Number one lesson I learned from watching the 2012 Winter Classic: Eye black makes any athlete look better, faster, stronger.

Other than that it was your standard hockey contest between two top teams from rival cities, vying for first place in the division, and playing outdoors in a baseball stadium with 46,967 fans going crazy (Citizens Bank Park attendance record). Not to mention the months of build up and anticipation thanks to HBO's 24/7 Road to the Winter Classic. Sadly, not only did the Flyers blow a 2-0 lead and fail to tie the game on a late game penalty shot, but the star of the HBO special, Ilya Bryzgalov, did not play. Damn Universe.

Some highlights:
Brayden Schenn #10 won a face-off and circled towards the net to finish off the rebound for his first career goal.

Claude Giroux's backhand displayed the youngster's speed, high level of stick handling, and accuracy. He is tied with Henrik Sedin for the league lead in points.

The snow falling near the end of the 2nd finally made it feel like winter after a series of unseasonably warm weather days.

Based on what I've seen from the HBO series so far, I'm looking forward to hearing what Flyers Head Coach Peter Laviolette said in his speech after the Rangers third goal. He looked pissed and rightfully so.

Just seeing Citizens Bank Park reminds me that I want baseball to start.

Some lowlights:
Downside of playing in Citizens Bank Park was the fans were far from the action. Although having 45,000+ fans go crazy after the first goal was pretty powerful.

Mike Rupp scoring two goals (now with 3 on the year total) and his mocking of Jaromir Jagr's salute after the Rangers first goal was corny. Scott Hartnell rightfully told him to show some respect to a future Hall of Famer.

No $51 million Bryzgalov. Hopefully he had some good sound bites from the bench. Also, no Jagr in the 3rd period and only 7:09 played in the entire game.

The number one disappointment is a tie between Danny Briere not making a single move on his penalty shot attempt and failing to send the game into overtime, and Laviolette not choosing Giroux, the team's leading scorer who was also on the ice, to take the shot.

Post your highlights and lowlights of the game or Tweet @zervoudis.