5 THINGS: Flyers vs. Rangers
John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (23-28-10) are home on Wednesday to take on Gerard Gallant's New York Rangers (34-17-9) at the Wells Fargo Center
GAME NOTES
The game will be nationally televised on TNT. The radio broadcast is on 93.3 WMMR with an online simulcast on Flyers Radio 24/7.
This is the third and final meeting of the 2022-23 season between the teams. The Flyers are 0-1-1 this season against the Blueshirts. After 60 scoreless minutes at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 1, the Rangers prevailed 1-0 in overtime. On Dec. 17 at the Wells Fargo Center, New York doubled up the Flyers by a 6-3 score.
The Flyers had a brutal month in February. The team has gone 2-7-1 since the All-Star break. The Flyers averaged a mere 1.89 goals per game in their nine matches in February, while carrying a 4.00 team goals against average. Philly is coming off back-to-back ugly losses in a 5-2 defeat last Friday at the ends of a severely shorthanded (13 injured players) Montreal Canadiens squad last Friday in Philadelphia and a 7-0 humiliation by the New Jersey Devils in Newark on Saturday.
The Flyers have an exceptionally light schedule this week. Tonight's game is the lone match of the week for the team. They will host the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday.
For the Rangers, the last 10 games have been a bit of a rollercoaster ride. The Blueshirts are 1-3-1 in their last five games but are coming off a 5-2 home win on Sunday against the LA Kings. In the previous five games, New York was a perfect 5-0-0.
Here are five things to watch in tonight's game.
1. Circle the wagons
Tortorella publicly acknowledged on Monday that the Flyers will miss the playoffs for the third straight season and the fourth time in the last five campaigns. General manager Chuck Fletcher stated on Tuesday that the organization is in seller mode as Friday's NHL trade deadline approaches, with a focus on building through existing and potentially incoming youth on the roster. Much of the Flyers fan base would prefer the current team to drop further in the standings so as to improve NHL Draft Lottery odds.
Against this backdrop, the Flyers players must filter out everyone but their teammates in the room. They must still show the pride and professionalism to make the final 21 games of the season as competitive as possible.
The team went into the All-Star break (at which time the club was 21-21-9) with at least a goal of playing meaningful games into the post trade deadline stretch drive. From here on out, the Flyers are solely in the role of spoilers, and playing for jobs or personal pride.
It's no fun to be some other club's "trap game" opponent or find much solace in playing the role of scrappy spoiler. But it's not about solace. It's about pride and getting back toward laying the foundation of creating a process and identity within the club itself. Prior to February, there was only a smattering of games where the Flyers suffered blowout losses. That has not been the case since the All-Star Break, although a 2-1 shootout win against the Edmonton Oilers stood out as one of the best teamwide performances of the season.
In the situation the Flyers find themselves, there is something to be learned about the individual and collective character of the players on the ice. It's not pleasant but it's reality.
2. Working without TK
The Flyers have struggled mightily to score -- and to win -- in the nine games that Travis Konecny has missed to date. Not only is Konecny the Flyers leading scorer (27 goals, 27 assists, 54 points in 52 games played), he's also a player who elevates the temperature of a game by getting under opponents' skin on a regular basis.
The Flyers have only won once in the nine games "TK" has missed so far this season and have scored just 18 goals in those games. With Konecny out for at least three more weeks (and possibly for the rest of the season), the Flyers need others to step up.
Back in November, overlapping Konecny's six-game absence with a hand injury, the Flyers endured a 10-game winless streak. In the final game Konecny missed (Nov. 29 against the New York Islanders), the Flyers won. Thereafter, the club won only one of its next five games. When that horrid stretch ended -- 33 games ago -- the team gradually improved and then hit its most sustained stretch of success both in won-loss record and scoring.
The scoring peaked from Dec. 17 to Jan. 19, during which time the Flyers averaged 3.60 goals per game (tied with Tampa for 7th leaguewide in GPG during that stretch). Until the All-Star break, the team was able to pull itself up to "hockey .500" for the season despite the aforementioned stretch of just two wins in 15 games back in November to early December. In February, though, very little went right.
The following is a look at the Flyers' offensive production over the last 33 games, encompassing the stretch from when the team started to show improvement through their February crash:
Konecny, far and away, leads the team in scoring over the sample size even with him having endured a slump with only one point (0g, 1a) in 10 games and having missed each of the last three games (during which time, the team has scored a combined four goals). Over the Flyers last 33 games, TK has dressed in 30 and posted 31 points (17g, 14a).
After TK, in order, come Scott Laughton (9g, 15a, 24 points), Morgan Frost (8g, 15a, 23 points), Owen Tippett (10g, 11a, 21 points), Hayes, Tony DeAngelo (6g, 14a, 20 points), James van Riemsdyk (7g, 11a, 18 points), Noah Cates (6g, 11a, 17 points), Rasmus Ristolainen (2g, 10a, 12 points), Cam York (1g, 11a, 12 points), Joel Farabee (4g, 7a, 11 points), and Ivan Provorov (3g, 7a, 10 points). Wade Allison, who missed five games due to injury, has nine points (5g, 4a) while dressing in 28 of the 33 games. Travis Sanheim has five points (1g, 4a) in the span.
Let's look at it a different way: Beyond Konecny's 1.03 point per game pace in the sample size, only two other players -- Laughton (0.73) and Frost (0.70) have averaged seven points per every game. Eight have produced at what would be a prorated 40-point-or-more pace if done over an entire season.
For the season as a whole -- both before (2.41 GPG in 31 games) and after the 15-game high water offensive surge (2.62 GPG overall, 2.00 in February) -- goals have been hard for the Flyers to come by. Playing without Konecny makes the task that much tougher.
