Kevin Hayes trashes Blueshirts then scores in 4-1 Flyers win

The New York Rangers were totally dominated in a thorough 4-1 drubbing by the Philadelphia Flyers.  To make matters worse, Kevin Hayes trash talked the Rangers before the game and then followed up by scoring.

Ugh.  The less we talk about this one the better.  The New York Rangers looked like a minor league team in their 4-1 loss to the Flyers.  Philadelphia came into the game winless in their first three preseason games so they fielded much of their major league roster and were loaded for bear after a stern talking-to by the coaching staff.

One player who had something to prove was Kevin Hayes and he came through with a nice redirection for a backbreaking goal with only 24 seconds left in the first period. It was his first goal as a Philadelphia Flyer in his first game against the team he played five years for.

Before the game, he criticized the Rangers for getting rid of him and Jimmy Vesey and said of the  decision to trade the pair “I’m sure it’ll come back to them. We’ll find out.”

He told reporters that he had no hard feelings  about the moves the Rangers made.  He said “I don’t know if they’re good steps or bad steps…That’s what [the media] gets to decide. But they’re steps, I guess. I have no hard feelings toward them. I loved my time there. I’m happy with where I’m at right now.”

But he couldn’t resists taking a swipe at them, adding “In New York my longest contract was two years,” he said. “The last three years (I) was trade bait basically every year.”

But it wasn’t just Kevin Hayes who made the Rangers look bad, it was the entire Flyers team.  Although the Rangers had Jacob Trouba, Adam Fox, Chris Kreider, Vitali Kravtsov and Filip Chytil in the lineup, no one played well.  If you needed any proof about how important Artemi Panarin will be to this team, this game was a great indication.

The Flyers dominated in every category.  They outshot the Rangers 40-19, won 60% of the faceoffs, outhit the Rangers 25-14 and scored two power play goals.  They had numerous odd man rushes and breakaways.  It wasn’t pretty.

Coach David Quinn blamed mental fatigue and said that he thought the team played well the first 17 minutes.  That may be true, but when the Flyers scored their first goal the Blueshirts just folded.  At any rate, Quinn was brutally honest about his team’s performance.

Igor Shesterkin played the entire game and made 36 saves and was constantly under a barrage of shots.  After a game like this one, he may be yearning for that elite team he played for in the KHL.  He did play very well and was pretty much at the Flyers’ mercy for all four of their goals.

Joe Micheletti was talking as if Shesterkin was playing for a job with the Rangers to start the season which is hard to believe.  It would take a total collapse by Alexandar Georgiev for that to happen.  Stranger things have occurred.

The only Ranger goal was scored in garbage time by Nick Jones on a nice wrist shot from the slot.

All of the Rangers playing for jobs didn’t do much to help their causes. That included Tim Gettinger, Connor Brickley and Phil DiGuiseppe.  Micheal Haley got into his third straight fight.  At least Jones scored and Greg McKegg worked hard.

The Jacob Trouba/Brady Skjei tandem needs to get on the same wavelength, but Adam Fox continued to impress with his smart play and passing.

It was shades of last year when they got caught with too many men on the ice eight minutes into the third period.  At that point Quinn looked exasperated.

The Rangers have three more games to get their act together before they play for real.  They are off until Tuesday when they take on the Islanders at Madison Square Garden.