Preview
The Flyers travel to Madison Square Garden for a nationally televised clash with the archrival New York Rangers. Neither club has been consistently playing good hockey of late.
Both teams are in need of improvement to make a run at the first-place New Jersey Devils in the Atlantic Division race. What's more, the Flyers and Rangers will play one another frequently down the stretch, having not faced each other since the Flyers' opener back on October 11.
Winners of just three of their last 10 games, the Rangers have gotten away from the style of play that gave the Flyers fits for much of last season. Opponents have found more skating room against the Blueshirts, and the Rangers have not been nearly as opportunistic offensively as they were at the start of the season. In particular, the Rangers' powerplay has been dormant of late, tumbling to 27th in the NHL.
The Rangers, however, have been excellent on the penalty kill all season. They enter the game with the NHL's top-ranked home penalty kill (88% success rate) and are second overall (86.7%). Even strength play has been the problem. The Rangers are minus-14 at five-on-five (86 goals scored to 100 goals allowed) and minus-one (4 GF, 5 GA) in four-on-four play.
The Flyers, meanwhile, have not had many games of late where they could honestly say that they played a solid 60 minutes of hockey. There have 10-minute-long to period-long lapses for much of the last month, and the offense has run hot and cold.
Coming off yesterday's 5-1 win over the lowly Islanders, the Flyers will need to build on their strong close-out to the victory. Philly will need to eliminate some of the failed clears they were guilty of yesterday, and can't afford to let their focus waver the way it did in the second period.
Rangers player to watch: The Flyers have usually seen Stephen Valiquette in net when they play the Rangers. The backup keeper downed the Flyers in the opener and has a career 5-1-0-1 record, 1.63 goals against average, .943 save percentage and two shutouts against Philly. But Valiquette was strafed for 10 goals in his last outing, and the Rangers rise and fall with Henrik Lundqvist. The Swedish star has a career record of 8-3-0-2 against the Flyers but has not played particularly well in many of the games. He has a career 3.03 GAA and .897 save percentage against the Flyers.
Flyers player to watch: The Rangers got Martin Biron's 2008-09 season off to rough start, chasing him from the net in the first period of the Flyers' season opener. But over the course of his career, Biron has had decent success against the Blueshirts. In 22 career games, he has a 9-6-2-3 record, 2.52 GAA and .924 save percentage.
Flyers lines (subject to change)
Gagne - Richards - Knuble
Hartnell - Carter - Lupul
Upshall - Giroux - Powe
Cote - Metropolit - Asham
Timonen - Parent
Carle - Coburn
Jones - Alberts
Biron
[Munroe]
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Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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