Philadelphia – For the past few days CBP, home of the Philadelphia Phillies has been transformed into a hockey winter wonderland. On Sunday the Alumni game between the Rangers and the Flyers had over 45,000 people in attendance (an alumni game record) and it was shown live on television in the United States for the first time. Why? Because these two franchises have been battling for over 40 years.

I felt like I was 10-years old back in my living room on Long Island watching the Flyers L-C-B line and then seeing Ron Duguay still streaking down the ice and Ron Greschner retrieving the puck. This game bridged the generation gap with Bernie Parent in net for Philly and Vanbiesbrouck for New York even though he played for Philadelphia as well. “Beezer” is my age, 48, and I know when I skate and play hockey it hurts so he had to be gutting it out as well.

The score didn’t matter. It was the feeling that you got watching this game and the players got that same feeling playing this game.

“It was fun. You know what. Coming from me this is probably the last time I will be able to skate. I’m 57-years-old. This is the fifth time I’ve skated since 1990 when I retired. Third time in equipment. It’s a lot different. The whole experience playing with these guys and against those guys. It’s a great thing the league is doing,” said Ron Greschner. “To me there’s nothing like Philadelphia against New York. It was fun playing with Mess, 30 years too late.”

Hall of Famer Mark Howe told me he was in pain. He didn’t try to hide it. Parent went down to make a save on Duguay before he left the game. When I asked him about getting another Ranger shutout (in four minutes of play) he quickly said, “As it should be.” Then he smirked and put his arm on me. It was a moment that I will never forget because as a kid I watched him getting shutouts against the Rangers.

Back to Duguay. He was in the best shape of anybody there (other than Dan Blackburn who was 28). But when I asked him if he took something off the shot on “Bernie” he smiled and said, “I wanted to give him a chance to save it. If I’m trying to hit a corner on the lower portion of the net it’s not fair. He saved it.”

Ron last played roller hockey with the Jacksonville Barracudas in 1994-95. So at the age of 55 what’s his secret?

“The one thing I do consistently is play tennis. I play a lot of tennis and I play in the hockey legends league. And the will lead to the team that will travel across Canada. They will play 30 games and I’m just getting ready by starting now.”

He got a very loud ovation. Yet he still talked about the whistles.

“I’m still hearing the whistles. I’m glad they remember me.”

New York Rangers Practice
The Flyers practiced in the morning and “Bryz” made his headlines saying he wasn’t the starter. The Ranger practice had a lot less drama later in the day and yet two players gave me some interesting fodder.

Artem Anisimov has played outside before and he talked about that.

“I played two games when I was 17. One game in the evening and one in the afternoon. What was different about the sunlight was I was on the PK and the sun was straight up and I couldn’t even see the puck (and he showed me how he shielded his eyes with his hand).”

I asked him if he used eye black and he said, “We didn’t have that in Russia.”

The Russian forward won’t be wearing eye black tomorrow because he thinks he would be wiping on himself as puts his hand to his face. I didn’t ask him about the tape that they have.

He didn’t think it was weird about playing in a baseball stadium and he said “baseball is not my sport”, but for somebody like this guy, he is excited to play in a baseball stadium because he played baseball,” he said pointing to teammate Brian Boyle. Turns out he played at Saint Sebastian's School, in Needam, Mass. He was a shortstop and a pitcher, at 6-6, 220 or so (at the time), that’s a huge shortstop.

Blueshirts goaltender Henrik Lundqvist best summed up his feelings about this rivalry.

“We’ve been focused on this game for quite some time now…it’s been a good build up….I respect them a lot but I don’t really like them. In a good way… I like to play teams I don’t really like.”

Yesterday we were told don’t expect any lineup changes including Marc Staal.

“I told my trainer, I need a yes or a no,” said Rangers head coach John Tortorella. “I don't want to talk about it. I don't want to speculate. I don't want percentages. I want a yes or a no. When I get a yes, he'll play. Nothing has changed. Just because we skated outdoors doesn't change anything that's gone on the past couple of weeks. He must feel maybe brighter because of the fresh air, I don't know, but nothing's changed. So don't work me on it, okay."

This morning things are different.

The game should be played in 30 degree weather at 3 PM ET, don’t miss it!

• The Rangers had their family skate. In this picture Jacob Biron (Marty’s son) interviewed Henrik Lundqvist.