Winter Classic 2012: NHL Smart to Televise Flyers vs. Rangers Alumni Game

As much as NHL fans love to boo and berate Gary Bettman, they should give the commissioner at least some credit for deciding to televise the annual Winter Classic Alumni Game prior to the main event between the Philadelphia Flyers and the New York Rangers.

The league announced last week that the Alumni Game, with the puck set to drop at 1 p.m. EST on New Year's Eve, will be broadcast on Versus in the US and CBC in Canada, with Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia providing a local broadcast in the City of Brotherly Love.

The game will feature a host of of legends for both franchises, with 59 former players and coaches currently scheduled to make appearances on the ice at Citizens Bank Park.

Pat Quinn is set to man the bench for a Flyers squad that will include the likes of Jeremy Roenick, Eric Lindros, Mark Howe, Bob Clarke, John LeClair and Reggie Leach. The Rangers, on the other hand, will be coached by Mike Keenan, who led New York to victory in the 1994 Stanley Cup Finals, and represented on the ice by Mark Messier, Adam Graves, Dave Maloney, Ron Duguay, Brian Leetch and Mike Gartner.

Of course, the game won't mean anything in the grand scheme of things, but, like the concept of playing a hockey game outdoors, having it on TV will add to the already tremendous entertainment value of the Winter Classic, which has become one of the coolest events in all of professional sports.

Between this and the 24/7 series on HBO, the NHL has done a magnificent job of marketing its most attractive regular-season product to a wide audience of puck-heads and casual fans alike.

The Winter Classic has become, in essence, what Christmas Day is to the NBA or what Thanksgiving is to the NFL, though with the added benefit of being staged in a unique way for all of North America to see.

And with college football enjoying the peak of its bowl season around New Year's, it makes perfect sense that the NHL would do everything in its power to pump up the pageantry around the Winter Classic.

Putting the Alumni Game on TV only adds to the appeal of the main event, giving the league an opportunity to preface the actual game between the Flyers and the Rangers with a glimpse into the storied past of one of the NHL's longest-running and fiercest rivalries.

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