When the New York Islanders hit the great outdoors to host the New York Rangers at MetLife Stadium on Feb. 18, it will be 10 years since their last outdoor face-off. The Hockey News caught up with a handful of Islanders to get their thoughts.

When the New York Islanders hit the great outdoors to host the New York Rangers at MetLife Stadium on Feb. 18, it will be 10 years since their last outdoor face-off.

Back in 2014, the Islanders fell 2-1 to their arch-rivals at the new Yankee Stadium, with then 23-year-old Brock Nelson potting the lone goal for Long Island.

Following Wednesday's practice, The Hockey News caught up with a handful of Islanders to get their thoughts on getting back outdoors. 

Here is the list of players who played in the Islanders' last outdoor game:

The Minnesotans

Minnesota is a hot bed...a cold bed... for outdoor hockey, and the Islanders have a few Minnesotians on the roster, with Nelson, Anders Lee, and Hudson Fasching.

"It's such a unique experience at that point of my career," Nelson told THN. "Getting to be at Yankee Stadium is pretty awesome. We have to check it out, use the facilities, and wear the stadium series jerseys. Everything, the buzz, everything around it, I think, it's so unique and something that you get to hang on to forever.

"So to have another opportunity now, it's pretty special. Be one that guys are probably looking forward to enjoying with one another and their families."

This will be a different experience than the last outdoor game, as now he's married and has four kids who he's excited to share this experience with.

"It will be a little bit different, now with kids, too," Nelson said. "I'm hoping to get them there and that they enjoy it. You cherish all those moments when you get to skate with the kids. So to be able to hopefully take them there and skate out there, it'll be a cool experience that they can hang onto and talk about for a long time.

Nelson didn't have a rink in his backyard growing up in Warroad but...

"My grandfather, they lived on the river, so they had a little spot they'd shovel off, and we'd skate there," Nelson said.  "A couple of buddies had outdoor rinks on the river. And then there was one uptown by the two indoor rinks where you can go skate, so a lot of outdoor ice back home.

Skating in the 2014 outdoor game brought him back to being a kid in Minnesota, which is what this event is all about.

"The cool air, the brisk air on your face. The toes are cold. I mean, everything about it brings you back to those days when you're young and a kid, and you're just playing, and you're loving the game at its purest form, so yeah, it's special to be outside playing."

Although Lee wasn't on the team for the 2014 Stadium Series, getting the call-up shortly after, he did watch it on TV. 

"I was in the minors for that one, but it looked like a pleasant time, fun game, awesome jerseys. a packed house and I remember watching it. It was pretty cool," Lee said. 

Just missing out on that event has him incredibly excited for February. 

"Looking forward to it. I mean, jeez, MetLife and the Rangers and all that stuff. It's great for the surrounding area hockey fans and fun for both sides. So yeah, looking forward for sure."

Where Lee grew up in Edina, Minnesota, they had public rinks all over the place. 

"I didn't need (my own outdoor rink). Our town had, I think it's like between eight and 10 rinks around town that the city floods every morning, so pretty much every school, elementary, and middle school had a rink on the playground," Lee said. "So hockey was easily accessible outdoors. 

"Your mom gives you five bucks for pizza, and she'll pick you up later in the day. So a lot of good memories outside."

Fasching has played in an outdoor game before, coming into college as a member of the Minnesota Gophers. 

"It's been a minute," Fasching said. "It was really cold the last time and that outdoor game, I remember, the ice was incredibly hard, hard to stick handle because the puck would just like run away from everyone. 

Fasching, despite being born in Wisconsin, grew up in Minnesota and loved the outdoor ice. 

"I love playing outdoors. I had a great experience.

No backyard rink for Fasching either, who grew up in Apple Valley. 

"One of my teammates on one of our youth teams that I was pretty close with, he lived on a pond, and his dad dialed it up really nice," Fasching said. "So, it was like over Olympic-sized. It was huge, massive. So we would get like lights. He would snow blow, and a lot of credit [goes] to him."

The Kid From Windsor

Islander Matt Martin skated with Nelson back in 2014 and loved every moment of the experience. 

"The experience is incredible. Obviously, it's a pretty special place, just walking out to the rink, kind of getting a look during warm-ups, and realizing that you're playing in that stadium for a hockey games," Martin told THN. "And we got ready in the Yankees room. A lot of history there. 

"They had old scales, you know, Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Hank Aaron, all these guys stood on it. There's pictures of them standing on it. Just a lot of history and just a really cool experience."

Like Nelson, Martin's life has changed over the last 10 years, as he's married and has two kids, Windsor and Ally. 

"Windsor can definitely enjoy it a little more. I think you know, even for Ally, just the pictures and the memories will be something we'll cherish more than she will, but it's just a great experience for our families and for us," Martin said. "Playing the Rangers at MetLife Stadium, it's even a bigger stadium than Yankees Stadium. You play a lot of regular-season games that you don't remember. 

"Games like that are ones that you certainly have your memories from."

Martin, a Detroit Lions fan, has been to MetLife for a few games. 

"It's a massive stadium. Playing in front of that many people, it's a different environment for us, and it'll feel so much different having 80,000 plus people in the building," Martin said. It's gonna be pretty cool. "

Back home in Windsor, Martin did have an outdoor rink. 

"We had one in our backyard. That's where I learned how to skate," Martin said. : I have an older brother, and older sister, seven and four years older than me, so I'd be out there with them all the time..

"We always had a pretty good-sized rink in the backyard and had some fun with it."

Martin's wife Sydney is the daughter of former NFL quarterback and current WFAN host Boomer Esiason, who played for the New York Jets from 1993-1195. 

Esiason, an East Islip native, is a die-hard Rangers fan.

"I imagine he'll probably come to the game. We'll see what kind of colors he wears," Martin said. "We'll try to keep the Rangers stuff off my daughters. He's always got a plan to get something Rangers on them which isn't going to happen.

We also caught up with a few other Islanders:

Sebastian Aho: "Only watched on TV. I'm excited. Super pumped. It's a couple of months away. But as soon as I found out this summer that we're having it, I was excited. It's one of those things that, when you were younger, grew up following those TV shows (Road to the Winter Classic), and it's always seemed like a cool thing to do, and I finally get to do it. So I'm excited."

Pierre Engvall:  "I played with Toronto against Buffalo. It's gonna be great.  Yeah, I think this one is gonna be twice as big too. I don't know what we had in Toronto there. Probably like 35,000, maybe, I would guess, and this one is probably bigger (over twice as big)."

Ilya Sorokin: "I play in KHL. I play with St. Petersburg [...] 70,000 people. Two games, national team against Finland and with St. Petersburg. It's very good experience for a player."

Sorokin added that he didn't face Shesterkin in an outdoor game in KHL, as that outdoor game with St. Petersburg came the year Shsterkin came to the NHL. Shared that it would be a cool experience to play him in that setting.