PHILADELPHIA — Not even a joint announcement of the Winter Classic could thaw the rivalry between the Rangers and Flyers. Hope the “2 4/7” cameras were rolling.
“We’re going to come to Philadelphia,” New York team president Glen Sather said, “and we are going to win.”
The 200 Flyers fans who came to baseball’s Citizens Bank Park for the long-awaited and overdue announcement of the Jan. 2 game jeered Sather.
“Now that’s more like it! I knew I could get a rise out of you sooner or later,” he said.
Flyers founder and chairman Ed Snider then popped up and took a turn jabbing Sather.
This was only the warm-up act — and with temperatures in the 80s, it was plenty warm — for the biggest regular-season event in the NHL.
The 45,000-seat ballpark is the setting for the fifth classic. The game is not held on its traditional Jan. 1 date because it conflicted with the final week of the NFL’s regular season.
The home of the 2008 World Series-champion Phillies is the third baseball stadium in the classic’s history. Wrigley Field and Fenway Park also hosted the event.
The Associated Press
