After a 5-2 loss to the Flyers on Friday, the Rangers lose 5-3 in their second outing against Philadelphia in the last three days and their third game in four days.

The team was missing an important piece in Chris Kreider, who suffered a broken foot when he blocked a shot last game. Phil DiGiuseppe gets the promotion and was called on to play on the top line in Kreider’s absence.

Henrik Lundqvist got the start after Alexandar Georgiev made two appearances in back-to-back games Thursday and Friday.

With the Rangers two points out of a spot in the playoffs, a win against the division rival Flyers (now in first place in the division with this win) would have been nice. The Blueshirts will have to wait for the next time to pick up the points they need, and hope Columbus and Carolina lose.

Some thoughts on today below:

  • Play in front of Henrik Lundqvist was absolutely atrocious in this game. While Lundqvist did not play his best game and was giving up some big rebounds, the defense didn’t do much to take any of the pressure off their goaltender.
  • The Flyers were able to capitalize on three powerplay opportunities, scored shorthanded, and added an additional goal at 5-on-5. The Rangers three goals on the power play meant all but one goal between both teams was scored with special teams on the ice.
  • Rangers took some really bad penalties and did not look great on the penalty kill. All three of the Flyers power play goals were scored within the first minute of their man-advantage opportunities.
  • It took five minutes for the Rangers to record a shot on goal. However, shots on goal ended up at 26 a piece, in part due to solid play on Blueshirts powerplay chances throughout the game.
  • All game, the puck movement on the man advantage was great. Brett Howden got a look on the top unit in the third period and ended up contributing on the Rangers third goal.
  • This was arguably one of Ryan Strome’s worst game in a Rangers jersey. He took some bad penalties, made some mistakes in the neutral zone. By the third period, Filip Chytil was centering Artemi Panarin and Jesper Fast. Strome spent most of the time on the bench.
  • In the last ten minutes, Quinn ended up swapping up lines moving Panarin to the top line with Mika Zibanejad and Pavel Buchnevich.
  • Despite the bad start, Rangers prove once again they will not go down easy.
  • Disappointing to see this happen to Lundqvist in his first outing since February 3 – I expect we will not see him again for a while
  • Kakko down to the fourth line again 🙁
  • Di Giuseppe played a solid game in the top six
  • Adam Fox is still good
  • God bless our number one center Mika Zibanejad who finished the day with two goals, three points
  • Career-high 13 game point streak for Artemi Panarin and his 27th multipoint game this season
  • The Rangers still struggle in the first 40 minutes
  • We definitely miss Chris Kreider
  • Is there a chance see a call up from Hartford after this one? TBD.

For more commentary on today’s game you can check out my Twitter @krredpath.

See you against the defending Stanley Cup Champs Blues on Tuesday.

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