The Philadelphia Flyers will hit the ice only 24 hours after losing to the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-3 on home ice. The Flyers headed into the third period all tied at 2 before the heavy-powered offense that is Toronto scored four times, including a game-winning goal while shorthanded. Ronnie Attard made his NHL debut, Nick Seeler replaced Keith Yandle, and Hayden Hodgson remained out with an illness. Carter Hart didn’t have the greatest of games, let in some soft goals, but still made some big saves that kept the Flyers in the game for the time being. Martin Jones will make way on the back end of their back-to-back. The Flyers have now lost 4 consecutive games, whereas the Rangers had their 4 game win streak snapped after their 3-0 loss to the New York Islanders on Friday.
The New York Rangers come into tonight’s tilt already having won 44 games, are 2nd in the Metropolitan Division, 5th in the Eastern Conference, and 6th in the NHL. They are 17th in goals per game (3), 30th in shots on goal (28.8), 9th in shooting percentage (10.4%), and own the 2nd best power play (26.6%). Defensively is where they shine thanks in large part to Igor Shesterkin as they are 3rd in goals allowed (2.59), 14th in shots against (31.4), and 11th on the penalty kill (80.8%). Conversely, the Flyers are 30th in goals (2.57), 25th in goals allowed (3.50), 18th in shots on goal (30.5), 31st in shooting percentage (8.4%), 29th in shots allowed (34.1), and have the league’s worst power play (13.3%), and the 25th-best penalty kill (75.4%).
Right off the hop, special teams are going to dictate the game with the Rangers having the 2nd-best power play and 11th-best penalty kill against the Flyers worst power play and 25th ranked penalty kill. The Rangers offense is top-loaded with Artemi Panarin scoring 18 goals and 80 points, Mike Zibanejad with 26 goals and 70 points, Adam Fox accumulating 56 assists and 66 points, and then Chris Kreider entering the Rocket Richard race with 46 goals and 65 points.
Cam Atkinson still leads the Flyers with 50 points, but only has 3 points in his last 7 with no goals in that span. Kevin Hayes has 23 points in 34 games with 14 points in 14 games since his return. Igor Shesterkin was leading the MVP race at one point before faltering just a little bit, but he still remains a strong candidate to at least become a finalist with his 32-10-3 record and amazing peripherals of .934 SV% and a 2.13 GAA.
PHI Record: 21-36-11, 53 pts, 8th in Metropolitan
NYR Record: 44-20-5, 93 pts, 2nd in Metropolitan
When: 7:00PM ET
Where: Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
PHI Goalie: Martin Jones (8-14-3, .900 SV%, 3.40 GAA, 0 SO)
NYR Goalie: Igor Shesterkin (32-10-3, .934 SV%, 2.13 GAA, 3 SO)
PHI Projected Lineup
#23 Oskar Lindblom – #13 Kevin Hayes – #42 Travis Konecny
#49 Noah Cates – #86 Joel Farabee – #89 Cam Atkinson
#25 James van Riemsdyk – #48 Morgan Frost – #74 Owen Tippett
#44 Nate Thompson – #38 Patrick Brown – #17 Zack MacEwen
#9 Ivan Provorov – #45 Cam York
#6 Travis Sanheim – #70 Rasmus Ristolainen
#3 Keith Yandle – #47 Ronnie Attard
#35 Martin Jones
#79 Carter Hart
NYR Projected Lineup
#20 Chris Kreider – #93 Mika Zibanejad – #77 Frank Vatrano
#10 Artemi Panarin – #16 Ryan Strome – #18 Andrew Copp
#13 Alexis Lafreniere – #72 Filip Chytil – #15 Julien Gauthier
#64 Tyler Motte – #21 Barclay Goodrow – #75 Ryan Reaves
#55 Ryan Lindgren – #23 Adam Fox
#79 K’Andre Miller – #8 Jacob Trouba
#12 Partik Nemeth – #45 Braden Schneider
#31 Igor Shesterkin
#40 Alexandar Georgiev
Last Game PHI: 4/2/22, 6-3 L vs Toronto
Last Game NYR: 4/1/22, 3-0 L vs NY Islanders
News and Notes
– This is the 311th all-time meeting between the two teams since the Flyers’ inception in 1967. Philadelphia maintains a 135-128-37-10 lead in the all-time series over the Rangers.
– This is the third of four meetings this season with the Rangers winning both games so far, 4-1 on the 1st of December in New York and then 3-2 on the 15th of January in Philadelphia. They finish off the season series on the 13th of April in Philadelphia.
– Nick Seeler got hurt in the third period of last night’s game and didn’t return, which should make way for Keith Yandle whose iron-man streak ended with a surprise scratch on Saturday.
Broadcast Info: NBC Sports Philadelphia, ESPN+, 93.3 WMMR
Injuries:
PHI – Ryan Ellis (lower-body), Sean Couturier (back), Hayden Hodgson (illness)
NYR – Ryan Strome (lower-body), Sammy Blais (knee), Kevin Rooney (upper-body), Libor Hajek (illness), Kaapo Kakko (wrist)
