PREVIEW 7:15 AM EST
In the final week of the regular season, the Philadelphia Flyers (46-24-9) are still playing for home ice in the first round of the playoffs. Tonight, they take on the New York Rangers (50-22-7), who would win the President's Trophy via tiebreaker with Vancouver if the regular season ended today. Tonight's game at the Wells Fargo Center starts at 7 p.m. EDT and will be broadcast locally on CSN Philly.
This is the sixth and final regular season meeting between the teams. The Rangers have won all five previous games in regulation, but the games have typically been closer and harder fought than the final scores indicate. The bottom line is that the Rangers ended up on top every time and bring a seven-game winning streak against the Flyers into the building tonight.
On Nov. 26 at Madison Square Garden, Henrik Lundqvist shut out the Flyers on 29 shots. The game was 1-0 until the 5:06 of the third period when rookie speedster Carl Hagelin gave the Blueshirts some insurance on Brad Richards' early second period power play goal. In terms of actual territorial play, this was the game in which the Rangers enjoyed the greatest advantage despite the tight score through two periods.
Tied atop the Atlantic Division, the teams rematched at MSG on Dec. 23. Once again, they played to a scoreless deadlock at the end of the first period, except the game play was much more even. The second period was also fairly equal but New York got deflection goals by Derek Stepan and ex-Flyer Ruslan Fedotenko to take a 2-0 lead.
Marian Gaborik put the game out of reach early in the third period and then the clubs traded off power play goals (Andrej Meszaros for Philly, Ryan Callahan for the Rangers) before a meaningless late goal by James van Riemsdyk trimmed New York's final margin of victory to 4-2.
At the Winter Classic at Citizens' Bank Park, the clubs dueled yet again to a scoreless stalemate in the first period. In the middle period, Flyers built a 2-0 lead on a rebound goal by Brayden Schenn (his first NHL tally) and a nifty backhander by Claude Giroux.
Despite losing Jaromir Jagr in the first period (he briefly returned in the middle stanza), Philly generated a slight territorial advantage. New York's Mike Rupp drew the Blueshirts back within one goal on the shift immediately following the Giroux tally. With a light snow falling in the stadium during the second intermission and early third period, Rupp scored an awful short-side goal on Sergei Bobrovsky to tie the game at the 2:41 mark.
New York took over the game for about the next eight minutes of play, as Brad Richards gave the Rangers a 3-2 lead at the 5:21 mark. The Rangers stymied Philly's attack until the latter stages of the third period. Thanks to the spectacular play of Henrik Lundqvist, the Rangers survived a penalty kill, a Danny Briere penalty shot and massive pressure during Philly's final push in the closing seconds.
On Feb. 5 at Madison Square Garden, New York enjoyed a built-in pre-match advantage by virtue of having been idle the previous three nights while the Flyers were playing for the third time in less than 96 hours. Artem Anisimov got the Rangers off to quick 1-0 lead just 1:04 into the game, as deflected a Dan Girardi shot past Ilya Bryzgalov. There was no further scoring in the opening period but New York had the better of the play.
In the middle stanza, the Flyers found their legs and started to apply some pressure. Lundqvist made several mind-boggling saves -- including one where Giroux seemingly had him dead to rights -- until Schenn equalized the score. With just six seconds left in the period, Gaborik came out from behind the net and scored from a flat angle on what may have been the worst goal Bryzgalov has allowed this entire season (he had played brilliantly up to that point in the game).
Trailing again, Philly battled back early in the third period to re-tie the game 2-2 on a gritty power play goal by Wayne Simmonds. But just 36 seconds later, a pressing Bryzgalov allowed a Michael Del Zotto's stoppable shot from the deep slot to get through the five hole to immediately restore a lead to the Rangers.
From there, Philly felt apart. A hideous giveaway by Matt Carle turned into a mid-period Brandon Dubinsky goal, and Fedotenko closed out New York's 5-2 win with an empty net.
The next weekend, on Feb. 11, the teams played a return matinee in Philly. It was the penultimate installment of a seven-game-in-ten-day stretch for the Flyers, while the Rangers had been slightly less busy immediately after the All-Star break. At least both clubs were in the same boat this time in terms of being in the middle part of a three-in-four. The game arc was much like the previous one, as was the 5-2 final score.
Once again, the Flyers battled back from deficits of 1-0 and 2-1 but some leaky defensive play, special teams woes (New York converted three power plays) and so-so goaltending from Bobrovsky eventually proved costly. New York led 3-2 after two periods on a pair of man advantage tallies by Callahan and one by Gaborik while even strength goals by Simmonds and Giroux gave the Flyers' a fighting chance heading into the third.
Sloppy defensive play proved costly in the final stanza as Anisimov gave the Rangers some insurance and Callahan completed a hat trick midway through the period. The Flyers' energy level flat-lined after the Anisimov goal but play had been essentially equal through two periods. Philly was better at even strength, the Rangers were better on both ends of special teams and Lundqvist outplayed Bobrovsky.
That leads into tonight's game. The Flyers probably have a little more motivation than New York coming into it.
However, while it's ridiculous to call any game against the Rangers a potential letdown game, the Flyers expended vast amounts of energy and emotion over the weekend in Saturday's three-goal comeback against Ottawa and Sunday's war in Pittsburgh that saw the Flyers win 6-4 after trailing 2-0. Philly is also a very banged-up team right now.
There is a good chance that the Flyers will still be without Bryzgalov (chip fracture, right foot). They will certainly be without shutdown defenseman Nicklas Grossmann (knee, 7-10 days), Danny Briere (upper back contusion, out indefinitely), James van Riemsdyk (foot surgery on March 6) and Andrej Meszaros (lower back surgery). Andreas Lilja (upper body) has been listed as a day-to-day injury for the last week-plus.
The Rangers were on cruise control for awhile but have shown they can hit the accelerator again when they need to. They are also a healthier team than Philly but are without 6th/7th defenseman Steve Eminger (ankle) and forward Mats Zuccarello (broken wrist).
Despite what happened in the Winter Classic and the Flyers' demonstrated ability to play successful comeback hockey -- even against the Rangers and other top teams -- it is crucial for Philadelphia to play from ahead when they meet the Rangers. Here are the daunting numbers to show what Philly will be up against if they have yet another slow start:
* New York has a staggering .810 winning percentage (34-5-3) when scoring first this season. The Flyers have the 2nd best winning percentage (19-20-4, .442) when they yield the game's first goal but three of those regulation losses are against the Rangers, and two happened after Philly comebacks to tie the game.
* When leading after two periods, the Rangers are 29-0-3 this season. Last season, they were a perfect 29-0-0. In total, the Blueshirts have converted 58 of their last 61 opportunities to close out games they've led after two periods, and have collected a whopping 116 of 119 possible points.
PROJECTED LINEUPS (subject to change)
FLYERS
Hartnell - Giroux - Jagr
Talbot - Schenn - Simmonds
Wellwood - Read - Voracek
Shelley - Couturier - Rinaldo
Timonen - Coburn
Carle - Bourdon
Gustafsson - Kubina
Bobrovsky
[Bacashihua]
RANGERS
Hagelin - Richards - Gaborik
Dubinsky - Stepan - Callahan
Anisimov - Boyle - Prust
Rupp - Mitchell - Fedotenko
McDonagh - Girardi
Staal - Del Zotto
Bickel - Strålman
Lundqvist
[Biron]
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