Game 61 Preview: New York Rangers @ Philadelphia Flyers

Image courtesy of Flyers.NHL.com

New York Rangers (33-24-3) @ Philadelphia Flyers (30-24-6), 1:00pm, CSN-Philly/MSG

The Philadelphia Flyers will try to rebound from Thursday’s loss to the San Jose Sharks today at home against the New York Rangers, who just beat the Chicago Blackhawks. Looking at how each team performed in their previous game, the Flyers may be in for another difficult game to kick off a long back-to-back weekend.

The one positive the Orange and Black can take away from their pounding on Thursday is that they actually had a lead in the second period against a strong San Jose team, although the team’s second goal was pretty lucky and the Sharks dominated the first few minutes of the game. However, the Sharks finally started clicking and made it a long night for the Flyers’ faithful with a five-goal second period. On top of Joe Pavelski’s hat trick, Logan Couture should have had a hat trick as well, as it looked as though one of his shots in the third period had indeed crossed the line.

One result of the embarrassing loss was an injury to Ray Emery. The goaltender tweaked his groin in the final stanza of the blowout loss to the Flyers which has led way to Cal Heeter being called up to the NHL. With a game tomorrow against the Washington Capitals, the Flyers will be forced to either ride with Steve Mason for both games of a back-to-back or let Heeter, who has had a phenomenal AHL season, make his NHL debut.

As for the Blueshirts, all the talk has been about Ryan Callahan and Dan Girardi. With Girardi signing a six-year, $33 million extension yesterday, now all the focus is on what will happen with Callahan. Rumors have been swirling around the Rangers’ captain and where he will land, as he has been linked to going to the St. Louis Blues among a few other teams.

For the Flyers and their potential trades at the deadline, Andrej Meszaros could be dealt before Wednesday, as many believe he could land with the Boston Bruins. With the Bruins willing to deal a prospect and a pick for a serviceable defenseman, it would be unacceptable to hear that Paul Holmgren didn’t even reach out to Peter Chiarelli to see what type of deal could be reached.

While Mason will need to rebound for the Flyers to have any chance today, the Rangers will be sending out Henrik Lundqvist to the blue paint in the goalie’s first game back after the Olympic break. It will be interesting to see if the netminder will be on his usual game or if he’ll show any rust in his return to North America. The impact of the Olympics in Sochi has had a variety of effects on players, as we saw Kimmo Timonen miss a game due to fatigue and Carey Price miss the Montreal Canadiens’ first two games back, while Jonathan Quick produced a shutout in his return.

It’s key for the Flyers to grab points not only this game, but the next handful of games, as the schedule in late March will not be kind to the Orange and Black. With today’s game against New York, who is just three points ahead of the Flyers in the standings, and a home-and-home against the Washington Capitals up next, who are only a point behind Philly in the standings, the Flyers have important yet winnable games over the next few days.

RECORDS
New York Rangers
Overall: 33-24-3
Away: 18-10-0
Against the Eastern Conference: 23-14-3
Against the Metropolitan Division: 11-9-3

Philadelphia Flyers
Overall: 30-24-6
Home: 16-11-1
Against the Eastern Conference: 18-15-4
Against the Metropolitan Division: 9-8-3

PROJECTED LINEUPS
New York Rangers
Chris Kreider – Derek Stepan – Rick Nash
Carl Hagelin – Brad Richards – Ryan Callahan
J.T. Miller – Derick Brassard – Benoit Pouliot
Brian Boyle – Dominic Moore – Dan Carcillo

Ryan McDonagh – Dan Girardi
Marc Staal – Anton Stralman
John Moore – Kevin Klein

Henrik Lundqvist
Cam Talbot

Philadelphia Flyers
Scott Hartnell – Claude Giroux – Jakub Voracek
Vincent Lecavalier – Brayden Schenn – Wayne Simmonds
Steve Downie – Sean Couturier – Matt Read
Zac Rinaldo – Adam Hall – Michael Raffl

Braydon Coburn – Kimmo Timonen
Mark Streit – Nicklas Grossmann
Andrej Meszaros – Luke Schenn

Steve Mason
Cal Heeter

TEAM LEADERS
New York Rangers
Goals: Rick Nash, 19
Assists: Mats Zuccarello, 28
Points: Mats Zuccarello, 43
Power-Play Points: Mats Zuccarello, Brad Richards, and Derick Brassard – 15
Plus/Minus: Chris Kreider, plus-13
PIMs: Derek Dorsett, 103
Average TOI: Ryan McDonagh, 24:35
GAA: Cam Talbot, 1.75
Save Percentage: Cam Talbot, .938

Philadelphia Flyers
Goals: Claude Giroux, 19
Assists: Claude Giroux, 38
Points: Claude Giroux, 57
Power-Play Points: Claude Giroux, 24
Plus/Minus: Erik Gustafsson, plus-9
PIMs: Zac Rinaldo, 103
Average TOI: Braydon Coburn, 22:31
GAA: Steve Mason, 2.55
Save Percentage: Steve Mason, .916

INJURIES
New York Rangers
Mats Zuccarello – Broken left hand (3-4 weeks)

Philadelphia Flyers
Ray Emery – Groin (day-to-day)

FORMER PLAYERS
Former Rangers in Philadelphia’s organization
With Philadelphia: Adam Hall, Ian Laperriere (assistant coach), John Paddock (assistant coach), Kjell Samuelsson (development coach), Dave Brown (director of professional scouting), Andre Beaulieu (assistant coach), Don Luce (scout)
With the Adirondack Phantoms (AHL): Kris Newbury,

Former Flyers in New York’s organization
With New York: Daniel Carcillo, Daniel Lacroix (assistant coach), Ulf Samuelsson (assistant coach), Kevin Maxwell (director of professional scouting)
With the Hartford Wolf Pack (AHL): Arron Asham, Darroll Powe, Danny Syvret, Dov Grumet-Morris (Flyers’ fifth-round pick in 2002 NHL Entry Draft)

(Teams share ECHL affiliate in the Greenville Road Warriors)