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Flyers Playoff Gameday: ECQF Game 3 vs. NYR |
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Eastern Conference Quarterfinal Game 3: Flyers vs. Rangers
Needing a home win to forge ahead in their Eastern Conference Quarterfinal series after splitting the first two games at Madison Square Garden, the Philadelphia Flyers will host the New York Rangers on Tuesday night. Game time at the Wells Fargo Center is 8:00 p.m. EDT. The match will be televised locally on CSN Philly, nationally in the U.S. on CNBC and across Canada on TSN2.
In Game One, the Flyers had trouble generating any sort of attack on the Rangers end of the ice but defended well enough and received strong enough goaltending from Ray Emery to keep the game at 1-1 until near the midway point of the third period.
Philly's undoing in the third period was a double-minor penalty that resulted in back-to-back New York goals. Subsequently, a hit post on a Kimmo Timonen shot resulted in a Rangers counterattack and a goal that sealed a 4-1 final. The Flyers ended up getting outshot by a 36-15 margin. Andrew MacDonald notched the lone Flyers goal.
In Game 2, the Rangers got off to a quick 2-0 lead only the see the Flyers roar back for four unanswered goals as Philadelphia evened the series at one game apiece. A first-period line rush goal by Jakub Voracek started the turnaround. Second period goals by Jason Akeson (power play) and Luke Schenn (scored on a delayed penalty) put the Flyers ahead.
Emery, who had to make tougher saves in the first two periods of Game Two than in periods one and two of the series opener, got help in the third period. The Flyers did an outstanding job of protecting their one-goal lead without losing their aggressiveness. Finally, after a late game too-many-men-on-the-ice penalty by the Rangers, Wayne Simmonds scored an eventful empty net power play goal to seal the win for the Flyers.
After tonight's game, the Flyers and Rangers will have two days to prepare for a Game Four meeting that will determine whether one team takes a three games to one series lead or if the series moves back to New York deadlocked again. Game Four will take place Friday night in Philadelphia.
Flyers Outlook
The Flyers did better in the skating and puck possession departments in Game Two, which went a long way toward their victory after a shaky start. There is still room for improvement in several keys areas.
In their efforts to continue to build more puck possession time, a good starting place would be winning more faceoffs. Philly got better in that department as Game 2 progressed. However, in the eight playoff series taking place across the NHL, only the St. Louis Blues (44.1 percent in three games against Chicago) have won a lower percentage of faceoffs than the 46.2 percent the Flyers have won against the Rangers thus far.
After the Flyers' optional practice yesterday at the Skate Zone in Voorhees, Flyers head coach Craig Berube said he thought the team was moving in the right direction on faceoffs in Game Two. However, there is still room for the team -- specifically the wingers and defensemen, and not just the centers taking the draw -- to do a better job at outworking Rangers to the pucks in and around the circles.
Yesterday, I asked accomplished draw man Adam Hall how much of an advantage it really is to take faceoffs at home because the visiting team draw man has to put his stick on the ice first.
"It depends," Hall said. "Some guys say it's a significant advantage. Sometimes it is. Really, it's not just one little thing like that. The more you can find little tricks here and there to give yourself a little advantage to get to some of the loose pucks on the faceoffs, the more it's going to help. But there's also an unpredictable element. Sometimes the puck will bounce your way, and sometimes it will bounce the other way."
Another element in puck possession, arguably even more important than winning more faceoffs than the team loses, is gap control. The Flyers breakout gaps were too wide in Game One and it made it tough to get pucks out of the defensive zone and up the ice.
Finally, a continued emphasis on better skating than Game One, will go a long way toward victory in Game Three and beyond. The Flyers did an improved job of keeping their feet moving in Game Two and they were better able to get some pucks past the New York defense while also starting to get a higher number of forechecking and counterattacking opportunities. There is still room for improvement against a good skating team like the Rangers, but there were encouraging signs last game.
With the right to the last line change at home, Berube will try to get Claude Giroux's line away from the Rangers top pairing of Dan Girardi and Ryan McDonagh when possible at even strength. However, that duo still sees a lot of ice time regardless, so there will still be plenty of shifts for the top line against the Rangers' shutdown pairing. The trio of Giroux, Jakub Voracek and Scott Hartnell will just have to work through it.
Another key to tonight's game: Improved discipline. A team does not have to sacrifice aggressiveness to cut down on the number of penalties they take. They do, however, have to be more mindful of avoiding stick infractions and confine things between the whistles.
