‘It’s not that far for those Flyer fans’ — details released for outdoor doubleheader originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
The Flyers will play under the MetLife Stadium lights next season as part of a Metropolitan Division doubleheader in February.
On Saturday, Feb. 17, John Tortorella’s team will take on the Devils to open the 2024 NHL Stadium Series. The next day, the Rangers and Islanders will meet to cap off the outdoor event in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
The exact time of the Flyers-Devils game is to be determined, but it will be at night, NHL chief content officer and senior executive vice president Steve Mayer said.
“These were the matchups that we felt would be extremely appealing to our fans,” Mayer said Saturday afternoon on a Zoom press conference. “Obviously the goal, as always, is to continue our incredible streak of 37 straight sellouts. And we really feel very confident that these two matchups will fill two buildings two days in a row, which for us, would be unprecedented.”
MetLife Stadium, the home of the Giants and Jets, is about an hour and a half drive from the Wells Fargo Center.
The NHL is anticipating over 75,000 fans for each game.
“We are thrilled to see the Flyers get the opportunity to participate in the 2024 NHL Stadium Series at MetLife Stadium next February,” president of hockey operations Keith Jones said in a statement released by the team. “This truly will be a unique event to have four division rivalry teams that will bring their respective longtime histories and fan bases to one venue. After covering these premier NHL outdoor events for the last 13 years as a TV analyst, I am looking forward to soaking in Feb. 17 as a member of the Flyers hockey operations staff and seeing the team take on the Devils.”
The last time the Flyers played outdoors was February 2021 at Lake Tahoe in Stateline, Nevada. They were missing six key regulars because of COVID-19 protocols and got rolled by the Bruins, 7-3.
The franchise is 1-3-1 all-time in outdoor games.
With each outdoor event, the league wants it to be different from the previous games in years past. The NHL believes the doubleheader component of the 2024 Stadium Series will be just one unique aspect.
“We do know that, uniquely, we’re going to have fans of each of the teams at these games,” Mayer said. “It’s not that far for those Flyer fans to travel up the turnpike to watch this game. You’ve got all the New Jersey fans that are right there and you’re obviously going to have Rangers and Islanders fans. We want to have a little something for everyone.
“We’re also going to look at the activities that are around the game, whether it’s our pregame activities, what we call our pregame, it’s our fan festivals, hockey tournaments throughout the area that actually we sort of sponsor. We want youth hockey to be celebrated in this one. There’s so much great youth hockey being played in this tri-state area and Philadelphia, so we’re really going to lean into the younger kids. Usually, it’s a family event — we’re going to play into that.
“When it comes to entertainment, which we always focus on, I think we’re going to go bigger because of the weekend — try to do something in between games, after games, before games that really celebrates not only hockey, but the music of the area as well.”
The actual matchup should be a stiff test for Tortorella’s club. The Devils broke out this season, finishing with the NHL’s third-most points (112) and advancing to the second round of the playoffs, where they lost to the Hurricanes.
The Flyers found a way to split their four-game regular-season series with New Jersey.
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