Rick Tocchet's Philadelphia Flyers (22-16-8) are home for a Saturday matinee against Mike Sullivan's New York Rangers (20-22-6). This is the second of four meetings this season between the traditional arch-rivals.
Game time at Xfinity Mobile Arena is 1:00 p.m. EST. The game will be broadcast on NBCSP.
The Flyers enter this game shackled with a five-game winless streak (0-4-1). On Thursday, Philadelphia sustained a 6-3 road loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
In a losing cause, Rodrigo Abols (3rd) scored a second period deflection goal. In the third period, with the game out of reach, Nick Seeler (2nd) and Matvei Michkov (10th) cut the final margin from 6-1 to 6-3. Samuel Ersson and Aleksei Kolosov split the game in net. Kolosov relieved Ersson at 2:06 of the second period.
In the Rangers' last game, the Blueshirts were doubled up by the visiting Ottawa Senators, 8-4. The Rangers have lost their last four games and eight of their last 10 (2-6-2).
The Flyers are 0-0-1 against the Rangers so far this season. On December 20 at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers won by shootout, 5-4 (2-0). Philly held a 4-3 lead late in the third period until Mika Zibanejad scored a power play goal to force overtime.
Here are the RAV4 Things to watch in Saturday afternoon's game.
1. First goal of the game
Both the Flyers and Rangers are fragile teams right now. During the first 41 games of the 82-game schedule, the Flyers showed an ability to win games despite trailing first a lot more than they led first. Over the last four games, however, the Flyers have repeatedly been scored on early in the first period. They've struggled to stop the bleeding and have been outscored by a combined 23-8 margin. The Flyers can ill-afford to chase another game.
Overall this season, the Flyers have played 46 games. They've given the game's first goal in 14 of them while trailing first 32 times. That's tied with the Vancouver Canucks for the fewest times scoring the game's first goal. The Flyers have managed a 14-13-5 record when trailing first but that is not sustainable. Meanwhile, the Rangers are 16-4-2 when scoring first but just 4-18-4 when trailing first.
Given the recent string of losses by both teams, playing with the lead first takes on even more importance.
2. Special teams
This is an unavoidable topic. The Flyers are in one of their worst penalty killing slumps in years. Over the last eight games dating back to New Year's Eve in Calgary, the Flyers have been dented for 12 opposing power play goals on 26 penalty kill opportunities (53.8 percent rate on the PK). During the current stretch of four straight regulation losses, Philly has killed just nine of 16 penalties. In the process, the Flyers have plummeted from the top one-third of the league to the bottom one third (77.8 percent, ranked 21st).
Overall this season, the Rangers' power play ranks 10th in the NHL (22.4 percent). The Blueshirts' PK ranks tied for 15th at 79.7 percent.
Meanwhile, the Flyers power play has dropped precipitously since the start of December (13.5 percent). Once near the middle of the NHL pack, Philadelphia is now last in the league for the season (15.0 percent). Philly has also allowed four shorthanded goals this season.
3. Michkov and Barkey
Perhaps the lone bright spot for the Flyers in Thursday's game in Pittsburgh was the newly formed line with Michkov and Barkey flanking Sean Couturier. A healthy scratch on Wednesday in Buffalo, Barkey notched a pair of primary assists and had a pair of golden scoring opportunities of his own. Meanwhile, Michkov played a very engaged game and even dropped the gloves with Blake Lizotte to defend Barkey after a big hit from the Pittsburgh forward. In the third period, Michkov took a pass from Barkey and wired home his first non empty-net goal since the end of November.
4. Battles in the trenches
The Flyers have had a myriad of issues over the last five games: collapse of coverage structure,special teams, turnovers in dangerous areas of the ice, goaltending performance, game management and injuries. All of those areas need to be managed for the losing stretch to be put in the rearview mirror. In the meantime, a good starting place is bear down on 50-50 puck battles along the walls. The Flyers have lost the decided majority of these battles of late, with dire consequences.
