GAME 26: FLYERS @ RANGERS
Alain Vigneault's Philadelphia Flyers (13-9-3) are in Manhattan on Monday to take on David Quinn's New York Rangers (11-12-3). Game time at Madison Square Garden is 7:00 p.m. EDT. The game will be televised on NBCSP.
This is the third game between the teams this season. The Flyers are 1-0-1 against the Rangers thus far.
Flyers Outlook
The Flyers have lost five of their last seven games and fallen below the playoff cutoff line in the East Division. It's not a pretty picture. Entering play on Monday, the Flyers are three points behind the Boston Bruins for the final playoff spot in the division. Philly has two or four games in hand on all of the teams above Boston but major standings point gaps to make up, including a cavernous 13-point deficit with the division-leading New York Islanders (albeit with four games in hand), nine points with Washington (two games in hand) and six points with Pittsburgh (two games in hand).
While the Flyers have been self-destructing of late with puck management, coverage/ puck support breakdowns, special teams letdowns at crucial junctures and so-so recent goaltending -- the result of which has been having to scramble to come back from multi-goal deficits and winnable games becoming regulation losses -- the upper part of the East Division has been winning and winning. The Isles have won nine in a row. The Caps have won four in a row (three at the Flyers' expense) and are 8-1-1 in their last 10 games. The Penguins have won five in a row. While the Bruins are just 4-4-2 in their last 10 games, they are 5-0-0 (with three regulation wins) against the Flyers this season.
Vigneault said after Sunday's 5-4 loss to the Capitals that he actually thinks the Flyers are trending the right way in their game. He was referring to generating more shots and scoring chances and giving up fewer shots (although there's a score effect facet here, since Philly has been chasing an awful lot of games of late). The problem, however, is the aforementioned tendency to be their own worst enemy.
Some silver linings to the dark cloud: Apart from generating more shots, the Flyers are starting to spread the wealth offensively a little more of late so that they are not primarily reliant on scoring from James van Riemsdyk (12 goals, 28 points in 25 games), Joel Farabee (11 goals. 22 points in 24 games) and Sean Couturier (six goals, 18 points in 15 games).
More recently, Travis Konecny has posted five points (2g, 3a) in his last five games. Claude Giroux has two goals in the last three games. Jakub Voracek has posted four assists in the last five games. Defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere has tallied three goals and an assist in the last five games.
On Saturday, Nolan Patrick finally ended an 18-game point drought and scored his third goal of the season. Two games earlier, he converted a shootout attempt against Buffalo.
The Flyers still need to play significantly better in their two-way game, as both the forwards and defensemen have been struggling to help out the goalies and neither Carter Hart (who gets the start tonight) nor Brian Elliott have played particularly well of late. There have been plenty of culprits but Philly particularly needs Kevin Hayes (who is doing OK offensively with 9 goals and 20 points but having details-related lapses) and Ivan Provorov to bring their A games.
Michael Raffl (hand injury) took practice with the team on Sunday. He is officially a game-day decision for this tilt at MSG.
Rangers Outlook
The Rangers are 5-5-0 in their last 10 games and 1-3-0 in their last four (same as the Flyers) but are coming off a 4-0 shutout win over Boston on the heels of a 4-0 loss. On Saturday, Keith Kinkaid saw just 18 shots for the game and stopped every one.
Last time the Rangers played the Flyers, Chris Kreider compiled a hat trick. New York was missing Artemi Panarin, Filip Chytil, Jacob Trouba, and K'Andre Miller from their lineup. All are now back, with Panarin returning from personal leave for Saturday's win over the Bruins.
Mika Zibanejad started the season with a prolonged offensive drought but was starting to show signs of coming around the last time New York played against the Flyers. Although he has scored just one goal in March -- three for the season -- Zibanejad has four assists including two in the last game against Boston.
The Rangers rank 11th in the NHL with a team 2.69 goals against average (the Flyers are 26th at 3.24). The Rangers are 16th in the NHL with 349 blocked shots -- middle of the pack -- but blocked 27 and 18 Flyers attempts in the two previous matches with the Flyers. The Rangers are 3rd in the NHL with an average 26.34 credited hits per game, while the Flyers are 13th at 22.92 per game.
Projected lineups (Will be updated, subject to change)
FLYERS
25 James van Riemsdyk - 14 Sean Couturier - 86 Joel Farabee 21 Scott Laughton - 13 Kevin Hayes - 11 Travis Konecny 28 Claude Giroux - 19 Nolan Patrick - 93 Jake Voracek 12 Michael Raffl - 21 Michael Raffl - -62 Nicolas Aube-Kubel
9 Ivan Provorov - 61 Justin Braun 6 Travis Sanheim - 5 Phil Myers 53 Shayne Gostisbehere - 39 Nate Prosser
79 Carter Hart [34 Alex Lyon]
PP1: Giroux, Patrick, Farabee, Voracek, Provorov. PP2: Hayes, Couturier, Konecny, JVR, Gostisbehere.
Scratches: 8 Robert Hà¤gg, 56 Erik Gustafsson (healthy), 37 Brian Elliott (rest day).
Injured reserve: 48 Morgan Frost (shoulder surgery).
COVID-19 protocol: None.
RANGERS
20 Chris Kreider - 93 Mika Zibanejad – 24 Kaapo Kakko 10 Artemi Panarin - 16 Ryan Strome - 43 Colin Blackwell 13 Alexis Lafreniere - 72 Filip Chytil - 12 Julien Gauthier 48 Brendan Lemieux - 17 Kevin Rooney - 21 Brett Howden …‹
79 K'Andre Miller - 8 Jacob Trouba 55 Ryan Lindgren - 25 Libor Hajek 51 Tarmo Reunanen - 42 Brendan Smith…‹
71 Keith Kinkaid [40 Alexandar Georgiev] …‹ PP1: Strome, Zibanejad, Kreider, Panarin, Trouba PP2: Lafreniere, Chytil, Kakko, Gauthier, Miller
Scratches: 21 Brett Howden (healthy), 27 Jack Johnson (healthy).
IR: 31 Igor Shesterkin (groin).
COVID-19 protocol: 23 Adam Fox, 89 Pavel Buchnevich, 33 Phil Di Giuseppe.
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Phantoms Update
In a game highlighted by the first American Hockey League goals scored by Tyson Foerster and Wade Allison (in his AHL debut), the Lehigh Valley Phantoms skated to a 4-1 road win over the Hershey Bears on Sunday afternoon. Ryan Fitzgerald (PPG, 5th goal of the season) and Derrick Pouliot (PPG, 2nd) also scored for the Phantoms, while goalie Zane McIntyre stopped 32 of 33 shots.
David Kase, Garrett Wilson, Ryan Fitzgerald, Cal O'Reilly and Max Willman (who fed Allison the puck off a Hershey turnover for a sniper's goal from the top of the left circle) each collected an assist apiece for Lehigh Valley. Rookie defenseman Wyatte Wylie had to leave the game after taking a slap shot to the face off the stick of Hershey's Mike Sgarbossa.
The Phantoms went 2-for-7 on the power play and 4-for-4 on the penalty kill. With the win, the Phantoms raised their record to 7-2-2 and took over first place in the North Division. The Phantoms return to action on Wednesday, hosting the Binghamton Devils at the PPL Center.