Philly took too many crunch-time penalties in Game One and too many first and second period penalties in Game Two. They've already been shorthanded 12 times in the two games -- the Rangers have scored on three of their power plays -- while they have only had four power plays of their own. The Flyers are thus far 2-for-4, including Simmonds' empty netter on Sunday.
As the series progresses, that power play disparity is likely to even up at least a little bit. The Flyers, for whatever reason, have been a much better power play team on the road this season than at home.
The onus is on the players to do better. However, the "seventh" player -- the ever-impatient Wells Fargo Center partisans -- do no favors to the home team by how quickly they turn on the home side and start booing if the power play doesn't click immediately.
Steve Mason practiced yesterday but still did not look to be comfortable or in synch. It was not a surprise when it was revealed after practice that he would sit out at least one more game with his upper-body injury. Cal Heeter will back up Emery again tonight.
The list of non-participants in yesterday's optional practice had no real surprises: banged-up defensemen Kimmo Timonen, Andrew MacDonald and Nicklas Grosssmann all took the day off from on-ice work, as did power forwards Simmonds and Hartnell plus Voracek. The Czech winger appeared to hurt a foot or ankle in a play behind the New York net in Game Two but did not miss a shift.
Rangers Outlook
Between Games One and Two, there was no need for Rangers coach Alain Vigneault to make any adjustments. While no large-scale adjustments are needed even now, the Rangers need to find a little more finishing ability when they get scoring chances.
New York has clearly placed a heavy emphasis on getting Emery moving laterally, which is his primary weakness at this point of his career following career-threatening hip issues a few years ago. It has worked four times in two games.
However, the Rangers went to the well too many times in that regard in Game Two. New York started to telegraph what they were going to do -- even to the point of passing up open shots to try to work pucks cross-ice -- and both Emery and the Flyers defense sniffed out what they were doing.
Henrik Lundqvist has yet to be a factor in this series. He had no chance at all to stop three of the four goals he's yielded in two games, and the other was a spectacular play by Voracek attacking with speed. Lundqvist did make a pair of spectacular saves in Game Two, including a shorthanded bid by Hall, but he may become busier in the next two games if the Flyers work their game plan successfully.
Top defenseman McDonagh remains very banged up. He returned to the lineup in Game One of the series after a shoulder injury forced him to miss the final games of the regular season. Last game, he was on the receiving end of a one-handed but painful slash on his hand by Voracek. It seemed to affect his puckhandling thereafter.
Arguably, the Rangers most effective shift-in and shift-out line at even strength in the series has been its fourth line. The Dominic Moore unit has consistently kept the Flyers hemmed in their own zone and has pushed the defense back with regularity. Vigneault would like to see his second and third lines match that performance.
In the meantime, with the Flyers having the last line change for the next two games, Berube may try to go with a more matchup-oriented line rotation. If so, the top New York line of Rick Nash and Martin St. Louis flanking Derek Stepan could see a lot of Sean Couturier's line.
PROJECTED LINEUPS (Subject to change)
Flyers
19 Scott Hartnell - 28 Claude Giroux - 93 Jakub Voracek
10 Brayden Schenn - 40 Vincent Lecavalier - 17 Wayne Simmonds
24 Matt Read - 14 Sean Couturier - 42 Jason Akeson
36 Zac Rinaldo - 12 Michael Raffl - 18 Adam Hall
44 Kimmo Timonen - 5 Braydon Coburn
8 Nicklas Grossmann - 32 Mark Streit
47 Andrew MacDonald - 22 Luke Schenn
29 Ray Emery
[33 Cal Heeter]
Potential scratches: Steve Mason (upper body), Steve Downie (upper body), Erik Gustafsson (healthy), Hal Gill (healthy), Jay Rosehill (healthy), Chris VandeVelde (healthy).
Rangers
61 Rick Nash - 21 Derek Stepan - 26 Martin St. Louis
67 Benoit Pouliot - 16 Derick Brassard - 36 Mats Zuccarello
62 Carl Hagelin - 19 Brad Richards - 13 Dan Carcillo
22 Brian Boyle - 28 Dominic Moore - 15 Derek Dorsett
27 Ryan McDonagh - 5 Dan Girardi
18 Marc Staal - 6 Anton Stralman
17 John Moore - 8 Kevin Klein
30 Henrik Lundqvist
[33 Cam Talbot]
Potential scratches: Jesper Fast (healthy), Raphael Diaz (healthy), Justin Falk (healthy), Chris Kreider (hand surgery), J.T. Miller (healthy).
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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