5 THINGS: Flyers @ Rangers

Interim head coach Mike Yeo's Philadelphia Flyers (21-36-11) are in Manhattan on Sunday to take on Gerard Gallant's New York Rangers (44-20-5) at Madison Square Garden. Game time is 7:00 p.m. EDT (NBCSP, 93.3 WMMR).

This is the third of four meetings this season between the Metro Division teams; the second and final game at MSG. The Flyers are 0-2-0 against the Rangers so far this season.
The Flyers lost a 4-1 decision in New York on Dec. 1 and a 3-2 game in Philadelphia on Jan. 15. The season series will conclude on April 13 back at the Wells Fargo Center.
The Flyers, who are 1-5-0 in their last six games, are playing the second game of a weekend back-to-back. On Saturday at the Wells Fargo Center, the Flyers lost, 6-3, to the Toronto Maple Leafs. The score was tied at 0-0 after the first period and 2-2 after the second before the Maple Leafs pulled away in the third. Ivan Provorov notched two goals and an assist in a losing cause, while Kevin Hayes had a goal and an assist.
Keith Yandle's NHL record ironman streak of 989 consecutive regular season games played came to an end on Saturday.
The Rangers, who are 7-3-0 over their last 10 games and 4-1-0 in the last five, were idle on Saturday night. The team was shut out on home ice by the New York Islanders by a 3-0 score on Friday.
The Blueshirts held the Isles to just 18 shots for the game but yielded one goal apiece early in the first, second and third periods. At the other end of the ice, the Rangers came away empty on 27 shots.
Here are five things to watch in Saturday's game:
1. Hobbled Flyers
Ex-Rangers center Hayes sustained a lower-body injury in Saturday's game against Toronto but finished the game. He indicated to the media after the game that he'd be OK to play at MSG on Sunday.
In the 14 games Hayes has played since returning to the Flyers' lineup on March 5, he has posted 14 points (5g, 9a) to lead the team in that span; one more point than Joel Farabee (4g, 9a). One area of potential improvement is in the faceoff circle. Hayes has only won 44 percent of his draws over the 14 games. Overall, Hayes looks like a different, much healthier, player than he did in the latter part of last season or the first half of 2021-22.
Flyers defenseman Nick Seeler sustained a lower-body injury on Friday, exiting early in the third period. Unlike Hayes, Seeler was unable to return to the game. For Sunday, either Yandle or Kevin Connauton are available to play in lieu of Seeler.
Travis Konecny (12g, 31a in 65 games played) is dealing with a non-COVID illness. He was iffy to play on Saturday but ended up suiting up. The player seemed to be laboring at times but skated 13:08 with two shots on goal. Konecny did not record an assist but he started the puck movement sequence on the play that ended in Hayes' goal that gave Philly a 1-0 lead.
With the Flyers on a back-to-back and 37-year-old Nate Thompson having just made his return on Saturday from a 48-game absence due to shoulder surgery, Hayden Hodgson could make his return to the Philadelphia lineup after being scratched against the Maple Leafs.
Additionally, look for Martin Jones to get the start in goal against the Rangers. This is due to the back-to-back, although Carter Hart had an uneven performance in Saturday's game against Toronto.
2. Provorov and York tandem.
The blueline duo of Provorov and rookie defenseman Cam York seems to have established good chemistry together; not just up ice, where either player is capable of jumping into the play, but also in terms of reading off one another in the defensive zone and triggering breakouts.
"Ever since we've been paired up together we've been trying to talk as much as we can, you know, all different situations on the ice, how they present themselves, how the puck, say like when they dump it in, which way the puck bounces off the wall, whether it's closer to the net or closer to more like the hash marks in the corner, 'I should go there and you should go there', and I think we've done a really good job of that. Then offensively I think we both read the game well and it's easy to read off each other and break out and make passes and try to play with as much possession as you can," Provorov said.
The Flyers blueline third pair combinations could fluctuate over the remaining 14 games of the season but the first (Provorov and York) and second pairings (Travis Sanheim with Rasmus Ristolainen) seem likely to hold for the rest of the season.
3. Inside the Numbers
How can the Rangers boast such a strong overall record when their underlying 5-on-5 team stats -- ranked 29th in 5-on-5 shot attempt differential with a 46.3 percent team Corsi (Flyers are 26th at 46.6 percent) and 26th in 5-on-5 expected goals share at 46.6 percent (Flyers are 27th at 45.8 percent) -- rank near the bottom of the NHL? Their 5-on-5 bottom line of 130 goals scored and 127 allowed (Flyers are 130 GF/ 154 GA) is also nothing special.
Reason no. 1 why the Rangers are able to compete with the top teams in the Eastern Conference: they've received spectacular goaltending from Vezina Trophy candidate Igor Sheshterkin. The Russian netminder enters this game with a sparkling .934 save percentage to go along with a 2.13 GAA and 32-10-3 record. There's been a significant drop-off when backup Alexandar Georgiev (28 games, 11-9-2 record, 3.11 GAA, .892 save percentage) is in net.
Secondly, while the Rangers give up a slew of shot attempts, they do a good job at taking away the middle of the ice, blocking shots (ranked 7th in blocked shots per 60 minutes) and giving their goalies a clear-sighted look at the puck to make it much easier to track shots and to lessen the risk of rebounds and scrambles. In terms of opposing shot attempts that actually get on net, the Rangers are tied for the 13th fewest per game (31.4). The Flyers block a lot of shots, too, but are not nearly as good at the other aforementioned aspects of defending their own zone. As a result, Philly ranks 29th in the shots against per game category (34.0).
Finally, the Rangers' special have bonafide star power -- Artemi Panarin, Adam Fox, etc. -- that the Flyers lack. This shows up most prominently on the power play. On Saturday night, the Flyers were up against the NHL's No. 1 ranked power play (Toronto). On Sunday, Philly will face the league's No. 2 ranked team on the man advantage in New York (26.6 percent). The Flyers only had to kill one penalty against Toronto; which they did successfully despite a barrage of 5 shot attempts. The Flyers, who rank 25th on the PK (75.5 percent), would do well to keep the Rangers off the power play as much as possible, too.
The Rangers' penalty kill is respectable, too, entering this game ranked 11th (80.8 percent including 82.4 percent at home). No team in the NHL can match Toronto's 12 shorthanded goals including a devastating one against the Flyers on Saturday that turned a one-goal lead in the third period into a two-goal margin. The Rangers have scored a half-dozen shorties in their own right, as have the Flyers.

