The New York Rangers are going to look to keep rolling tonight in Philadelphia, taking on a Flyers team that has found their way into the playoff race. Philly isn’t in the race by virtue of being good (26-25-11), but by virtue of the Bruins and Panthers being unable to actually win games regularly. The Flyers are still six points out and have three teams to leap-frog, so the chances of them making the playoffs are still slim.
The Flyers are absolutely loaded up front with Voracek, Giroux, and Simmonds forming their top scoring threats. Schenn and Couturier round out the top six with a rotating winger, but the rest of the team is flawed at best. The blue line is an absolute disaster, and while Steve Mason has been playing well (.925 SV%), he hasn’t started in a month. But the Flyers will try to avoid the season sweep to the Rangers, and you should never count out that top line.
What have they done lately?
The Flyers have lost two in a row, and are 4-3-3 over their last ten. Despite the fact that they are in the playoff race, the Flyers are mostly there because of those 11 overtime losses. They’ve actually been playing better hockey of late, with a USAT/FF over 50% for most of the season, including a nice stretch lately that has their rolling ten game average spiking:
Flyers in orange, Rangers in blue.
So considering the spike and their sub-par record in that span, you expect that there’s been some bad SPSV%/PDO effects here. That’s exactly what we get, as their SPSV/PDO has dropped dramatically over the past few games.
Rangers in blue, Flyers in orange.
Considering the injuries to Mason and Ray Emery of late, and throwing in that SPSV%/PDO are largely affected by goaltending, you expect there to be a huge drop in goaltending while Rob Zepp, which is exactly what happened.
Rangers in blue again, Flyers in orange.
While the Flyers never received stellar goaltending, they’ve been getting downright poor goaltending for the past month or so when Mason went down. More alarming is that the Rangers SV% has been tanking without Henrik Lundqvist. That’s expected of course, but a .900 even strength SV% up until the Arizona game isn’t exactly stellar. The Rangers have been winning in spite of their goaltending.
Flyers Systems
The Flyers play a 2-1-2 forecheck, and once they get a late lead, they switch to a more conservative 1-1-3 left wing lock. In their own zone, the Flyers play a mix of zone and man-on-man defense, depending on puck location.On special teams, the Flyers run a 1-3-1 and an umbrella power play and a diamond force penalty kill with the strong side forward looking to pressure the point.
Flyers Lines
Michael Raffl-Claude Giroux-Wayne Simmonds
Matt Read-Sean Couturier-Jakub Voracek
Ryan White Brayden Schenn-R.J. Umberger
Chris Vandevelde-Pierre Edouard Bellmare-Vinny Lecavalier
Nick Schultz-Mark Streit
Michael Del Zotto-Brayden Coburn
Nicklas Grossman-Luke Schenn
PP1: Giroux-Schenn-Simmonds-Voracek-Streit
PP2: Read-Couturier-Umberger-Del Zotto-Coburn
PK: Vandevelde, Bellemare, Read, Couturier, Raffl, Giroux, Coburn, Del Zotto, Grossman, Schultz
Steve Mason gets the start.
Rangers Lines
Rick Nash-Derick Brassard-Mats Zuccarello
Chris Kreider-Derek Stepan-Martin St. Louis
Carl Hagelin–Kevin Hayes–J.T. Miller
Tanner Glass–Dominic Moore–Lee Stempniak
Ryan McDonagh–Dan Girardi
Marc Staal–Kevin Klein
John Moore–Dan Boyle
PP1: McDonagh, Stepan, Nash, Brassard, Zuccarello
PP2: Boyle, Girardi, Kreider, Hayes, MSL
PK: Stepan, Nash, Girardi, Staal, Moore, Fast, Hunwick, Boyle, Hagelin, Klein, McDonagh, MSL
Cam Talbot is in net.
Scratches/Injuries: Henrik Lundqvist (throat), Jesper Fast (leg), Matt Hunwick (healthy)
Be sure to check out our ticket link if you’re looking for tickets to the game. Game time is 8pm on MSG.
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