Rangers vs. Flyers: Can they do it again?
Breaking news: Add Adam Fox and Pavel Buchnevich to the COVID protocol list along with Phil Di Giuseppe. The Rangers are going to start Finnish defenseman Tarmo Reunanen.
The New York Rangers come home from a six game road trip to take on the team directly ahead of them in the standings, the Philadelphia Flyers. Coming off one of their best efforts of the season, the question in the minds of everyone in Rangersland is whether they will do it again? Of course, the “it” is either a solid defensive effort complimented by timely scoring and excellent goaltending or the “it” will be a let down and a dispiriting loss to ta team that they need to beat. Let’s revisit this tomorrow to see which “it” will prevail.
The Rangers have played the Flyers only twice this season meaning that they will have six head-to-head games against a team they need to pass in the standings. While making the playoffs will be a challenge, unless they can most of their games against Philadelphia, it will be impossible.
There was a pandemic development for the team as Phil Di Giuseppe appeared on the NHL’s COVID list today. The Rangers then cancelled their game day morning skate, something that is unusual.
Phil DiGiuseppe is on COVID protocol list...may well be the reason Rangers canceled their morning skate. Essentially unprecedented not to skate in AM following day off.
— Larry Brooks (@NYP_Brooksie) March 15, 2021
The word is that Igor Shesterkin is still not over his groin injury and that means a second straight start for Keith Kinkaid. if Kinkaid has a good outing, it will further complicate the Rangers’ new three headed goalie situation, an issue that they thought they had put to bed after last season.
About the Rangers
With Phil Di Giuseppe out of the lineup, it should restore Brett Howden to action, after he was a healthy scratch against Boston. It’s likely that Coach David Quinn will keep the lines the same as in the Boston game with the Zibanejad coming off a dominant game. This will be the second start in a row for the “Kid Line” of Filip Chytil, Alexis Lafrenière and Kaapo Kakko. The addition of Colin Blackwell to the Ryan Strome line with Panarin replicated the make up of the line last season with Jesper Fast on the right side.
Jack Johnson was placed on waivers and was unclaimed so he is eligible to move to the taxi squad. Most of the moves to and from the taxi squad are salary cap related. For example, on Sunday the Rangers sent K’Andre Miller, Keith Kinkaid, Kaapo Kakko and Libor Hajek to the taxi squad and recalled all of them today. Because all of those players are on two way contract, they make less when in the minor leagues and that affects their prorated cap hit. The bottom line is the Rangers are so close to the salary cap ceiling that even saving a fraction of a player’s cap hit will help later in the season.
The Rangers penalty kill has improved to third best in the NHL with an 87.1% success rate. They’ve allowed one power play goal in their last nine games. It hasn’t translated to that much success as the teams is 5-4 in that stretch.
The power play continues to be problematic, successful only 14.6% of the time, fifth worst in the NHL. Considering that have had 96 power play opportunities, the most in the Divsion, if they can figure out how to cash in with the man advantage, it could help the Blueshirts win the one goal games that they been losing. They have scored only three times on their last 24 power plays over eight games.
When the Rangers score on the power play, they are 7-3-2, getting 16 of a possible 24 points. When they don’t score on the power play they are 4-9-1, getting nine of a possible 28 points.
Most important, the Rangers need to get Panarin and Zibanejad going at the same time. This season, if at least one of them doesn’t make the scoresheet the Rangers will lose. That has happened 12 times since Panarin joined the Rangers last season and the team has lost all 12 games.
Panarin last scored a goal on February 1, the longest number of days without scoring. He went 12 games and a month without a goal in November 2018 with Columbus. Saturday was Zibanejad’s first multi-point game of the season. Last season he never went more than six games without a multi-point game.
About the Flyers
The Flyers are relatively healthy with Michael Raffl the only player with a short term injury (hand). They lost a lot of man games early due to COVID, but have avoided any issues since then.
Since his three assist game against the Rangers on February24, Claude Giroux has four goals and one assist in his last nine games. Meanwhile, Sean Couturier has points in 12 of his last 13 games and a five game point scoring streak against the Rangers.
The Flyer power play is heating up, going 5-19(26%) in their last six games. Their special teams haven’t been great with an overall percentage of 19.5%, 20th in the NHL. Their penalty kill is not very good with a 73.1% success rate, fifth worst in the NHL.
The Flyers have a high powered offense, averaging 3.28 goals per game, second to Washington in the East Division, but they also allow 3.24 goals per game, better than only Buffalo in the division.
