5 THINGS: Flyers vs. Rangers
John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (10-14-7) are home on Saturday to take on Gerard Gallant's New York Rangers (16-10-5)
GAME NOTES
The game will be televised on NBCSP. The radio broadcast is on 97.5 The Fanatic with an online simulcast on Flyers Radio 24/7.
This is the second of three meetings this season between the traditional arch-rivals and the first of two games in Philadelphia. The season series will conclude at the Wells Fargo Center on March 1, 2023.
On Nov. 1, the Flyers visited Madison Garden Garden. In a goalie matchup that pitted Carter Hart against Igor Sheshterkin, the game was scoreless through regulation. In sudden-death overtime at 3-on-3, Kevin Hayes passed to Trevor Konency on an attack off the rush. The puck rimmed out around the boards on the ensuing shot attempt, trapping all three Flyers (Hayes, Konecny and Ivan Provorov) in deep as Chris Kreider took a feed from MIka Zibanejad and scored on a breakaway at 4:07. Sheshterkin finished with a 19-save shutout. Hart stopped 35 of 36 shots in a losing cause.
The Flyers enter this game coming off a 2-1 win in New Jersey on Friday, as the team concluded a four-game road trip (1-1-2). Hart was outstanding in making 48 saves on 49 shots. The Flyers got a second period power play goal from Scott Laughton (5th) and a breakaway goal by Konecny (12th) in the third period to win the game.
The Rangers bring a five-game winning streak into Saturday's tilt. On Thursday, the Blueshirts skated to a 3-1 home win against the Toronto Maple Leafs in a game that saw Mitchell Marner's 23-game point streak and the Maple Leafs' streak of earning points in 15 straight games come to their respective conclusions. The score was deadlocked after one period, as Filip Chytil (PPG, 7th) and Toronto's Michael Bunting traded off goals. Jimmy Vesey tallied two goals (4th and 5th) at 5-on-5 in the latter stages of the second period and a 5-on-6 empty netter late in regulation. Sheshterkin turned aside 22 of 23 shots to earn the victory in net.
Here are five things to watch in Saturday's game:
1. Hayes scratched, DeAngelo Returns
In Thursday's game in Newark, Tortorella benched Kevin Hayes for the duration of the third period. He'd taken a needless hooking penalty (resulting in a Jack Hughes goal) in the first period and had an egregious turnover in the second period that resulted in a 2-on-1 for the Devils. Hayes was also part of the collective struggle of the Flyers' first PP unit that saw the entire unit demoted to second-unit status by the second period.
It was the second time this season (the first was Oct. 23 against San Jose) that Hayes sat out an entire period. The previous time, Travis Konecny also rode the bench throughout the entire final stanza of that game. In the team's next game, Hayes responded with a two-assist, plus-two game against the Florida Panthers in 19:55 of ice time. This time, there is a further consequence, Hayes will be a healthy scratch against the Rangers.
Hayes remains the Flyers' leading scorer this season, with nine goals and 29 points in 31 games including two power play goals and eight power play assists. However, there have been times when Tortorella has been unhappy with Hayes' level of attention to detail and execution from a risk-management and defensive perspective. Several weeks ago, he was moved from center to wing to relieve him of some of the defensive burden.
Defenseman Tony DeAngelo, who was a healthy scratch in Vegas last week and then took a three-game personal leave to deal with a family matter, will return to the Flyers lineup against the Rangers. Both DeAngelo and Hayes are former Rangers.
2. Will PP unit "reversal" hold?
The Flyers' "second" power play unit picked up the slack for PP1 in the New Jersey game. The unit generated entries, moved the puck effectively and produced Laughton's goal that tied the score at 1-1 in the middle stanza. After the first period, Tortorella reversed the deployment order of the two units. Power plays started with PP2 on the ice first and receiving the majority of the ice time.
PP1 has had three straight rough games (Arizona, Colorado, and New Jersey). Gaining entries, in and of itself, has been a major issue. In the Colorado game, a botched entry by PP1 (involving errors of commission and omission by three Philadelphia players) ended up turning into a fatal shorthanded goal late in the second period.
Going into the Rangers game, will Tortorella and assistant coach Rocky Thompson revert to sending "PP1"out to get the bulk of the ice time on the man advantage? Or will "PP2" (Laughton, Tippett, Cates, Farabee, Sanheim) again be the de facto first unit?
