Rick Tocchet's Philadelphia Flyers (29-22-11) are home on Monday to complete their season series with Mike Sullivan's New York Rangers (24-30-8). The Flyers have won four of their last five games. Philly has posted a 1-1-1 record against the Rangers this season with two of three games being decided beyond regulation time.
Game time at Xfinity Mobile Arena is 7:00 p.m. EDT. The game will be broadcast on NBCSP+.
The Flyers have 20 games remaining in their 2025-26 schedule. Entering play on Monday, the team is eight points out of a wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference: seven standings points plus a tiebreaker disadvantage behind the Boston Bruins. Tocchet's club is nine points (eight standings points plus a tiebreaker disadvantage) behind the New York Islanders for third place in the Metropolitan Division. Philly has played two fewer games to date than the Islanders and has one game in hand relative to Boston.
On Saturday, the Flyers earned a 4-3 (1-0) road shootout win over the Pittsburgh Penguins. Alex Bump scored a goal in his NHL debut. The Flyers also got goals from Denver Barkey (3rd) and Owen Tippett (20th). Trevor Zegras' shootout conversion earned a bonus point for his team.
The Rangers are coming off a 6-3 road loss to the New Jersey Devils on Saturday. Jack Hughes compiled a hat trick for New Jersey. In a losing cause, Will Borgen (5th), Vladislav Gavrikov (12th) and Will Cuylle (16th) tallied for the Blueshirts. The Rangers' PK yielded three power play goals to the Devils. Jonathan Quick (29 saves on 34 shots) absorbed the loss.
Philly held practice at the Flyers Training Center in Voorhees on Sunday afternoon. Travis Konecny (upper body injury) and Nick Seeler (lower body) both returned as full participants. They are both still officially day-to-day and are game time decisions on Monday, per Tocchet. Goaltender Dan Vladar also took a maintenance day on Sunday, as did veteran center Luke Glendening and winger Garnet Hathaway.
Here are the RAV4 Things to watch on Monday.
1. Attack mentality
In Thursday's 3-0 home loss to Utah, the Flyers mustered 16 shots on goal for the game. On Saturday in Pittsburgh,Philly had 15 shots for regulation plus overtime. For the season, Philly has averaged 25.1 shots per game. Only the Chicago Blackhawks (24.4) have put fewer pucks on net this season.
At Sunday's practice, Tocchet one again emphasized the need to create more offense over the middle and to get more traffic to the net. This has been a regular theme since training camp.
The addition of rookie winger Bump to the Flyers' lineup may help in that regard. Never shy about shooting the puck, Bump generated 116 shots on goal in 36 games for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms this season. He had seven shot attempts against the Penguins in his NHL debut, scoring on the one shot he had on net (three were blocked, three narrowly missed the net).
2. Solving Shesterkin
With Rangers star Igor Shesterkin having had the day off on Saturday, the Flyers are likely to face the Russian netminder in Monday's game. Shesterkin has battled through injury this season, posting a 19-12-6 record despite a 2.50 goals against average and .912 save percentage.
Keys to scratching out enough offense to defeat Shesterkin :Create traffic for layered screens and deflections. Be strategic about when and where to chip pucks in deep. Shesterkin is a very accomplished puckhandling goalie.
3. Young Flyers forwards
Perhaps the most encouraging aspect of Saturday's win in Pittsburgh was the spark provided by many of the Flyers' young forwards: Bump, Barkey, Matvei Michkov, and Nikita Grebenkin all made timely contributions to the victory.
Playing in stretch drive games is an invaluable experience for these players. It's also a potential jolt of energy for the team in the final quarter of the regular season.
4. Special teams
The Flyers took far too many needless penalties on Saturday -- a periodic problem since the start of the year -- but a 5-for-6 performance by the penalty killers bailed out the club. For the season, the Flyers' improved to 14th in the NHL at 79.5 percent success. Philly ranks 31st on the power play (15.7 percent).
New York's power play ranks tied for 12th at 22.2 percent efficiency. Their PK ranks 22nd at 78.0 percent.
