Winter Classic 2012: 3 Keys to a Philadelphia Flyers Victory

The Philadelphia Flyers are in a dog fight with the New York Rangers for the lead in the Atlantic Division and it just so happens that one of their heated rivalry games will take place on the outdoor rink during the 2012 NHL Winter Classic.

With a victory, the Flyers would time the Rangers for first in the division and shift the momentum back in the favor of the orange and black.

As good as the Rangers have been this season, they will be no match for a Flyers team inspired by 40,000 Philadelphia fans in Citizen’s Bank Park.

Claude Giroux & Jaromir Jagr

The combination of the wily old veteran and the young star has been done so many times in the NHL, but it never gets old.

With Jagr and Giroux working in perfect tandem to help the team overcome their shortcomings, they will have to do it again Monday if they want to hold the honor of winning this Winter Classic.

Giroux will look to regain his NHL leading scoring lead from Henrik Sedin with a big offensive output against the Rangers. Jagr will look to help as much as possible.

Mistake-Free Defense

With no Chris Pronger in the lineup for the rest of the season, the Philadelphia Flyers have reconfigured there defense around the pieces they already had.

Led by veteran Kimmo Timonen, the Flyers defensive group has played strong in their own zone and has minimized the defensive mistakes. And their record shows that.

As long as the team sticks to head coach Peter Laviolette’s plan for keeping things simple, the defense will play solid enough to give their goalie a chance to win the game. That’s a whole different issue, though.

Stellar Play in Net

The Philadelphia Flyers signed All-Star goalie Ilya Bryzgalov to a huge offseason contract and to say that he hasn’t lived up to the hype would be an understatement.

With another goalie controversy taking over in Philadelphia again, rookie standout Sergei Bobrovsky will get the start and earn plenty of love from the fans that fell in love with Bob last season.

This is the chance for Bobrovsky to steal the starting job from Bryzgalov and never let go. He is good enough to do it, but whether or not he can stay consistent will be the true test.

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