The Rangers (23-20-3, 49 pts), fresh off their thrilling 3-2 win over the Stars on Friday, host the Flyers (23-18-4, 50 pts), who come in off a 6-3 loss to Lightning on Saturday. New York gets the benefit of facing a team on the back end of a back-to-back, so they should be the fresher team, which could pay dividends in the third period, as has been the case lately. Currently the Rangers sit in fourth place in the Metropolitan Division, one point behind both Philly and the Washington Capitals, who are tied for second place with 50 points, though the Caps have two games in hand and Philly has won.
Both teams come in hot, New York is 7-2-1, including 3-0-1 in their past four - which some have called the "Daniel Carcillo effect," since it coincides with his arrival. However, I prefer the "Michael Del Zotto," as that record also has transpired since he was re-inserted back in the lineup. The Flyers, even with the loss yesterday, is 7-3 in their past 10 and won three of their past four. The full return to health by Claude Giroux has been a huge boost, as expected to that team, coupled with the re-pairing of Giroux with Jakub Voracek and 10 goals in his last 12 games from Wayne Simmonds. That return to form by Giroux has helped Philly score 39 goals in their past 10 games. Carcillo gets to face his former teammates for the first time as a Ranger. As Jim Cerny wrote today, "Carcillo spent three seasons with the Flyers from 2008-09 through 2010-11 and had one of his best seasons with them in 2009-10 when he scored 12 goals and totaled 207 penalty minutes. That post-season Carcillo helped the Flyers to reach the Stanley Cup Finals scoring two goals, recording six points and notching 34 penalty minutes." While the Rangers don't need Carcillo to score, if he can be the type of agitator he was when with Philly, but stay on the right side of that fine line, it helps the fourth line and bolsters the lineup tremendously.
Rangers’ lineup (same as the past two games):
20 Chris Kreider - 21 Derek Stepan - 61 Rick Nash 24 Ryan Callahan - 19 Brad Richards - 62 Carl Hagelin 67 Benoit Pouliot - 16 Derick Brassard - 36 Mats Zuccarello 22 Brian Boyle - 28 Dominic Moore - 13 Dan Carcillo
27 Ryan McDonagh - 5 Dan Girardi 18 Marc Staal - 6 Anton Stralman 17 John Moore - 4 Michael Del Zotto
30 Henrik Lundqvist [33 Cam Talbot]
FLYERS lineup (taken from Bill Meltzer's blog, updated for Downie scratch)
12 Michael Raffl - 28 Claude Giroux - 92 Jakub Voracek 19 Scott Hartnell - 10 Brayden Schenn - 17 Wayne Simmonds 15 Tye McGinn - 14 Sean Couturier - 40 Vincent Lecavalier 37 Jay Rosehill - 76 Chris VandeVelde - 18 Adam Hall
44 Kimmo Timonen - 5 Braydon Coburn 8 Nicklas Grossmann - 32 Mark Streit 41 Andrej Meszaros - 22 Luke Schenn
29 Ray Emery/ 35 Steve Mason
Potential Scratches: Steve Downie (healthy), Matt Read (concussion), Hal Gill (healthy), Erik Gustafsson (healthy), Zac Rinaldo (high ankle sprain), Chris Pronger (LTIR, post-concussion syndrome).
It should be fun battle at MSG tonight between two divisional rivals, who have a healthy dislike for each other. Following tonight's contest, the Rangers play Tampa Bay at home while Philly travels to Buffalo to face the Sabres on Tuesday. Hopefully, this game won't be partially decided by a disallowed "kicking motion" goal and I expect a great battle between two hot teams.
(Separately, great conversation on the prior blogs on should team deal Girardi or MDZ as well if they should buyout Richards. As mentioned before, until I hear something more concrete or the team falls out of it, making those discussions more paramount than a playoff hunt, I prefer not to talk about in the blogs. Because, right now, focus should more be on the ice or later, what could be added to augment what they have, rather than deal or move away from pieces).