Just one day after Philadelphia’s embarrassing and brutal 9-2 loss to the Washington Capitals in D.C., the Flyers will travel back home to host the New York Rangers. The Flyers last played the Rangers in Madison Square Garden on April 3rd, earning a 4-3 win over New York in the shootout.
With the Rangers looking to avenge their shootout loss to Philadelphia, and the Flyers hoping to bounce back after getting obliterated by the Capitals offense on Tuesday night, let’s take a look at the game’s projected lineups and how they may play out during the game.
Philadelphia Flyers
Record: 23-39-11 (57 pts, 8th in Metro)
Flyers leading scorer Cam Atkinson will miss the game due to a lower body injury, as will goaltender Carter Hart. Felix Sandstrom was brought up and will end up being in net against the Rangers.
Bobby Brink, who made his NHL debut in the loss to Washington and recorded his first NHL point with an assist, will be on the same line with Morgan Frost and James van Riemsdyk, who scored two goals in the blowout to the Capitals. While the loss was certainly devastating, one positive takeaway from the game is seeing a struggling veteran score two goals in one game while playing alongside two of the Flyers most important young prospects.
The top line of Farabee, Hayes, and Konecny could prove to be an important one. With Farabee and Konecny getting visibly angered vs the Capitals Tuesday night, even getting to the point where they took frustration penalties that started a scrum in which Farabee threw a few cross-checks, it’ll be interesting to see how to the Flyers forwards play together tonight.
If Farabee and Konecny can manage to get a lot of physicality and offensive pressure alongside Kevin Hayes tonight against the Rangers, and assuming the second line Brink, Frost, and JVR will look hot tonight, the Flyers will stand a good chance of coming away with the win in the Wells Fargo Center.
Projected Lineup
Farabee – Hayes – Konecny
Cates – Laughton – Tippett
van Riemsdyk – Frost – Brink
Lindblom – Laczynski – MacEwen
Provorov – Sanheim
Zamula – Connauton
Yandle – Attard
Sandstrom
New York Rangers
Record: 47-21-6 (100 points, 2nd in Metro)
The New York Rangers are having a season for their franchise history books. They have a star young defenseman in Adam Fox, who is the reigning Norris Trophy-winner and will be in the running for the award once again this year. But they also have two amazing young goaltenders in Igor Shesterkin, the Vezina Trophy front-runner this year, and backup Alexandar Georgiev, who just recently went viral for waving off the Pittsburgh Penguins after Shesterkin shut them out on April 7th.
A quality defense and great goaltending is a great start to creating a Stanley Cup-winning team. There are teams who have won Cups with much less on their roster than the Rangers have, but the odds are still stacked against them due to some of the other powerhouse’s residing in the Eastern Conference.
While their defense and goaltending is either on par with or better than a majority of the other playoff teams in the east, their offensive lacks a certain level of consistency overall that allows teams like the Flyers to even get ahead in games against them.
Still, Rangers forward Chris Kreider is surely having a season to remember as he carries a large portion of goals scored by the Rangers this season. The veteran forward just recently surpassed the 50th goal mark, keeping him in the running for the Rocket Richard Trophy and also obliterating his previous career-high in goals by almost double the amount.
Projected Lineup
Kreider – Zibanejad – Vatrano
Panarin – Strome – Copp
Lafreniere – Goodrow – Kakko
Hunt – Rooney – Reaves
Lindgren – Fox
Miller – Trouba
Braun – Schneider
Georgiev
When, Where & How to Watch
Time: 7:00 pm EST
Place: Wells Fargo Center
TV Broadcast: TNT
Radio Broadcast: 97.5 FM
Live Stream: Fubo TV
fuboTV has live NHL games on ESPN in which you can stream from your phone, television, and all your favorite devices. This is a service that broadcasts live TV over the internet, no cable required. Watch your favorite teams, network shows, news, and movies on 100+ channels. Plus on-demand entertainment including full TV series. fuboTV is currently available in the United States, Canada, and Spain.