The Flyers play the Devils at MetLife on Saturday as part of the NHL’s Stadium Series, and tickets aren’t exactly being gobbled up:

This is a neutral site game, but it’s in the Devils’ backyard, so we can blame their fans if seats wind up empty. There will be a respectable amount of Flyers fans there, but the onus was always on loser Devils supporters to actually show up. It’s not like they stink. They turned a hard corner last year, they’re fourth in the Metro, and they’re trailing the Flyers with games in hand. There’s actually significant playoff implications for this one.

But yeah, it doesn’t seem like there’s a ton of juice for this particular setting. It’s a Saturday game in February and snow is in the forecast. We’re talking North Jersey in the winter, so it’s not exactly the Amalfi Coast. Plenty of Italians, sure, but not much to look at, and the weather stinks. MetLife stinks. It’s not a bucket list kind of item. And to Sarah’s point about outdoor games jumping the shark, the Winter Classic has been taking place since 2008 and the Flyers appeared in two of those games. We played Stadium Series games in 2017 and 2019, both in Pennsylvania. Throw in the 2021 Lake Tahoe game and that’s six outdoor Flyers games over 16 seasons.

It’s cool to do these once, and get the experience, and cross it off the bucket list. But once you’ve seen one live, you don’t need to do it again. The action is far away, the sight lines suck, and it’s freezing cold. Flyers fans have had the opportunity to see their team play at Fenway, Heinz, CBP, and the Linc, so is anybody really excited about doing the next one in MetLife? Can’t imagine. If you come up with another unique Tahoe-esque location, like Sabres vs. Flyers underneath a frozen Niagara Falls, then hell yeah let’s do this. Leeeeroy Jenkins. But this one is “meh” and the Jonas Brothers ain’t moving the needle.