NHL Winter Classic 2012: New York Rangers vs. Philadelphia Flyers

This year's Winter Classic has the potential to be just that: a classic.

The New York Rangers enter the game with the most points in the Eastern Conference and a record of 23-9-4. The Philadelphia Flyers enter with the third-most points in the conference with 48, and a 22-10-4 record.

The Rangers come in to this game hot—winners of six of their last seven games. Henrik Lundqvist and Martin Biron have been stellar this year defending the goal and they are ranked second in the NHL with a 2.1 goals against average.

On offense, the Rangers are led by Marian Gaborik who is having a fantastic year. He has scored 33 points and has 22 goals on the season. After a slow start, Brad Richards now has 13 goals and 15 assists.

Ryan Callahan has the same goals and assists as Richards on the year.

The Flyers are the complete opposite of the Rangers. The Rangers rely heavily on their defense and goaltending, and the Flyers rely heavily on their offense to score goals. Philadelphia is second in the NHL with 3.4 goals per game and are lead by Claude Giroux and Scott Hartnell, both with 17 goals. 

The Flyers have a bit of drama with their goaltenders. Although Ilya Bryzgalov is being paid the big money, he has not lived up to his potential. Sergei Bobrovsky has put up nice numbers when he has been called up to play. He is 8-2-1 with a 2.52 GAA—almost a half goal less than Bryzgalov. His save percentage is .914.

This should be a great matchup between the Flyers dynamic offense and the Rangers superb goaltending.

Look for Marian Gaborik to have an impact on this game. Before coming up empty in the last two games, the veteran had seven goals in five games. He does not stay quiet for long, so expect him to cause some trouble against the Flyers defense.

These two teams met on December 23 at Madison Square Garden and the Rangers won 4-2.

Weather might play a factor in this game. Winds are expected to gust up to 30 m.p.h. According to the Toronto Sun, the game has been moved to a 3 p.m. start because of the threatening weather conditions.