Hockey was already a big deal in Florida. Outdoor games might spark even more growth of the game

MIAMI (AP) — Panthers forward Brad Marchand remembers a few times when he and the Boston Bruins would play games in the state of Florida and be impressed by what they were hearing from the crowds.

Those fans were rooting ... for the Bruins.

It's not remotely close to being like that anymore.

The Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning have finished atop the hockey world four times in the last six seasons — the Stanley Cup is basically a Sunshine State resident now — and the growth of hockey all across the state, from youth to adult levels, is well documented. And the outdoor games in the state, one Friday in Miami (the Rangers won, 5-1) and the next one that's coming next month in Tampa, only figure to keep the momentum going.

“The amount of love that has grown for this game here is pretty incredible," said Marchand, who has often raved about where hockey is headed in Florida since he came to the Panthers last year. “You used to come down here and a lot of opposing teams would kind of take over the building. And now it just doesn’t matter where you go — the fan support is unbelievable, and this is just going to add to it. The two outdoor games that we play here, between here and Tampa, are just going to add more excitement, more love for the game.”

And that's exactly what the NHL wanted, of course. It could play these outdoor games anywhere and draw big viewership numbers, sold-out crowds and celebrated the sport appropriately. But it finally chose to give the Sunshine State a shot.

A challenge, for certain. But so far, so good. And the Panthers — the back-to-back reigning Cup champions — have gone from a franchise dogged by constant rumors of moving to being perhaps the hottest ticket in town.

“Just go to their practice facility and see what they’ve done to the War Memorial in Fort Lauderdale. It’s simply incredible,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said Friday night in a televised interview on TNT from loanDepot Park, the baseball stadium where the Panthers played the New York Rangers. “And the results speak for themselves. They have a great fan base down here in South Florida. Selling out this building was not an issue at all. We could have probably sold it out if it was twice as big.”

The impact of Friday's game will be felt in parts of Miami for a long time. Students at a downtown Miami high school — 100 were guests of the NHL for the Panthers-Rangers game — will receive a synthetic ice hockey rink next week, a gift from the league. Hockey equipment is coming as well, and students will eventually have the chance to learn to skate and play on an outdoor rink that mimics the feel of real ice without a need for maintenance or expensive upkeep.

In time, the score of the Rangers' win probably be forgotten. The NHL's hope is that the game — or at least the impact — will be remembered.

“Look at the two teams that are in Florida — Tampa and the Panthers. They’re two of the better teams in the league right now with the teams that they’ve assembled and put together,” Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said. “I think that can only help the influence down here in this region of the country. I can only imagine the next generation of young hockey players that will come out of southern Florida because of the impact that these teams and these individual players are having on the next generation.”

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Florida Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky (72) sprays water on his face during the second period of the NHL Winter Classic outdoor hockey game against the New York Rangers, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Florida Panthers's Matthew Tkachuk, left, and Aleksander Barkov hold up the Stanley Cup at the NHL Winter Classic outdoor hockey game, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Fireworks explode before the NHL Winter Classic outdoor hockey game between the Florida Panthers and the New York Rangers, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Fans watch before the NHL Winter Classic outdoor hockey game between the Florida Panthers and the New York Rangers, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Florida Panthers players walk to the ice before the NHL Winter Classic outdoor hockey game between the Florida Panthers and the New York Rangers, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro arrived in the United States to face criminal charges after being captured in an audacious nighttime military operation that President Donald Trump said would set the U.S. up to “run” the South American country and tap its vast oil reserves to sell to other nations.

Maduro landed Saturday evening at a small airport in New York following the middle-of-the-night operation that extracted him and his wife, Cilia Flores, from their home in a military base in the capital city of Caracas — an act that Maduro's government called “imperialist.” The couple faces U.S. charges of participating in a narco-terrorism conspiracy.

The dramatic action capped an intensive Trump administration pressure campaign on Venezuela's autocratic leader and months of secret planning, resulting in the most assertive American action to achieve regime change since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Legal experts raised questions about the lawfulness of the operation, which was done without congressional approval. Venezuela's vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, meanwhile, demanded that the United States free Maduro and called him the country’s rightful leader as her nation's high court named her interim president.

Some Venezuelan civilians and members of the military were killed, said Rodríguez, who didn’t give a number. Trump said some U.S. forces were injured, but none were killed.

Speaking to reporters hours after Maduro's capture, Trump revealed his plans to exploit the leadership void to “fix” the country’s oil infrastructure and sell “large amounts” of oil to other countries.

The Trump administration promoted the ouster as a step toward reducing the flow of dangerous drugs into the U.S. The president touted what he saw as other potential benefits, including a leadership stake in the country and greater control of oil.

Trump claimed the U.S. government would help lead the country and was already doing so, though there were no immediate visible signs of that. Venezuelan state TV aired pro-Maduro propaganda and broadcast live images of supporters taking to the streets in Caracas in protest.

