2012 NHL Winter Classic

2012 NHL Winter Classic

1 2 3 Total New York Rangers 0 1 2 3 Philadelphia Flyers 0 2 0 2
Date	January 2, 2012
Venue	Citizens Bank Park
City	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Attendance	46,967
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The 2012 NHL Winter Classic (known via corporate sponsorship as the Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic) was an outdoor ice hockey game played in the National Hockey League (NHL) on January 2, 2012, at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.^[1] The fifth edition of the Winter Classic, it matched the New York Rangers against the Philadelphia Flyers, two Atlantic Division rivals;^[1] the Rangers won by a score of 3–2.^[2] The original plan was to have the contest at the Philadelphia Eagles' home, Lincoln Financial Field; however, the Eagles played there the day before, and the NHL needed at least a week of preparation time to build the ice rink onto the field. The game was broadcast by NBC in the United States and by CBC and RDS in Canada. NBC's announcers were Mike Emrick and Eddie Olczyk, with Pierre McGuire handling sideline duties and Bob Costas as the studio host.

The game returned to its original daytime time slot, with the Rangers-Flyers game beginning at 3:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (two hours behind its originally scheduled start time of 1:00 p.m.).^[1] This marked the first time the Winter Classic was not played on New Year's Day; to follow the precedent of bowl games—which do not play on January 1 if it falls on a Sunday out of respect for the National Football League, and the observed New Year's Day holiday being legally floated to Monday in these scenarios, the game was instead played on January 2.^[3]