The Montreal Canadiens (23-13-6) will play the Florida Panthers (22-17-3) at Bell Centre on Thursday.

Mika Zibanejad had a hat trick, Artemi Panarin scored twice and the Rangers beat the Panthers 5-1 on Friday night in the Winter Classic -- the first outdoor game played in Florida.

The Panthers are hitting the road, stopping in Toronto to battle the Maple Leafs' potent offense and porous defense.

The Florida Panthers did what no team had been able to do for over a month. They handed the Colorado Avalanche a regulation loss, ending both a 10-game winning

The Florida Panthers snap Colorado's second 10-game winning streak of the season by defeating the Avalanche on Sunday night.

Anthony Stolarz (upper body) and Dakota Mermis (lower body) skated before Maple Leafs practice. Mermis has been on IR since Dec. 8 with a timeline of a month, while the last we heard on Stolarz was that he’s out indefinitely. pic.twitter.com/h0Ixs5LAtH

The play on words was clear. A seed was planted. And for the next few years, the NHL, the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Florida Panthers kept talking about how they could bring outdoor games to the Sunshine State.

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

The game was the first played outdoors in Florida. Fans arrived at the home of the Marlins with the roof and windows closed, but they were soon opened.

The Panthers (21-15-3), who have won the Stanley Cup the past two seasons and have been to the Stanley Cup Final three seasons in a row, enter Friday out of a Stanley Cup Playoff spot, one point behind the Buffalo Sabres for the second wild card from the Eastern Conference.

Panthers coach Paul Maurice revealed the reason for Marchand’s early exit during his postgame media availability, admitting the exit went beyond that single hit. According to Maurice, Marchand had already been “dealing with something” previously unreported heading into the matchup.