GAME 65: FLYERS @ RANGERS
In the back end of a home-and-home set, Alain Vigneault's Philadelphia Flyers (37-20-7 overall,
14-15-3 away) visit David Quinn's New York Rangers (35-25-4 overall, 17-13-2 home) on Sunday. Game time at Madison Square Garden is noon ET.
The game will be televised nationally on NBC. The radio broadcast will be on 97.5 The Fanatic with an online simulcast on the
Flyers Radio 24/7 component of the Flyers Broadcast Network.
This is the third of four meetings this season between the teams this season, and the first of two in New York. The Flyers are 2-0-0 in the season series to date. The season series will conclude in New York on April 1.
The Flyers earned a 5-1 home win over the Rangers on Dec. 23. The game was highlighted by a two-goal, three point outburst from Travis Sanheim, two goals from ex-Ranger Kevin Hayes and 34 saves by Carter Hart.
This past Thursday, on Feb. 27, the Flyers earned a 5-2 win. Jakub Voracek collected four assists. Claude Giroux scored twice (once at 5-on-5, once on the power play). Sean Couturier tallied once and assisted on another. The other Flyers' goals were scored by James van Riemsdyk and Kevin Hayes. Carter Hart yielded an early rebound goal to Jesper Fast and then slammed the door until a meaningless goal by Brett Howden in the final minute that made it a three-goal victory for Philadelphia rather than four. Hart stopped 26 of 28 shots.
FLYERS OUTLOOK
Winners of five straight games, the Flyers have moved past the Pittsburgh Penguins (six straight losses) into second place in the Metro Division. They are three points plus a 29-27 regulation wins tiebreaker disadvantage behind the Washington Capitals, with both teams having 18 games remaining in the regular season. They will play head-to-head in Washington on Tuesday.
First things first: The Flyers need a win over the Rangers on Sunday to pull themselves up to hockey .500 on the road this season and to sweep the current home-and-home set. Hart, who has been lights out at home this season but has struggled on the road, will get the start in goal.
The Flyers held a noon practice in Voorhees on Saturday. Travis Sanheim and Derek Grant took maintenance days. Interestingly, the red hot trio of Scott Laughton, Hayes and Travis Konecny was broken up at practice, with JVR moving onto the Hayes line and Laughton skating left wing on the third line. The rehabbing Nolan Patrick stood in as third line center.
Late on Saturday afternoon, the Flyers announced that Joel Farabee (after a one-game appearance back with the Phantoms on Friday) had been recalled to the NHL roster and would join the team in New York. It was unclear immediately whether that was in place of Grant or another player. The recall was not designated as an emergency callup. The Flyers have three remaining non-emergency recalls remaining for the rest of the season.
RANGERS OUTLOOK
The Rangers were significantly outplayed by the Flyers on Friday. Part of it may have been a fatigue factor disadvantage, as the Flyers were a rested team and New York was playing for the third time in four nights (including back-to-back games in Montreal on Thursday and Philadelphia on Friday). Sunday's match will make it four games in five-and-a-half days. The Flyers were able on Friday to mostly rest their top line players in the third period after Philadelphia opened a four-goal lead.
New York, which had won nine in a row on the road heading into Friday, have gone 18-6-0 in their last 24 games immediately following a loss. Overall, the club is 8-2-0 in its last 10 games.
The Rangers suffered a significant injury on Friday. Chris Kreider sustained a foot fracture in the first period from blocking a shot by Flyers' defenseman Phil Myers. Pavel Buchnevich, day-to-day with soreness from last Sunday's car accident, could return to the lineup for this game.
Goalie Igor Sheshtertin suffered a rib fracture in the accident and is expected to miss at least three weeks.
Somewhat surprisingly, Quinn elected to start Alexandar Georgiev three times in four night and bypassed future Hall of Fame goaltender Henrik Lundqvist for Friday's game in Philadelphia. The Rangers did not practice on Saturday. Lundqvist may get the nod on home ice for this game. He last started on Feb. 3.
PROJECTED STARTING LINEUPS (subject to change, will be updated)
FLYERS (Friday's lines)
28 Claude Giroux - 14 Sean Couturier - 93 Jakub Voracek
21 Scott Laughton - 13 Kevin Hayes - 11 Travis Konecny
25 James van Riemsdyk - 38 Derek Grant - 18 Tyler Pitlick
12 Michael Raffl - 44 Nate Thompson - 62 Nicolas Aube-Kubel
9 Ivan Provorov - 15 Matt Niskanen
6 Travis Sanheim -5 Phil Myers
8 Robert Hägg - 61 Justin Braun
79 Carter Hart
[37 Brian Elliott]
Power Play 1: Giroux, Couturier, Konecny, Voracek, Provorov.
Power Play 2: JVR, Hayes, Aube-Kubel, Sanheim, Niskanen.
Scratches: 53 Shayne Gostisbehere (healthy), 49 Joel Farabee (recalled Saturday).
LTIR: 55 Sam Morin (torn ACL, out for season), 23 Oskar Lindblom (Ewing sarcoma, out for season), 19 Nolan Patrick (migraines).
RANGERS
10 Artemi Panarin - 93 Mika Zibanejad - 89 Pavel Buchnevich
21 Brett Howden - 16 Ryan Strome - 17 Jesper Fast
33 Phil Di Giuseppe - 72 Filip Chytil - 24 Kaapo Kakko
48 Brendan Lemieux - 14 Greg McKegg - 12 Julien Gauthier
42 Brendan Smith - 8 Jacob Trouba
18 Marc Staal - 77 Tony DeAngelo
55 Ryan Lindgren - 23 Adam Fox
30 Henrik Lundqvist
49 Alexandar Georgiev
Power Play 1: Buchnevich, Zibanejad, Strome, Panarin, DeAngelo
Power Play 2: Howden, Chytil, Kakko, Trouba, Fox
Scratches: 20 Chris Kreider (foot fracture), 31 Igor Shesterkin (rib fracture from car accident, out 3+ weeks).
IR: 38 Micheal Haley (core muscle, Feb. 7)
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