Moving the Winter Classic outdoor game from it’s New Years day slot to January 2nd in order to avoid clashing with the NFL schedule across America was one thing. Having to work on the 2nd meant I would miss the game live, but thanks to PVR I knew I’d be able to record it, avoid the result and watch it later. But moving the face-off time from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. (to avoid sun glare apparently) meant the scheduled recording cut off early. Thankfully I arrived home in the nick of time to start recording again and catch the final period, but the upshot was missing the bulk of the second period – the only period the Philadelphia Flyers managed to score before eventually succumbing to the New York Rangers 3-2.

The first period wasn’t up to much as both teams got used to the outdoor conditions which were not overly cold, but were breezy, while I spent most of it trying to figure out just when my initial recording would cut out and when I might get back into the action again. A scoreless game took us into the first interval and the end of my recording. When I started up again the game was well through the second with the Flyers leading 2-1. At least the Flyers had the lead and I hoped they’d extend it at some point in the third.

Given my luck thus far with the scheduling of the game I was asking too much. The Rangers came storming back in third period to tie it through a Mike Rupp goal before Brad Richards grabbed the winner. The two scorers alone should have been enough to prove to me it just wasn’t going to be mine or the Flyers’ day. Mike Rupp had one goal all season coming into the game but managed two in this one alone to pull the Rangers back. And as for Richards: Well, he was the Rangers big money signing this season but despite the teams overall strong play this season he hasn’t been the player they must have hoped their big dollars was bringing in with just 14 goals and 29 points in 37 games so far. But he got a big one today to spoil the party for the 46,967 (subtract the Rangers fans), that had packed into Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia to see this.

Mike Rupp’s celebration for his first goal — a take on the Flyers’ Jaromir Jagr’s salute that he’s famous for after he himself scores — irked some Flyers fans, but it only fed into the overall entertainment of the affair as well as the physical game that just so happened to pick up following it. Sadly Jagr couldn’t do much about it as he sat for most of the second period and all of the third through what I can only assume was some kind of minor injury that the team didn’t want to risk him on, for until that point he had been one of the Flyers’ better players. Scott Hartnell was another standout — forever in the face of the Rangers, a physical presence that tried to get something going for the Flyers — but too many were found wanting in the third period when the Rangers pressed home the equalizer and eventually the winner.

Still, despite the disappointment at the result and in missing the only two moments of note for the Flyers (their goals), it was still a hell of a spectacle. There have been a number of these ‘Winter Classics’ now but for me this one was the most impressive. The weather held up, the ice conditions were good by comparison to previous years, the atmosphere was electric — it was a sellout for the alumni game never mind the actual game — the layout looked good, and the city of Philadelphia — and I suppose the NHL — deserve some credit.

And despite that result once more, I’d love to have been there. The alumni game is the memory that Flyers fans will take from it, but it has to be said the whole thing went down well. Sometime I’ll make a point of attending a Winter Classic wherever it may be when I’ve got the spare cash to make it happen, though seeing it in Philly would have been special.