UPDATE: 6 PM
Rangers defenseman Marc Staal is out tonight with an upper body injury. Brady Skej will be paired with Ryan McDonagh, Nick Holden with Dan Girardi and Kevin Klein will play with lineup insert Adam Clendening. Henrik Lundqvist will start in goal for New York.
The Flyers have one lineup change. Roman Lyubimov, who skated among the starters at the morning skate, is a late scratch. Boyd Gordon, who took extra skating after the regulars went off, is in the starting lineup.
PREVIEW: FLYERS VS. RANGERS
Playing their first home game of the 2017 calendar year, Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers (20-14-5) play host to Alain Vigneault's New York Rangers (26-13-1) on Wednesday. The game will be nationally televised on NBC Sports Network as its Wednesday Night Rivalry broadcast. Game time is 8:00 p.m. ET.
This is the second of four meetings between the clubs this season, and the second and final game in Philadelphia. The scene shifts to Madison Square Garden on January 25 and April 2.
On Nov. 25 (Black Friday), the Flyers dropped a 3-2 decision in regulation to the visiting Rangers. The Flyers, who entered the third period trailing 3-0, drew back within one goal but could not find an equalizer after peppering Henrik Lundqvist with 42 shots on the afternoon.
Flyers Outlook
Following a 10-game winning streak, the Flyers have posted a 1-4-2 record over the last seven games and went 0-3-1 on their road trip bookending a five-night holiday break. The Flyers have a losing record on the road (8-9-2) and a winning record (12-5-3) on home ice this season.
Philadelphia has scored one or zero goals in five of the last nine games, but showed signs of being close to breaking out offensively in a 4-3 shootout loss in Anaheim on Sunday. The Flyers outshot the Ducks by a 55-25 margin but could not secure a winning goal after recovering from deficits of 1-0 and 3-1 to dominate most of the latter 40 minutes of regulation.
Travis Konecny, one game after sitting out as a healthy scratch, followed up his own shot off a Wayne Simmonds feed to knot the score at 1-1 in the first period. In the second period, Sean Couturier cashed in a gifted opportunity to cut a 3-1 deficit to one goal. Brayden Schenn then knotted the score by potting a power play rebound.
Steve Mason also had a strange night in stopping 22 of 25 shots in regulation and overtime before going 3-for-5 in the skills competition. He had no chance on either of the first two goals of a Ryan Kesler hat trick, then yielded a leaky goal as the Anaheim forward completed a hat trick. Thereafter, Mason did not face a lot of shots in terms of quantity but most of the saves he had to make were of the difficult variety, and he was equal to each one before stopping three of the first four shots he faced in the shootout prior to Corey Perry's game-winning shot in the skills competition.
The Flyers returned to practice at the Skate Zone on Tuesday. The team featured the same line combinations as in Sunday's game, and Hakstol indicated afterwards that he did not see a need to make any changes after what he felt was a strong game overall on Sunday.
After practice, the Flyers activated goaltender Michal Neuvirth (absent for 22 games due to a knee injury) from the injured reserve list. Anthony Stolarz was reassigned to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms after making two starts and two relief appearances. Neuvirth will back up Mason against the Rangers. To get salary cap compliant, the Flyers temporarily transferred Mark Streit (who is close to being ready to return to the lineup from a shoulder injury) to the long-term injured reserve list.
Jakub Voracek leads the Flyers with 35 points (11 goals, 24 assists) in 39 games. Claude Giroux is tied for second on the team with 32 points (10 goals, 22 assists), while Wayne Simmonds paces the club with 17 goals and eight power play tallies among his 32 points.
Brayden Schenn is fourth on the Flyers' scoring leaderboard with 25 points (11 goals, 14 assists) in 36 games. He's followed by Konecny (five goals, 14 assists), Shayne Gostisbehere (four goals, 14 assists) and the injured Streit (five goals, 11 assists). Rookie defenseman Ivan Provorov has 16 points (three goals, 13 assists) while dressing in all 39 games. The 19-year-old leads the Flyers in ice time.
Rangers Outlook
The Rangers, who are 6-4-0 over their last 10 games, bring a solid 13-6-0 road record into Wednesday's tilt; closely aligned with the Blueshirts' 13-7-1 home record. The club is playing the second half of back-to-back games. Following this game, New York will play only once in a span of eight nights, including a five-night break after Saturday.
New York is coming off a 4-1 home loss at MSG on Tuesday at the hands of the Buffalo Sabres. The Rangers dug themselves a 3-0 hole within the first 21:03 of the game, which proved to be too much ground to make up despite a 20-10 shot advantage for the Rangers over the final 40 minutes.
Nick Holden scored the lone Rangers' goal, while Henrik Lundqvist stopped 15 of 19 shots. The Rangers failed to score on their lone power play of the game and went 4-for-5 on the penalty kill. Jack Eichel's early third period power play tally restored a three-goal cushion for Buffalo. The Rangers also won just 46 percent of the game's faceoffs and were charged with 19 giveaways to seven for the Sabres.
