PREVIEW: FLYERS VS. RANGERS
Closing out the month of February and opening a three-game homestand, Craig Berube's Philadelphia Flyers (26-25-11) play host to Alain Vigneault's New York Rangers (38-16-6). Game time at the Wells Fargo Center is 8:00 p.m. EST. The game will be televised nationally on NBC.
This is the fourth and final meeting between the teams this season, and the second and final one in Philadelphia. The Rangers have dominated the season series to date, winning all three previous games in regulation and shutting the Flyers out twice in the process. The games all took place in November.
On Nov. 19, the Flyers got shut out 2-0 at Madison Square Garden. The teams then played a home-and-home set. On Black Friday, the Rangers claimed a 3-0 win in a matinee game at the Wells Fargo Center. On Nov. 29 at MSG, the Rangers cruised to a 5-2 victory. Philly is returning home from a brief road trip that the team play in Raleigh on Tuesday and Toronto on Thursday. The Flyers will host the Calgary Flames on Tuesday and the St. Louis Blues on Thursday. The Rangers just wrapped up a three-game homestand on Thursday. After the short trip to Philly, the Blueshirts are back at Madison Square Garden on Monday to host the Nashville Predators before embarking on a five-game road trip.
Flyers outlook
The Flyers have gained at least one point in 12 of their last 15 games (8-3-4). However, the team is coming off back-to-back regulation losses on their two-game road trip. Philadelphia enters play six points behind the Boston Bruins in the Eastern Conference wildcard chase. The Bruins hold a game in hand and a tiebreaker advantage.
On Thursday, the Flyers sustained a 3-2 loss in Toronto despite a 49-17 shot advantage and 89-37 shot attempt disparity.
Semi-breakaway goals by Phil Kessel in the first period and Tyler Bozak in the second period built a 2-0 lead for Toronto on eight shots. An unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Wayne Simmonds at the end of the second period was turned into a Dion Phaneuf power play goal early in the third period as Toronto extended the lead to 3-0.
Philadelphia rallied for power play goals by Claude Giroux and Brayden Schenn to cut the gap to one goal with 5:33 remaining in the game. They could not find an equalizer.
Flyers starter Rob Zepp (six saves on eight shots) was pulled by Craig Berube after the Bozak goal. Steve Mason, making his return from arthroscopic surgery on his right knee, stopped eight of nine shots in relief.
On Friday, the Flyers traded five-time Barry Ashbee Award winner Kimmo Timonen to the Chicago Blackhawks. In return, Philadelphia received a 2015 second-round draft pick and a conditional 2016 draft pick. The latter pick will be a fourth-round pick by default but will become a third-round pick if the Blackhawks win two rounds of playoff series this spring. The pick will become a second-round pick if Chicago reaches the 2015 Stanley Cup Final and Timonen dresses in at least half of the games.
Backup goaltender Ray Emery (lower-body injury) is currently sidelined. Vincent Lecavalier and Luke Schenn have been healthy scratches in the last four games, along with eighth defenseman Carlo Colaiacovo.
Rangers outlook
The Rangers have enjoyed a very strong month of February, posting a 10-1-2. They've managed to do it without the services of injured superstar goaltender Henrik Lunqvist, who remains sidelined with a neck and throat injury. The Flyers have been shut out twice this season by New York backup Cam Talbot; as such, they have seen firsthand that the Rangers are a very formidable opponent no matter who is in goal.
New York enters this game off a 4-3 comeback home win in regulation over the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday night. Arizona scored first and then led 3-1 at the first intermission before the Rangers stormed back.
A pair of goals by Chris Kreider, sandwiched around a Lee Stemniak tally tied the game. Finally with 2:14 remaining in the the period, Stempniak scored again to win the game for the Rangers. Talbot stopped 37 of 40 shots to earn the win in goal.
The Rangers have been a very good road team this season. The Blueshirts bring an 18-9-1 away record into Saturday night's tilt.
Apart from Lundqvist, the Rangers may not have Jesper Fast (sprained knee) available. Fast is officially day-to-day.
Key team stat comparisons (NHL overall ranking)
Non-shootout goals per game: Flyers 2.60 (22nd), Rangers 3.12 (2nd) Non-shootout goals against per game: Flyers 2.81 (23rd), Rangers 2.38 (4th) Even strength Goals For/Against Ratio: Flyers 0.97 (21st), Rangers 1.30 (2nd) Power play efficiency: Flyers 23.6% (2nd), Rangers 19.1% (10th) Penalty killing efficiency: Flyers 76.0% (28th), Rangers 82.4% (11th) Faceoff percentage: Flyers 51.4% (T-9th), Rangers 46.8% (29th)
Projected lineups (Subject to change, will be updated)
FLYERS
12 Michael Raffl - 28 Claude Giroux - 17 Wayne Simmonds 24 Matt Read - 14 Sean Couturier - 93 Jakub Voracek 25 Ryan White - 10 Brayden Schenn - 18 R.J. Umberger 76 Chris VandeVelde - 78 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - 36 Zac Rinaldo
55 Nick Schultz - 32 Mark Streit 15 Michael Del Zotto - 5 Braydon Coburn 8 Nicklas Grossmann - 47 Andrew MacDonald
35 Steve Mason [72 Rob Zepp]
Scratches: Vincent Lecavalier (healthy), Luke Schenn (healthy), Carlo Colaiacovo (healthy), Ray Emery (lower-body).