3. Stepping up if the score is close.
Roughly 2/3 of the Flyers' 31 games have gone to the 3rd period with the score tied (12 times, Flyers are 2-4-6) or PHI leading (8 times, 7-0-1). They are still not yet a team able to come out on top of "win a period, win the game" scenarios, which is a big part of what separates the clubs that earn playoff spots from Draft lottery teams. When trailing after two periods, the Flyers are 1-10-0. Given the Flyers' scoring woes, third period comebacks are a daunting proposition.
Among the Rangers' 31 games played to date, the team has gone to the third period tied in 15 of them. New York has come away with a 9-1-5 record in such games. The Rangers have led after two periods eight times, going 6-2-0. New York has trailed after two periods eight times, going 1-7-0 in those games.
4. Roster Updates and line play
The Flyers had a complete off-day on Friday. Today, they held a 10:30 a.m. morning skate at the Flyers Training Center in Voorhees. There was some big news pertaining to the roster beyond the scratching of Hayes and the return of DeAngelo for this game.
Veteran checking forward Lukas Sedlak, who played well for the Flyers since being claimed off waivers from the Colorado Avalanche, requested the organization terminate his NHL contract to allow him to return to his native Czech Republic. The request has been granted, and Sedlak has been removed from the Flyers' roster. Reportedly, he will join Czech club Pardubice for the remainder of the season.
The Flyers have recalled winger Kieffer Bellows from the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Bellows posted a three-game goal-scoring streak for the Phantoms prior to his recall. In five games for the Phantoms, he posted seven points (3g, 4a). In 11 games with the Flyers this season, he has not recorded a point.
With DeAngelo returning to the Flyers' lineup, veteran defenseman Justin Braun will exit the lineup. Braun finished last season with the Rangers after coming over from the Flyers as a trade deadline rental player.
Patrick Brown, officially, day-to-day with an upper-body injury, appears set to return for this game. The Fly
Potential lineup (subject to change)
86 Joel Farabee or 25 James van Riemsdyk- 49 Noah Cates -11 Travis Konecny
25 JVR or 86 Joel Farabee - 48 Morgan Frost - 74 Owen Tippett
62 Olle Lycksell - 21 Scott Laughton -19 Kieffer Bellows
44 Nicolas Deslauriers - 38 Patrick Brown - 17 Zack MacEwen
9 Ivan Provorov - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
6 Travis Sanheim - 45 Cam York
24 Nick Seeler - 77 Tony DeAngelo
79 Carter Hart
[32 Felix Sandström]
5. Behind Enemy Lines: New York Rangers
The Rangers have rattled off five straight wins since suffering back-to-back home upset losses to the Ottawa Senators and Chicago Blackhawks. Since that time, New York has defeated the St. Louis Blues (home, 6-4), Vegas Golden Knights (road, 5-1), Colorado Avalanche (road, 2-1 via shootout), New Jersey Devils (home, 4-3 in overtime) and Toronto Maple Leafs (home, 4-1). For the season, the Rangers are 12-3-2 when scoring first and 4-7-3 when trailing first.
Artemi Panarin leads the Rangers in scoring with 35 points (6g, 29a) through the first 31 games. He's followed by Zibanejad (15g, 18a, 33 points), defenseman Adam Fox (7g, 24a, 31 points), Kreider (14g, 10a, 24 points), Vincent Trocheck (10g, 12a, 22 points), Chytil (7g, 8a, 15 points), Alexis Lafrenière (5g, 9a, 14 points), Barclay Goodrow (6g, 7a, 13 points), and defenseman K'Andre Miller (1g, 12a, 13 points). In goal, Sheshterkin has played in 23 games (15-4-4 record, 2.45 GAA, .917 save percentage, one shutout) while veteran backup Jaroslav Halak has made eight appearances (1-6-1, 3.04 GAA, .886 SV%).
The Rangers practiced on Friday with the same line combinations they used in Thursday's win over the Maple Leafs. Given the team's five-game winning streak, it's unlikely (barring injury or illness on game day) that there'd be any personnel changes or line combination switches to start tonight's game. The team has an 11:30 a.m. morning skate at the Wells Fargo Center.
Projected lineup (subject to change)
10 Artemi Panarin - 93 Mika Zibanejad - 21 Barclay Goodrow
13 Alexis Lafreniere - 72 Filip Chytil - 24 Kaapo Kakko
20 Chris Kreider - 16 Vincent Trocheck - 26 Jimmy Vesey
24 Vitali Kravtsov - 76 Jonny Brodzinski - 12 Julien Gauthier
55 Ryan Lindgren - 23 Adam Fox
79 K'Andre Miller - 8 Jacob Trouba
5 Ben Harpur - 4 Braden Schneider
31 Igor Sheshterkin
[41 Jaroslav Halak]
