PHILADELPHIA — Overlooking left field, snowflakes never stopped falling high above this refashioned ballpark.
Unfortunately for the NHL, these were just digital white flakes forming around the Winter Classic logo on the Citizens Bank Park scoreboard.
For those keeping score at home, that’s no runs, no hits, no snow.
League officials had hoped for “Buffalo snow,” the description used for when the flakes highlighted the wintery scene at Ralph Wilson Stadium in the inaugural Winter Classic in 2008. The NHL will have to settle for a temperature in the 40s, partly cloudy skies and wind for the league’s showcase game Monday between the Philadelphia Flyers and New York Rangers.
Warm weather hit Philadelphia on Friday and was expected to last until Sunday night.
The NHL’s old-timers game will get a late start on the first major event of the Winter Classic weekend. The alumni game between ex-members of the Flyers and Rangers was pushed back to a 1 p.m. MST start today. The league will use today’s game as a test run for Monday’s Winter Classic.
“As long as it doesn’t rain,” said Flyers forward Danny Briere, who toured the Phillies’ ballpark Friday.