3. Hart gets the start
Neither Carter Hart in Friday's game against the Devils nore Samuel Ersson the next night were given even a semblance of a fair chance to make saves by the team in front of them. The two goalies absorbed a combined 12 goals (five against Hart, seven against Ersson) through little fault of their own.
With the Rangers in town with their collection of players who've feasted off the Flyers in recent seasons -- Mika Zibanejad, Artemi Panarin, Adam Fox and Chris Kreider being at the top of the list -- it's vital for the Flyers to show the same commitment to 200-foot play, structure and discipline that they displayed for 65 minutes in their home win over the Oilers and the first 40 minutes (before running out of gas) in the rematch in Edmonton. From there, it's on Hart to stop the shots he has a reasonable chance to save and to come up with a 10-bell save or two when needed.
4. Flyers line play
The Flyers were missing quite a few players from practice on Monday. On Tuesday, the team had an optional "Skills Day" session. Additionally, if there are any trades made during the day, the starting lineup for the game against the Rangers would change.
Specifically, James van Riemsdyk is both legitimately dealing with a minor injury and is also the subject of widespread trade rumors since he is on an expiring contract. JVR did not play on Saturday and did not practice on Monday but he joined his teammates who were on the ice in Voorhees on Tuesday. If JVR is in, Kieffer Bellows could re-exit the lineup. If JVR is out, Bellows may dress for this game or Philly could revisit starting 11 forwards and seven defensemen again.
Elliot Desnoyers made his NHL debut in the Devils game. In the third period, he was moved up in the lineup to center Farabee and Tippett. Tortorella may revisit that against the Rangers or may put Frost back with Farabee and Tippett.
Defenseman Cam York did not play in Newark on Saturday, as Tortorella felt the young defenseman could use a night off. Veteran defenseman Justin Braun, a potential trade candidate, dressed against the Devils. York is likely to return to the lineup for this game.
The Flyers will hold an optional morning skate at 10:30 a.m. ET in Voorhees. Note: The lines below are "placeholder" combos culled from Saturday's starting lineup. The actual starting lineup against the Rangers is likely to vary by some degree and will be listed in the Postgame 5.
13 Kevin Hayes - 49 Noah Cates - 57 Wade Allison
86 Joel Farabee - 48 Morgan Frost - 74 Owen Tippett
21 Scott Laughton - 73 Elliot Desnoyers - 62 Olle Lycksell
44 Nicolas Deslauriers - 38 Patrick Brown - 20 Kieffer Bellows
9 Ivan Provorov - 77 Tony DeAngelo
6 Travis Sanheim - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
24 Nick Seeler - 61 Justin Braun
79 Carter Hart
32 Felix Sandström
PP1: Tippett, Frost,Ristolainen, Farabee, DeAngelo
PP2: Laughton, Cates, Hayes, Sanheim, Provorov
Potentially available to play: 25 James van Riemsdyk
Potentially scratched: JVR, Bellows, Lycksell, Braun
5. Behind Enemy Lines: New York Rangers
The Rangers have made two big-splash acquisitions at the trade deadline: Vladimir Tarasenko and Patrick Kane. Tarasenko has posted two goals and four points for New York since being acquired from the St. Louis Blues. The just-acquired Kane will not play tonight. He will debut for the Rangers at home on Thursday against Claude Giroux and the Ottawa Senators.
On Sunday, the Rangers skated to a 5-2 home win against the Kings. Vincent Trocheck had two goals (18th and 19th) along with an assist. Alexis Lafreniere (11th), Panarin (19th) and Zibanejad (PPG. 31st) also scored. Panarin, who recorded his 48 assist of the season, is two helpers away from reaching the 50-assist mark for the fifth time in his NHL career. Superstar goaltender Igor Sheshterkin stopped 26 of 28 shots.
Fast-rising young Rangers defenseman K'Andre Miller, who scored a goal off the rush on a set play in the second game of this year's season series against the Flyers, will miss tonight's game. He was suspended for three games by the NHL for a spitting incident with LA's Drew Doughty that resulted in a match penalty on Miller in Sunday's game.
Apart from the not-yet-available Kane, the suspended Miller and the injured Ryan Lindgren (day-to-day with an upper body injury), the Rangers have no reported injuries or roster player unavailability. Barclay Goodrow (maintenance), Zibanejad (maintenance) and Ryan Carpenter (off-ice workout) did not practice on Friday but all three should be available against the Flyers based upon available information.
Acquiring Kane did not cost the Rangers any NHL roster players. With Kane only willing to waive his no-movement contract clause from Chicago for the Rangers, the Blackhawks agreed to accept a conditional 2023 second-round pick and a 2025 fourth-rounder in exchange for Kane. The 2023 second-round pick would become a 2024 or 2025 first-round pick if the Rangers make the Eastern Conference finals this spring.
Projected lineup (subject to change)
20 Chris Kreider - 93 Mika Zibanejad - 91 Vladimir Tarasenko
10 Artemi Panarin - 16 Vincent Trocheck - 21 Barclay Goodrow
13 Alexis Lafreniere - 72 Filip Chytil - 24 Kaapo Kakko
26 Jimmy Vesey - 22 Ryan Carpenter - 14 Tyler Motte
77 Niko Mikkola - 23 Adam Fox
???? - 8 Jacob Trouba
5 Ben Harpur - 4 Braden Schneider
31 Igor Sheshterkin
41 Jaroslav Halak
PP1: Kreider, Zibanejad, Tarasenko, Panarin, Fox
PP2: Lafreniere, Trocheck, Kakko, Chytil, Trouba
