Rangers ready for Classic confrontation

PHILADELPHIA -- With so many moving parts -- the weather, the lighting, the unsettled ice, rivals separated by two points in the standings and the experience of competing in front of a crowd of 45,000-plus -- players were hard-pressed to predict the outcome of Monday's NHL Winter Classic between the Rangers and Flyers.

In fact, the local forecast already has triggered a pushback in the time the puck will drop at Citizens Bank Park Monday -- 3 p.m. rather than 1 p.m. -- in an effort to make the conditions more favorable.

But Rangers center Brad Richards is sure of one thing: "It's a big game no matter where it's being played."

The Rangers have won both games against the Flyers at Madison Square Garden this season, two physical, nasty affairs, but skating in the great wide open provides a different challenge. "You'll settle in, I'm sure," Richards said after a 90-minute outdoor practice Sunday. "Today we were looking around, and once it gets full of people, it'll be different. Tomorrow, you might be kind of looking around early, but you don't want to get clocked."

Forward Mike Rupp, who played for the Penguins in last year's Winter Classic, had this advice: "It's important for us to go out and get a lead early. When you get down a goal, there's not much tape-to-tape passing going on, so you really have to come out of the gates. If you're going to try a pretty play, it's going to happen early in the game; when the ice gets chewed up, you've got to play simple hockey."

For the Rangers, who have charged to a 23-9-4 record on the strength of overall defense, clutch scoring and superb goaltending from Henrik Lundqvist and Martin Biron, "simple'' is the watchword of a group that has survived distractions this season.

"It started with the Europe trip and HBO [with camera crews chronicling the team's moves for weeks] and talking about this game," said Lundqvist, who has never played outdoors and will start in net against the Flyers' Sergei Bobrovsky. "But it's still going to be different for me. It's going to be a lot to take in. There's going to be a lot of distractions out there, a lot of things are going to pop up in your head. You want to enjoy the experience, but you have to find a balance."

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Lundqvist noticed one element in the rink built between first and third base that could work to his advantage. "It's brighter around the glass, so it should be easier to see the puck," he said. "Usually, you have stands right behind the glass and it's darker, so the puck can disappear at times."

Ryan Callahan, one of the Rangers who wore eye black, said the sun glare and wind gusts were surprising.

Nonetheless, coach John Tortorella expected that his lineup -- the same as in Friday's 4-1 victory in Florida -- "won't have any problem with their focus. We'll be ready to play and I trust they will be able to handle the momentum swings and the hype. I just can't get over how much hype is involved in this one game. I think it's great for the league, but as a coach, I'm thinking about one thing: It's a divisional opponent, it's two points and we want to win."