RANGERS
61 Rick Nash - 16 Derick Brassard - 36 Mats Zuccarello 20 Chris Kreider - 21 Derek Stepan - 26 Martin St. Louis 62 Carl Hagelin - 13 Kevin Hayes - 10 J.T. Miller 15 Tanner Glass - 28 Dominic Moore - 12 Lee Stempniak
27 Ryan McDonagh - 5 Dan Girardi 18 Marc Staal - 8 Kevin Klein 17 John Moore - 22 Dan Boyle
33 Cam Talbot [70 Mackenzie Skapski]
Scratches: Matt Hunwick (healthy), Jesper Fast (day-to-day, sprained knee), Henrik Lundqvist (IR, neck and throat).
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TIMONEN TRADE: A WIN-WIN DEAL
Friday's announcement of the trade that sent defenseman Kimmo Timonen from the Philadelphia Flyers to the Chicago Blackhawks for a 2015 second-round draft pick and a 2016 conditional draft pick came as no surprise. The deal was a win-win proposition both for the Flyers and for the player.
Timonen, who has said for weeks that he wants to "retire with [his] skates on", made no effort to deny a preference to go to a Stanley Cup contending team as a rental player. The Flyers found a perfect landing spot for him -- a club where he can be eased into a supporting cast role but for whom he could still be of benefit to the lineup.
The 39-year-old defenseman planned to retire after the 2014-15 season even before he was diagnosed with blood clots in his lung and right calf as well as a genetic blood disorder. In Chicago, Timonen can bring a lot of savvy and veteran experience to one final push for the Stanley Cup.
For the Flyers, there is no downside to the deal except for the sadness of Timonen's outstanding career for the team coming to an end. He will be missed by teammates and fans but he has not played a game this season and he wasn't going to be here next year. Fellow veteran leader Mark Streit has more than adequately replaced Timonen's production on the power play and also minimizes any dressing room leadership void.
Additionally, there were negative salary cap consequences to activating Timonen to play and potentially having him attain bonuses that could cause overages resulting in penalties against the team's cap figures for next season.
Lastly, the Flyers got an excellent return of assets under the circumstances. If Chicago exits the playoffs early this year, the Flyers (who did not previously have a 2015 second-round pick due to the Andrew MacDonald trade last year) will pick a bit earlier in the second round. If the Blackhawks go deep into the playoffs, the 2016 pick could jump as high as a second-round selection (or a third-rounder if the Hawks lose in the 2015 Western Conference Final).
Either which way, there is a benefit to the Flyers. The team, which still has eight healthy defenseman, could move another one -- possibly Nicklas Grossmann or Braydon Coburn -- by Monday's trade deadline. Alternatively, they could wait until the offseason or even go into next year with the option of dealing a veteran on an expiring contract.
Following the Timonen trade announcement, Flyers general manager Ron Hextall spoke with the media via conference call. A transcript provided by the Flyers' PR staff follows below:
On the conditional 2016 pick It’s a fourth-round pick. If Chicago wins the first two rounds of the playoffs it moves to a third… if they win the third round it moves to a second, and Kimmo’s got to play in half of the games.
