Winter Classic 2012: NHL Scores Big in Philadelphia with Flyers vs. Rangers

Get excited hockey fans, because the Battle of the Boards is about to hit the great outdoors. 

With a tragic offseason firmly in the rear view, the NHL started up a new hot streak on Monday with the announcement that the 2012 Winter Classic, now officially a staple of professional hockey in North America, will pit the Philadelphia Flyers against the New York Rangers at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia on January 2nd.

The fifth edition of the Winter Classic features Atlantic Division rivals from two of the biggest media markets in the country, practically assuring that viewership of the game will meet or exceed all-time records for the NHL.

Never before has the Winter Classic featured two teams so close geographically and so contemptuous of each other in rivalry. No two teams in NHL history have competed as often or as vigorously as the Flyers and the Rangers, with 261 regular-season meetings and 10 Stanley Cup Playoffs series between them since their first faceoff in November of 1967 at the Spectrum in Philadelphia.

That includes their infamous match-up on the last day of the 2009-10 season, when the Flyers edged the Rangers in a penalty shootout to earn the eighth and final spot in the postseason out of the Eastern Conference.  

Bad blood aside, this game will be as star-studded as ever, comparing favorably with the 2011 edition—a 3-1 win by Alex Ovechkin's Washington Capitals over Sidney Crosby's Pittsburgh Penguins.

Philly, which finished second in the Eastern Conference last season, added former Hart Trophy winner Jaromir Jagr in the offseason to a collection of talented skaters that already included Chris Pronger, Scott Harnell, Claude Giroux and Danny Briere.

Not to be outdone, the Rangers, looking to improve on last season's eighth-place finish in the East, brought in former Conn Smythe Trophy recipient Brad Richards to boost a roster already stacked with the likes of Marc Staal, Henrik Lundqvist and Marian Gaborik.

The only loser in this whole deal, it would seem, is whichever team suffers defeat on national television.

Other than that, the NHL wins big for getting one of its most storied rivalries, featuring teams from two of its biggest markets, onto its biggest stage. As for the Flyers and Rangers, they will enjoy the benefit of rekindling their antagonism with beefed-up squads for all to see.

And let's not forget about the biggest winner in all of this—the fans, who once again will enjoy the privilege of watching two of the best teams in hockey go at it in one of the most unique spectacles in all of professional sports.

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