flamingo casualties, so we may need a few more flamingos. But all is good, and we will adapt and adjust."

King said the NHL tested anti-fog solution on 12 panes of glass, something the League hasn't had to use since it staged the Stadium Series on a 57-degree night at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California, on Feb. 21, 2015. But the humidity was low, and no glass fogged up, not even the panes without the solution.

For the first time, the League is using two Mobile Refrigeration Units instead of one. But King said the ice plants in the semi-trailers were running only at 50 percent. The ice crew practiced resurfacing for different scenarios while King monitored the air and ice temperatures.

The plan was to run the test for the length of a game. But after less than two hours, King felt he had nothing more to learn, and the NHL decided to close the roof again.

"We never got above 60 degrees," King said as he stood on one of the team benches. "If you look at our buildings, our buildings are running 58, 59 degrees. That's what we were able to do here.

"You feel a little bit of a breeze now with the roof open, but that's what you want. It's an outdoor game. Everything's great."

So, King feels good about everything?

"Very good for a game in Miami, yeah," he said with a laugh. "You couldn't ask for anything more."