63 degree Miami hosted an outdoor NHL game with snow and fire

The Florida Panthers and New York Rangers played an outdoor NHL game Friday night in Miami, complete with falling snow and bursts of fire inside a baseball stadium. The game marked the 44th outdoor contest in league history and the first for Florida, staged after years of planning on a field normally used for baseball. At puck drop, the temperature was 63 degrees Fahrenheit, making it the second warmest outdoor NHL game ever recorded, according to league officials. Only one outdoor game has been warmer, a 65 degree matchup in Denver on February 27, 2016. Miami was also warmer than the 61 degrees first announced inside the stadium. The Rangers entered through artificial snow at 8:13 p.m. The Panthers followed a minute later as fire shot skyward and snowflakes drifted from the opening roof. Rangers coach Mike Sullivan summed it up simply. He said this was the last place he ever imagined outdoor hockey working, crediting technology for making ice survive South Florida.