The Rangers kick off a four game homestand with their first meeting of the season with rivals, the Philadelphia Flyers. The Blueshirts are coming off back to back wins on the road that brought them to a 5-3-2 record through their first ten games of the season. They will be looking to build off of that recent bounce back as they don’t want to slip back into the slump they were in prior. It won’t come as an easy task as they’re taking on a feisty Philadelphia Flyers team that is off to an impressive start. The Flyers, who were not expected to even be competitive this season, have found a spark under one of the best coaches in the league to provide that kind of fire in John Tortorella. The Rangers are no stranger to Torts and as a result, should fully expect what kind of outing they have in store tonight.
The Flyers are 5-2-1 to start the season, most recently falling to the Hurricanes in overtime on Saturday. The Flyers are in a very strange place as they’re a team that should definitely be leaning into the rebuilding stages, yet management continues to buy instead of sell. Going into this season, newly hired John Tortorella made it clear that there were locker room issues surrounding this team and when asked if there were any good characteristics of this team, he did not sugar coat his answer (which was no). The Flyers still have some solid pieces in guys like Travis Konecney and Kevin Hayes who are currently leading the way with a combined 19 points. The same could be said about the Flyers back end with Ivan Provorov and Travis Sanheim who recently signed his big eight year extension, solidifying his future with whatever comes Philly’s way.
Part of what is playing into Philly’s early success is the goaltending they’re getting from Carter Hart, who seems to be off to a resurgent start on the season. Hart has yet to lose in regulation as he carries a 5-0-1 record through his first six games with a save percentage of .938. The Rangers who have already run into their fair share of hot goalies this season will undoubtedly need to keep up with the amount of shots they have been loading opposing teams with. Most notably, this is a rough and tough Flyers team so the Rangers will need to plan accordingly, keeping their heads on a swivel. Ryan Reaves will be an important piece to the Rangers lineup as they’re going to need a physical presence to return the favors that guys like Nicolas Deslauries, Zack MacEwen, Wade Allison among others will likely be delivering.
On the Rangers end, you have to think we’ll see a very similar lineup as we saw on Sunday. There haven’t been very many updates on Chytil since he tried making an earlier than anticipated return and Kravtsov has since returned to the injured reserve. Whatever Kravtsov’s status is, this absolutely will not be the game to get him back in for as the Flyers play a hard nosed game. Let him rest, let him get back to 110% health so we can finally see what this kid can do consistently at the NHL level. Same could even be said for Chytil. Unless he is truly good to go, there’s no sense in rushing him back for one game with the Flyers, let him get the extra rest and ease him back in later this week. Assuming that’s the case, we can likely expect:
Kreider - Zibanejad - Kakko
Panarin - Trocheck - Lafreniere
Vesey - Goodrow - Gauthier
Blais - Carpenter - Reaves
Lindgren - Fox
Miller - Trouba
Jones - Schneider
While the Rangers obviously aren’t at their best with Chytil and Kravtsov out of the lineup, you have to be happy with what Julien Gauthier has been able to bring in their absence. He has done all the right things since his call up and hopefully he can build off his successful weekend tonight. The Rangers have had great success against the Flyers in recent years and will look to extend their win streak to three tonight. The Rangers for the first time in a long time are finding success in the face-off circles and they will have the upper hand tonight as Philly currently ranks 29th in the league in that department. This will undoubtedly benefit the Rangers puck possession opportunities and will hopefully help generate an abundance of offense that they are going to need.
Live updates from the Rangers beat writers as I finish typing this, both Filip Chytil and Vitali Kravtsov are not at the Rangers morning skate, indicating that the aforementioned lineup will be what we see tonight. Chytil has been skating on his own and is listed as day-to-day while Kravtsov will miss at least a week. Vince Mercogliano also noted via Twitter that Kravtsov’s nose looked broken or at very least in bad shape so that could be a positive sign that at least it isn’t concussion related (hopefully).
Igor Shesterkin, who is expected to get his third start in four nights, will look to get into a rhythm as he hasn’t quite been at his best consistently to start the season. The Rangers shouldn’t have to rely on him to steal many games throughout this next stretch but coming up with a big save here and there will do wonders not just for the team, but for Igor’s game going forward. Tonight should absolutely have a ton of energy as these team’s do not like each other and will both be hungry for a win.
Chris Feldman
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