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Flyers Gameday: 4/22/21 @ NYR; Phantoms Lose to Hershey, 6-1 |
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GAME 46: FLYERS @ RANGERS
Alain Vigneault's Philadelphia Flyers (20-18-7) are in Manhattan on Thursday and Friday to take on David Quinn's New York Rangers (23-17-6). Game time at Madison Square Garden is 7:00 EDT. The game will be televised on NBCSP.
Thursday's game is the front end of a back-to-back set at MSG, and the seventh of eight games between the teams this season. The Flyers are 3-2-1 against the Rangers this season. However, the season series included a 9-0 whipping the Flyers received at MSG and an 8-3 Rangers blowout win at the Wells Fargo Center the next time the teams played. In the most recent game, a late third period goal by Samuel Morin lifted the Flyers to a 2-1 home win.
The season series will conclude on Friday.
Flyers Outlook
The Flyers are coming off a three-night break in the schedule; their first break of more than a single night since late February. This week, the Flyers had a total off-day on Monday, a small-group practice on Tuesday and a full practice yesterday.
Nolan Patrick is slated to return to the lineup. He missed the last two games after being struck with the puck on the side of his head after getting hit by a Phil Myers shot.
Brian Elliott will get the start in goal. Alex Lyon may start on Friday, depending on Elliott's workload in this game.
Carter Hart remains off the ice with a mild knee sprain sustained in a 2-1 shootout win in Pittsburgh last Thursday. He is still considered day-to-day. The player underwent an MRI and medical evaluation. The initial hope was for Hart to practice on Tuesday, but it was rolled back. Vigneault said the prognosis itself hasn't changed -- it is not a serious injury -- but the player's return is taking a few more days than initially expected.
Rookie forward Tanner Laczynski remains out of the lineup with a hip injury. Vigneault said yesterday the player was getting a second opinion.
Rangers Outlook
The Rangers are 11-7-3 on home ice this season but have won six of their last seven at MSG. The team has gone 6-2-2 over their last 10 games. On Tuesday night, however, the archrival New York Islanders laid a 6-1 beating on the visiting Rangers. A mid second period goal by Kevin Rooney (7th) temporarily cut a 3-0 deficit to two goals before the Islanders pulled away away. Igor Sheshterkin stopped just 22 of 28 shots.
Twenty-year-old Zac Jones, who recently decided to forego his junior season at UMass-Amherst, could make his NHL debut on the Rangers' blueline. Jones played for Team USA in the 2019-20 World Junior Championships. Veteran defenseman Jacob Trouba (upper-body injury) is day to day.
Rangers center Mika Zibanejad has racked up a staggering 13 points (seven goals, six assists) in his last three games played against the Flyers. He's scored a combined nine goals against the rest of the East Division this season. Standout young defenseman Adam Fox (five goals, 41 points, traditional +19 rating) has posted eight assists against the Flyers this season. Chris Kreider (19 goals) tallied a hat trick against the Flyers earlier this season.
Artemi Panarin has only played 35 games this season because he took leave to deal with a personal controversy in his native Russia but he leads the Rangers by far with 52 points (16 goals, 36 assists). His 1.49 points per game trails only Edmonton Oilers superstar Connor McDavid (1.71) on a leaguewide basis.
Neither the Rangers nor the Flyers will hold a morning skate on Thursday.
Projected lineups
FLYERS
28 Claude Giroux -14 Sean Couturier - 93 Jakub Voracek
86 Joel Farabee - 13 Kevin Hayes - 57 Wade Allison
25 James van Riemsdyk - 21 Scott Laughton - 11 Travis Konecny
23 Oskar Lindblom - 19 Nolan Patrick - 62 Nicolas Aube-Kubel
9 Ivan Provorov - 61 Justin Braun
6 Travis Sanheim - 6 Robert Hägg
53 Shayne Gostisbehere - Phil Myers
37 Brian Elliott
[34 Alex Lyon]
PP1: Giroux, Couturier, Allison, Voracek, Gostisbehere
PP2: Hayes, Farabee, JVR, Konecny, Provorov
Scratches: 55 Sam Morin (healthy), 79 Carter Hart (lower body), 58 Tanner Laczynski (lower body).
Injured reserve: 48 Morgan Frost (shoulder surgery).
COVID-19 protocol: None.
RANGERS
20 Chris Kreider - 93 Mika Zibanejad - 89 Pavel Buchnevich
10 Artemi Panarin - 16 Ryan Strome - 43 Colin Blackwell
13 Alexis Lafreniere - 72 Filip Chytil - 24 Kaapo Kakko
17 Kevin Rooney - 21 Brett Howden - 74 Vitali Kravtsov
55 Ryan Lindgren - 23 Adam Fox
79 K'Andre Miller - 6 Zac Jones
22 Anthony Bitetto - 42 Brendan Smith
31 Igor Shesterkin
[40 Alexandar Georgiev]
PP1: Panarin, Zibanejad, Kreider, Strome, Fox
PP2: Blackwell, Buchnevich, Kakko, Miller, Jones
Scratches: 8 Jacob Trouba (day-to-day, lower body), 12 Julien Gauthier (healthy), 25 Libor Hajek (healthy), 33 Phil Di Giussepe (healthy).
Injured Reserve: 27 Jack Johnson (sports hernia).
COVID-19 protocol: None.
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BEARS MAUL PHANTOMS, 6-1
Coming off a 16-day schedule break caused by a series of COVID-19 related postponements, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms got off to a tough start and went down, 6-1, to the Hershey Bears at the PPL Center on Wednesday evening. Very little went right for the Phantoms, who got outshot 34-26, had a bad night on special teams (Hershey was 3-for-7 on the power play, the Phantoms were 1-for-6 with a shorthanded goal yielded), and could not get saves from Felix Sandström (28 saves on 34 shots). Ryan Fitzgerald scored the lone Phantoms goal (PPG, 10th).
Flyers 2019 first-round pick Cam York made his pro debut. He was minus-two with one shot on goal.
The Phantoms (12-4-3) are in Newark on Friday to take on the Binghamton Devils (5-11-6).
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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