The Philadelphia Flyers are set to collide against the New Jersey Devils at the center of MetLife Stadium on Saturday night as part of the 2024 Stadium Series and to enter the building, they decided to go with a local theme.
Off the bus outside of the stadium in East Rutherford, the entire roster of the Flyers trotted and jogged in full sweatsuits, giving their best impression of Philadelphia legend Rocky Balboa.
Some players were more enthusiastic about the roleplay than others. While some Flyers just walked on the path to the stadium (lame, not giving it their all), others like defenseman Travis Sanheim went full Rocky mode and gave their best jog in front of the fans and cameras.
This theme of dressing as a local fictional legend must have been communicated to the other side as well.
For the Devils’ entrance, while it isn’t any specific character, they decided to represent the Garden State hard with the Sopranos-esque tracksuits and wearing them in different fashions.
Some opted for the buttoned-up approach, going full business; while others pulled out the undershirts in the middle of February in New Jersey to commit to the bit and pulled it off.
In a battle between two cities that have been immortalized in several different fictional stories and are embedded within pop culture for being what they are, it seems like an obvious choice but we fully did not ever predict this is the direction they would go with for these pre-game outfits.
Throughout the recent years of outdoor games, more and more teams have been dressing up for these opening walks to the stadiums, but nothing feels as coordinated and as fun as this one with the Flyers and Devils. The Edmonton Oilers dressed up as oil field workers (boring), and the Toronto Maple Leafs played dress up as local steel mill workers (even worse) — but it all started with probably the other top effort as the Boston Bruins went all-out in 1990s gear during the walk-up to the 2021 outdoor games at Lake Tahoe.
Everything else has stunk so far, but the Flyers and Devils kept it simple and knocked it out of the park. They know what we like.