Did you think you’d be able to get a return like this considering he hasn’t played a game in 10 months? Yeah, I did. There’s a few things working in your favor. First of all his cap number is friendly, so you have a team adding certainly a top four defenseman, maybe a top-two defenseman, at a cap number that is reasonable, so there’s value there. Not only are you getting a player, but you’re getting a damn good person too. A guy who’s going to work hard every day. He’s a consummate professional. He’s going to have a good influence on Chicago. Players like this don’t fall off trees. I understand he hasn’t played, but on the flip side of him not playing, he’s a rested hockey player and he’s probably in the best shape of his life. Would you have made this trade if the Flyers had won the last two games on this road trip and were tied for a playoff spot right now? Yes. There’s two sides to it. There’s the future, there’s now. The defensemen we have have been playing well. When you can get this type of return and put Kimmo in a spot where he’s on one of the top couple teams in the league, this worked for both sides. Does this preclude you from making any other trades? No. How much insurance or investigation did the Blackhawks want with Kimmo’s medical condition? Well, Stan and I have been talking about this for weeks, not days. This is something that he reached out to me early when Kimmo started to skate and we started to talk. I explained within my knowledge what I knew about the situation. We did our due diligence here. Stan probably felt like we did our due diligence, but he did his too and their doctors got to our doctors. They went through a lot of stuff here to make sure they were comfortable with it and they were, as we were. We would have had no problem playing him with our team. Was this the plan all along? I’ll tell you how it all started. Kimmo and I had a lot of talks just before he started skating. For about two weeks we were meeting a lot. So every day he’d come in for an update, or most days we’d talk about where he was at, how he felt, the doctor’s appointments or whatever else was going on. Part of the talks got to the point where OK, if we’re out of the playoffs… I asked Kimmo if he wanted to look at going somewhere and taking a run at winning a Stanley Cup. That point is when we both started thinking about the idea. Before that I don’t think he’d thought about it, and I hadn’t thought about it. I’m guessing here but I want to say we were 10 points out of a playoff spot and it wasn’t looking good, albeit never say never. So we started discussing it at that point, and I think that’s when both of us over the course of time got comfortable with it.
Kimmo did not have a no-trade clause in his contract, but if Kimmo wouldn’t have been amicable to being traded, we would not have traded him. He’s meant too much to this organization to trade him if it was against his wishes.
Over the course of time we both got comfortable with the idea, and then we’re sitting here now, we’re close to a playoff spot, so Kimmo and I went back and forth – do you want to go, do you not want to go, do we want to move you… it was a tough one. In the end, I guess when we talked we both came to the agreement that this is going to work for both sides. It gives him a chance to win the ultimate prize… and that’s not to say we don’t have a chance here, if you get in the playoffs you have a chance. But I think the security of Chicago being in the playoffs versus us being out of the playoffs at this point is probably the thing that I’m guessing pushed Kimmo over the edge. Were there any other teams involved? I had calls from other teams, and whenever I’d get a call I would talk to Kimmo about it. He knows everything that happened through this whole process, and again I wasn’t going to move him to a team he didn’t want to go to, nor would I have moved him if he didn’t want to be moved. Did [Patrick Kane’s] injury enter into this at all? No. Stan and I came to the agreement last night just before our game. I want to say it was about 6:30. We just had to work through a few things between then and now. But that wasn’t a factor. We were talking about it before that. On whether this and other deals around the league are setting a high price for potential other deals. Well, you’re talking about a special player here, don’t forget. I know Kimmo’s 39 years old, but this is a special player. If he goes in there and plays the way he’s capable of playing, he’s going to give Chicago a big boost. I’m not trying to be hard on other players, but this is a special, special player. The return I think is a fair return. I think it’s fair for Chicago, I think it’s fair for us. There’s a lot of upside to this deal for them. In the end they may have underpaid by a long shot for this deal. There’s some risk obviously on their side; he hasn’t played all year. But there’s so much upside as well. If Kimmo had played all year and we’d have moved him right now, this wouldn’t have been the return. I believe it would have been far greater than this. It’s a fair deal for both sides and it got Kimmo to a situation that he’s comfortable with. Do you worry about what the guys in the room think about this? That it makes guys think you’re sellers and you’re not staying as is for the last 20 games? I don’t necessarily believe that. You’ve got to remember, Kimmo hasn’t played for us all year. I think we’re 62 games deep here, and we haven’t had him play a game. I don’t look at this like we’ve taken away from our team. [Our current team] has done a great job in the last month, and we’ve got to keep moving here. We’ve got a lot of ground to catch and fighting the three teams right now, so we’ve got to get going. Focus shouldn’t be the fact that we’re looking at the future, because we’re four points out right now and we’ve got to win hockey games. How much did his performance bonuses affect any of this? To be honest, that wasn’t a huge concern for us. Obviously it’s a small piece of it, but it wasn’t a huge concern. I don’t’ believe we’re going to have a cap problem next year. Obviously we’ve got Chris Pronger on LTI there and we’re not in a great cap situation, but we’d find a way to make that work. It wasn’t like OK we’ve got to get rid of this because of the $750,000 that would go onto next year. That wasn’t the case. Are you actively looking to make any other deals? There’s some things we have to flesh out here. There’s a couple more games here, obviously one for us and for the other teams, so we’ll see where we’re at then, we’ll see what’s happening, and about our health after tomorrow night. I don’t have the answer for you. I might not give it to you anyway if I had it for you, but I don’t have it for you. How have the last two weeks impacted your trade talks? Well, people call back and they ask what you’re looking to do. Obviously we’re creeping up and getting close here, but there’s a certain price where you’ll take a look at different things. This is an active time of the year. It’s a time of year where you have to listen and you have to assess anything that’s kind of thrown your way, and look at today and look at tomorrow and make hard decisions. It’s an intense time of year for us.