NHL to make it snow in Miami for Winter Classic game between Panthers, Rangers on Friday

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MIAMI (AP) — It's going to snow in Miami on Friday night.

The NHL — as part of the celebrations planned for the Winter Classic game between the Florida Panthers and New York Rangers at loanDepot Park, home of baseball's Miami Marlins — is going to make snow fall at the ballpark.

How it'll happen, well, the NHL is keeping some of the exact details surrounding the plan quiet. But some fans are going to get at least a few flakes headed their way.

“You may get snowed on,” Steve Mayer, the NHL's president for events and content, said Monday in what essentially was a message to the more than 30,000 fans who are expected for the game. It'll be the first time the NHL plays an outdoor game in Florida.

The rink is built, the ice is down — still being worked on, of course — and the ballpark feels about 20 degrees chillier than usual, which is by obvious design. The sets are still being built in some cases, but all will be ready when the teams come in for practices on Thursday.

“This is a show," Mayer said. "There’s a hockey game that goes on, and that is so important. I mean, this is a big game. Panthers-Rangers, you know, when we’re in April, this could be a game that could determine whether a team makes the playoffs or not. But we also know that people are here for an experience, for something different, and we’re going to give it to them — and we're going to have some fun along the way.”

Which brings us back to snow.

Officially, it hasn't snowed in Miami since 1977. There were some unconfirmed reports of a few flakes in the air in South Florida in 2010, and the temperature on Friday means the snow won't be courtesy of Mother Nature. Forecasters expect the temperature in the area of the retractable roof stadium to be in the upper 50s by game time for Panthers-Rangers.

But inside the stadium, with plans for the roof to be open for the game, it'll be a scene for all seasons. The NHL — which was getting the logos and lines onto the ice Monday — is planning to have everything from beach chairs to a lifeguard shack and palm trees as part of the backdrop for the game, with some nods to winter as well.

Some entertainers will be in parkas, some in swim wear.

“We’ve designed it so that winter meets summer — or let’s go the opposite way, here in Florida, summer meets winter," Mayer said. "Fire, ice, hot, cold, all of the thematics that you would think. So, half the field is going to be a Miami beach ... and the other side is as if a huge snowstorm has hit Miami. That's the dynamic that we’re going to have fun with throughout the game.”

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