Before their COVID break, they had an 8-3-2 record. Since resuming their schedule, they have gone 5-6-1 and have lost four of their last five games, allowing 21 goals while scoring 15.
Rangers vs. Flyers this season
February 18 – Rangers 3, Flyers 2 (Shootout)
The Rangers broke a four game winless streak with a shootout win over the Flyers at the Wells Fargo Arena. The Flyers were playing their first game after an 11 day COVID mandated break. It was also a return for Artemi Panarin who had missed two games with a lower body injury. The Rangers blew a 2-1 lead, allowing a Joel Farabee tying goal with 1:14 left in the third period. Alexandar Georgiev held the Flyers scoreless in the overtime and Panarin and Kaapo Kakko beat Carter Hart in the shootout for the win.
February 24 – Flyers 4, Rangers 3
Chris Kreider had a hat trick, scoring all three Ranger goals and Claude Giroux came off the COVID list and had three assists as the Flyers beat the Rangers in Philadelphia. They scored twice on the power play as they poured 39 shots on Igor Shesterkin. By the 14 minute mark of the second period the Flyer had opened a 4-2 lead that they would not relinquish. The result was a disappointment for the Rangers as they were coming off a dominant 4-1 win over the Washington Capitals. Brian Elliott was in goal for the Flyers.
3 keys to winning
- Play that lock down defense – The Ranger were simply outstanding on Saturday against the Bruins. They forechecked furiously and didn’t let the Bruins get through the neutral zone unimpeded. The Flyers are one of the top offensive teams in the NHL, but if the Rangers play the way they did over the weekend, then can shut down any offense. The challenge will be that the Flyers have a much deeper offense than the Bruins.
- Win the special teams battle – The Rangers need to figure out their power play and the Flyers are the perfect opponent to use to do it. With one of the worst penalty kills in the NHL, if the Rangers can score on the PP, it’s a route to winning. While he Flyers power play has been good lately, they are in the middle of the pack and the Rangers’ penalty kill needs to keep going.
- Win faceoffs, after the draws- The Flyers are the third best faceoff team in the NHL (53.6%). The Rangers are the worst (44.8%). Despite losing 58% of the draws against the Bruins, the Rangers still were able to prevail. One reason is something that David Quinn talks about, that the team’s faceoff stats differ from the leagues because of what happens after the draw that is important. When the Rangers are on their game, losing a faceoff doesn’t necessarily mean losing possession and they need to focus on that.
Projected lineups
20 Kreider– 93 Zibanejad – 89 Buchnevich
10 Panarin – 16 Strome – 43 Blackwell
13 Lafrenière – 72 Chytil – 24 Kakko
48 Lemieux – 21 Howden–17 Rooney
55 Lindgren – 23 Fox
79 Miller –8 Trouba
25 Hajek – 42 Smith
71 Kinkaid
40 Georgiev
Philadelphia Flyers
25 James Van Riemsdyk – 14 Sean Couturier – 86 Joel Farabee
21 Scott Laughton – 13 Kevin Hayes -11 Travis Konecny
93 Jakub Voracek – 28 Claude Giroux -19 Nolan Patrick
23 Oskar Lindblom – 10 Andy Andreoff – 62 Nicolas Aube-Kubel
9 Ivan Provorov – 61 Justin Braun
6 Travis Sanheim – 5 Philippe Myers
53 Shayne Gostisbehere – 39 Nate Prosser
79 Carter Hart
37 Brian Elliott
East Division
Sunday results
Islanders 3, Devils 2 (shootout)
Mondays’s schedule
Flyers at Rangers
Bruins at Penguins
Capitals at Sabres
Standings
1- Islanders 29 19-6-4 42 points
2- Washington 27 17-6-4 38 points
3- Pittsburgh 27 17-9-1 35 points
4- Boston 25 14-7-4 32 points
5- Philadelphia 25 13-9-3 29 points
6- Rangers 26 11-12-3 25 points
7- New Jersey 25 8-13-4 20 points
8- Buffalo 26 6-16-4 16 points
About the game and join the live conversation
The game starts at 7pm and it will be It will be televised on theMSG Network with the radio call on WEPN 1050AM.
Be sure and join the live conversation here on Blue Line Station. The live thread can be found in the conversations section (below). The thread is active now and will be throughout the game so you can compare notes with your fellow Ranger fans.
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