Flyers hosts to outdoor game

Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA

Claude Giroux and Jaromir Jagr hit the ice looking more ready to shag flies than practice the power play.

The Philadelphia Flyers stars smeared eye black to fight the glare on a sunny morning as they skated on a rink constructed on the site of two Fall Classics that underwent a makeover as it shifted into the home of the Winter Classic.

Jagr later strode shirtless around the Philadelphia Phillies’ clubhouse with a baseball bat slung over his shoulder.

Cold, wind, ice. Conditions that usually spoil the enjoyment of a World Series game are on deck for the fifth edition of the NHL’s inside-the-park extravaganza, this one set for today between the Flyers and the New York Rangers at Citizens Bank Park.

Amid the HBO cameras and Stanley Cup-atmosphere that has infused the game with enough energy to power the rink, a little perspective came Sunday from the Rangers and Flyers in their final practices.

“When we wake up, all the fun is going to be over,” Giroux said, “and it’s about two points on the ice.”

The game was pushed back two hours because of a revised weather forecast that should offer optimal game conditions for players and fans.

Workers stuck Christmas trees and winter firewood on the fake snow around the rink as the finishing touches were sprinkled on a project that started just before Thanksgiving. While fans hoped for winter wonderland conditions, the two-hour shift will at least mean chilly temperatures and less sun.

“It’s going to feel different to be out there,” Rangers center Brad Richards said. “It’ll be, look around for a little bit, but you don’t want to get clocked, so you can’t look too much.”

The game is too important to gawk at the skyline.

Flyers coach Peter Laviolette made it clear winning the game between two teams jostling for the top spot in the Eastern Conference is more important than putting on a show when he benched slumping goalie Ilya Bryzgalov for Sergei Bobrovsky.

Bryzgalov has failed to live up to the nine-year, $51 million contract he signed in June and now finds a spot on the bench for the Winter Classic.