“We're going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition,” Trump said at a Mar-a-Lago news conference. He boasted that this “extremely successful operation should serve as warning to anyone who would threaten American sovereignty or endanger American lives.”

Maduro and other Venezuelan officials were indicted in 2020 on narco-terrorism conspiracy charges, and the Justice Department released a new indictment Saturday of Maduro and his wife that painted his administration as a “corrupt, illegitimate government” fueled by a drug-trafficking operation that flooded the U.S with cocaine. The U.S. government does not recognize Maduro as the country's leader.

The Trump administration spent months building up American forces in the region and carrying out attacks on boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean for allegedly ferrying drugs. Last week, the CIA was behind a drone strike at a docking area believed to have been used by Venezuelan drug cartels — the first known direct operation on Venezuelan soil since the U.S. campaign began in September.

Taking place 36 years to the day after the 1990 surrender and seizure of Panama leader Manuel Antonio Noriega following a U.S. invasion, the Venezuela operation unfolded under the cover of darkness early Saturday. Trump said the U.S. turned off “almost all of the lights" in Caracas while forces moved in to extract Maduro and his wife.

Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said U.S. forces had rehearsed their maneuvers for months, learning everything about Maduro — where he was and what he ate, as well as details of his pets and his clothes.

“We think, we develop, we train, we rehearse, we debrief, we rehearse again and again,” Caine said. “Not to get it right, but to ensure we cannot get it wrong.”

Multiple explosions rang out that morning, and low-flying aircraft swept through Caracas. Maduro's government accused the United States of hitting civilian and military installations, calling it an “imperialist attack” and urging citizens to take to the streets. The explosions — at least seven blasts — sent people rushing into the streets, while others took to social media to report what they saw and heard.

Under Venezuelan law, Rodríguez would take over from Maduro. Rodríguez, however, stressed during a Saturday appearance on state television that she did not plan to assume power, before Venezuela’s high court ordered that she become interim president.

“There is only one president in Venezuela," Rodriguez said, “and his name is Nicolás Maduro Moros.”

Venezuela’s ruling party has held power since 1999, when Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez, took office, promising to uplift poor people and later to implement a self-described socialist revolution.

Maduro took over when Chávez died in 2013. His 2018 reelection was widely considered a sham because the main opposition parties were banned from participating. During the 2024 election, electoral authorities loyal to the ruling party declared him the winner hours after polls closed, but the opposition gathered overwhelming evidence that he lost by a more than 2-to-1 margin.

In a demonstration of how polarizing Maduro is, people variously took to the streets to protest his capture, while others celebrated it. At a protest in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, Mayor Carmen Meléndez joined a crowd demanding Maduro’s return.

“Maduro, hold on, the people are rising up!” the crowd chanted. “We are here, Nicolás Maduro. If you can hear us, we are here!”

In other parts of the city, the streets were empty hours after the attack.

“How do I feel? Scared, like everyone,” said Caracas resident Noris Prada, who sat on an empty avenue looking at his phone. “Venezuelans woke up scared. Many families couldn’t sleep.”

In Doral, Florida, home to the largest Venezuelan community in the United States, people wrapped themselves in Venezuelan flags, ate fried snacks and cheered as music played. At one point, the crowd chanted “Liberty! Liberty! Liberty!”

Whether the United States violated any laws, international or otherwise, was still a question early Sunday. “There are a number of international legal concepts which the United States might have broken by capturing Maduro,” said Ilan Katz, an international law analyst.

In New York, the U.N. Security Council, acting on an emergency request from Colombia, planned to hold a meeting on U.S. operations in Venezuela on Monday morning. That was according to a council diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a meeting not yet made public.

Lawmakers from both American political parties have raised reservations and flat-out objections to the U.S. attacks on boats suspected of drug smuggling. Congress has not approved an authorization for the use of military force for such operations in the region.

Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said he had seen no evidence that would justify Trump striking Venezuela without approval from Congress and demanded an immediate briefing by the administration on "its plan to ensure stability in the region and its legal justification for this decision.”

Toropin and Tucker reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Jorge Rueda in Caracas, Venezuela; Lisa Mascaro, Michelle L. Price, Seung Min Kim and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington; Farnoush Amiri in New York; and Larry Neumeister in South Amboy, New Jersey, contributed to this report.

National Guard armored vehicles block an avenue leading to Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)

Destroyed containers lay at La Guaira port after explosions were heard in Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Smoke rises from Fort Tiuna, the main military garrison in Caracas, Venezuela, after multiple explosions were heard and aircraft swept through the area, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Men watch smoke rising from a dock after explosions were heard at La Guaira port, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Supporters of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro embrace in downtown Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, after U.S. President Donald Trump announced that Maduro had been captured and flown out of the country. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)