Photo: AP

After winning three in a row against bad teams, the Rangers really laid an egg last night against Buffalo, another bad team. Luckily the Rangers are usually better on the second game of back-to-backs, and have a division rival coming to town to hopefully wake them up. The Rangers and Flyers always play each other tough, so maybe this is exactly what the Rangers need.

Waking up is one thing, but getting back to proper process is another. Even when they look awake, they aren’t playing great hockey. The Flyers, aside from the division rival aspect, represent a team that is over achieving based off expected goals (xG), in which they are bottom-five. Long story short, the bottom might be falling out of the Flyers soon, may as well try to take advantage of it.

Flyers Systems

Dave Hakstol runs a 1-2-2 forecheck, and a low zone collapse in the defensive zone. The PP is probably a 1-3-1/umbrella hybrid, and the PK is probably a hybrid as well. For more on hockey systems, follow this link.

The Flyers’ depth can be exploited int he right situation.

Flyers Lines

Brayden Schenn-Claude Giroux-Jakub Voracek
Travis Konecny-Nick Cousins-Wayne Simmonds
Michael Raffl-Pierre-Edouard Bellemare-Matt Read
Chris Vandevelde-Scott Laughton-Dale Weise

Shayne Gostisbehere-Andrew MacDonald
Ivan Provorov-Mark Streit
Brandon Manning-Radko Gudas

PP1: Giroux-Schenn-Simmonds-Voracek-Gostisbehere
PP2: Read-Cousins-Read-Provorov-Streit

Steve Mason gets the start.

Rangers Lines 

Chris Kreider–Derek Stepan–Mats Zuccarello
Jimmy Vesey–Kevin Hayes–Michael Grabner
J.T. Miller–Marek Hrivik–Brandon Pirri
Nicklas Jensen–Oscar Lindberg–Jesper Fast

Ryan McDonagh–Brady Skjei
Adam Clendening–Kevin Klein
Nick Holden–Dan Girardi

PP1: Kreider-Stepan-Pirri-Zucc-McDonagh
PP2: Miller-Vesey-Hayes-Skjei-Holden

Henrik Lundqvist gets the start.

Injuries/Scratches: Mika Zibanejad (broken leg),  Pavel Buchnevich (back spasms), Rick Nash (groin), Matt Puempel (concussion), Marc Staal (upper body)

Crazy Prediction: A shutout for Hank.

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