4. Behind Enemy Lines: New York Rangers
With 13 games remaining, the Rangers are in second place in the Metro Division; one point (plus a tiebreaker advantage and a game in hand) ahead of the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Blueshirts are five points (plus a tiebreaker disadvantage) behind the division-leading Carolina Hurricanes.
Panarin enters this game with 80 points on the season (18g, 62 assists) and a team-high 23 multi-point efforts (13 two-point games, eight three-point games, one four-point game and one five-point showing). It's no secret that Panarin is the Rangers' prime catalyst up front with Fox (10g, 56 assists in 66 games played) as a major threat to trigger or join the attack from the blueline. Panarin has four points (1g, 3a) in the two games against the Flyers this season, while Fox has collected three assists.
An absolute Flyer-killer the last couple seasons, Mika Zibanejad enters the game with 26 goals and 70 points in 69 games. In the meantime, Chris Kreider is closing in on his first career 50-goal campaign (46g, 65 points on the season). Kreider has notched four goals in the last five games.
Acquired from the Flyers at the 2022 NHL trade deadline, veteran defenseman Justin Braun has dressed in only one game so far with the Rangers. He skated 17:30 on March 22 against the Devils.
5. Players to Watch: JVR and Zibanejad
James van Riemsdyk has scored 13 career goals in 48 games against the Rangers. The streak scorer has five goals and nine points over his last 13 games. In the last couple games, JVR has been skating on a 5-on-5 line with Morgan Frost and Owen Tippett.
Last season, Mika Zibanejad torched the Flyers for 18 points during the season series including a pair of hat tricks. Over the first two meetings with the Flyers this season, the Swedish center has one goal and one assist.