On the injury front, veteran forward Rick Nash (groin) has resumed practicing with the team, but did not play against Buffalo. While there has been no word on him being definitively ruled out for the game in Philadelphia, it appears more likely that he will return on Saturday to play against his old club, the white-hot Columbus Blue Jackets.
Additionally, forward Mika Zibanejad, out since November 19 with a broken fibula, remains out of lineup, Matt Puempel is out indefinitely with a suspected concussion and Pavel Buchnevich (back) has missed the last 25 games
Derek Stepan leads the Rangers in scoring with 30 points (nine goals, 21 assists) in 40 games. He also boasts the top plus-minus rating among New York forwards at plus-13 and is tied for the team lead with eight power play tallies. Stepan is followed by Chris Kreider (15 goals, 14 assists, 29 points in 34 games), Mats Zuccarello (eight goals, 21 assists), Kevin Hayes (11 goals, 17 assists), J.T. Miller (12 goals, 15 assists), and top-pairing defenseman Ryan McDonagh (two goals, 23 assists, plus-eight).
Defenseman Nick Holden, who has been very good this season for New York, has chipped in 21 points and a team-best plus-16 rating. Speedy and streaky Austrian forward Michael Grabner has 14 goals among his 20 points but just one goal in his last 13 games.
With New York in a back-to-back and Lundqvist having started on Tuesday, the Flyers could face backup Antti Raanta on Wednesday. Raanta has statistically outplayed the iconic Lundqvist this season, albeit in a smaller sample size.
Raanta has made 17 appearances and 14 starts to date, posting a 10-4-0 record, 2.28 goals against average, .921 save percentage and two shutouts. Lundqvist has made 27 appearances and 26 starts, with a 16-9-0 record, 2.51 GAA, .912 save percentage, and one shutout.
In Tuesday's game, Lundqvist made his 712th career appearance for the Rangers, passing longtime Washington Capitals goalie Olaf Kölzig for the fourth-most appearances by a goaltender with one franchise in NHL history. Still ahead of Lundqvist are Martin Brodeur (New Jersey Devils), Tony Esposito (Chicago Black Hawks), and Terry Sawchuk (Detroit Red Wings).
Key team stat comparisons (NHL overall ranking)
Non-shootout goals per game: Flyers 2.87 (7th), Rangers 3.35 (3rd) Non-shootout goals against per game: Flyers 2.97 (T-25th), Rangers 2.50 (9th) Power play efficiency: Flyers 21.7% (6th), Rangers 22.9% (4th) Penalty killing efficiency: Flyers 80.9% (20th), Rangers 83.9% (9th) Shots on goal per game: Flyers 31.3 (7th), Rangers 29.1 (T-20th) Shots against per game: Flyers 28.8 (7th), Rangers 28.9 (8th) Faceoff percentage: Flyers 50.6% (10th), Rangers 47.9% (27th)
Projected Lineups (subject to change)
FLYERS
12 Michael Raffl - 28 Claude Giroux - 93 Jakub Voracek 11 Travis Konecny - 10 Brayden Schenn - 17 Wayne Simmonds 24 Matt Read - 14 Sean Couturier - 22 Dale Weise 76 Chris VandeVelde - 78 P-E Bellemare - 27 Boyd Gorodon
9 Ivan Provorov - 47 Andrew MacDonald 15 Michael Del Zotto- 3 Radko Gudas 53 Shayne Gostisbehere - 23 Brandon Manning
35 Steve Mason [30 Michal Neuvirth]
Scratches: Mark Streit (LTIR, shoulder), Roman Lyubimov (late scratch), Nick Schultz (healthy), Nick Cousins (healthy).
Rangers
20 Chris Kreider - 21 Derek Stepan - 36 Mats Zuccarello 26 Jimmy Vesey - 13 Kevin Hayes - 40 Michael Grabner 10 J.T. Miller - 24 Oscar Lindberg - 19 Jesper Fast 39 Nicklas Jensen - 46 Marek Hrivik - 73 Brandon Pirri
27 Ryan McDonagh - 76 Brady Skej 22 Nick Holden - 5 Dan Girardi 4 Adam Clendening - 8 Kevin Klein
30 Henrik Lundqvist [32 Antti Raanta]
Scratches: Marc Staal (upper body), Rick Nash (groin), Mika Zibanejad (IR, leg), Matt Puempel (suspected concussion), Pavel Buchnevich (IR, back).
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FLYERS PROSPECTS IN WJC SEMIS
The World Junior Championships semifinals are set for Wednesday with Team USA (featuring Flyers prospect Tanner Laczynski) taking on Russia (Mikhail Vorobyov, German Rubtsov is questionable) at 3:00 p.m. ET and Canada (Carter Hart, sidelined defenseman Philippe Myers is doubtful) opposing Sweden (Felix Sandström, David Bernhardt) at 7:30 p.m. ET.