The baseball park in South Philadelphia will soon be bumping throughout the month of October as Philadelphia’s favorite team makes its run at another World Series title.
But come Jan. 2, Citizens Bank Park will transform into something it has never been before.
Monday, National Hockey League commissioner and Cornell graduate Gary Bettman made official what he called the “worst-kept secret in sports.” The Philadelphia Flyers will host the New York Rangers in the NHL’s fifth-annual outdoor Winter Classic game.
Those on Penn’s club ice hockey team — Flyers fans, Rangers fans and general hockey enthusiasts alike — were all thrilled with the news.
“We’re all really excited about the game,” junior Sam Riber said. “I think we’re all going to try to get tickets and come back from Christmas break a little early and try to go together.”
On the secondary ticket market, the cheapest seats for the game are already going for around $500, further evidence of the event’s enormous popularity.
“Every year, it is the most watched game of the season for good reason,” senior Alex Berman wrote in an email. “It is the one time every season that every NHL fan watches the game regardless of who’s playing.”
One of the themes of the Winter Classic is to bring hockey back to its “most natural form” — outdoors and in the elements.
Growing up in New England, sophomore Chris Holt has played in his share of outdoor hockey games.
“We’ve had to stop games a couple times just to get the snow accumulation off the ice,” he said. “Obviously, you don’t have that when you play inside. It’s pretty cool.”
Berman, from Long Island, also fondly recalled his experience of playing outdoors.
“Those 6 a.m. games outside on a snowy Sunday morning are a rite of passage for every hockey player,” Berman said. “It’s exhilarating, without a doubt … If you weren’t wide awake in the car ride over, it certainly didn’t take long to [wake up] when you’re playing in some of those temperatures.”
“You go back to when hockey started — a bunch of guys playing on ponds — that’s pretty much what you’re doing when you play outside,” Holt added.
HBO will run four episodes of “24/7 Flyers/Rangers: Road to the Winter Classic,” leading up to the game. The network aired the same series last year for the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Nationals game, and it surely helped generate hype for what became the most-watched regular season NHL game since 1975.
The series also had its effect on Penn hockey, according to Berman.
“I can’t even begin to count the number of pregame rituals and practice competitions that the Penn hockey team has adopted after watching the series,” he revealed. “And I’m sure teams throughout the country have done quite the same.”
The Flyers and Rangers have an intense rivalry as it is, but a preseason brawl that occurred between the two teams Monday night is sure to spark even more ill-will.
Berman, like Riber, is a huge Rangers supporter, and made a not-so-surprising prediction.
“I was born bleeding blue,” he said. “I have to say the Rangers will pull out a win in their first Winter Classic appearance.”
Contrary to his teammate, Holt, a Flyers fan, forecasts a different outcome.
“It’s definitely going to be a Flyers victory,” he said. “Playing in front of the Philly crowd, against another Rangers team that’s hyped up, but they’re probably just gonna suck again.”
Even on the Penn hockey team, the Winter Classic is already stirring up some controversy.
