The Philadelphia Flyers (a not-so-good team in the NHL) are hosting the New York Rangers (a bad team in the NHL) on Monday night as we count down the days left in this season. And these two teams aren’t bad and mediocre in an exciting way — so this might be a slog to watch.
Puck drop: 7:00 p.m.
How to watch/listen:
📺: NBCSP+
📻: 93.3 WMMR
Pregame reading
- Jamie Drysdale got into his first career fight at the game on Saturday, and he loved every second of it. Just another example of this team having each other’s backs. [BSH]
- Why acquiring David Jiricek is inherently a big risk for the Flyers. It’s not about the trade but it’s about getting a player that needs a whole lot of work to get to the NHL. [BSH]
- Alex Bump scored his first NHL goal in his first NHL game on Saturday and it rocked. And before, he had an interesting day. [BSH]
Pregame watching
By the numbers
Philadelphia Flyers – 29-22-11 (5th in Metro)
Goals: Travis Konecny (23)
Assists: Travis Konecny (34)
Points: Travis Konecny (57)
New York Rangers – 24-30-8 (8th in Metro)
Goals: Mika Zibanejad (25)
Assists: Artemi Panarin (38)
Points: Artemi Panarin (57)
Projected lineups
Trevor Zegras — Christian Dvorak — Owen Tippett
Denver Barkey — Noah Cates — Matvei Michkov
Alex Bump– Sean Couturier — Nikita Grebenkin
Nic Deslauriers — Carl Grundstrom — Garnet Hathaway
Travis Sanheim — Rasmus Ristolainen
Cam York — Jamie Drysdale
Emil Andrae — Noah Juulsen
Dan Vladar
(Sam Ersson)
Gabe Perreault — Mika Zibanejad — Alexis Lafreniere
Will Cuylle — Vincent Trocheck — Conor Sheary
Tye Kartye — Noah Laba — Brendan Brisson
Adam Edstrom — Juuse Parssinen — Jaroslav Chmelar
Vladislav Gavrikov — Adam Fox
Will Borgen — Braden Schneider
Matthew Robertson — Vincent Iorio
Igor Shesterkin
(Jonathan Quick)
Storylines to watch
Young guns continuing to contribute?
It was the Denver Barkey, Alex Bump, Jamie Drysdale, and Matvei Michkov show in Pittsburgh on Saturday. Four players who should play a big role for the Flyers in the present and the future — the ceiling of this team really feels like it is only as high as these players can raise it, for the time being anyways.
So, what will we see back home against the Rangers? Bump is going to be playing his first home game of his career and might just feel like shooting a billion pucks towards the net to get that same rush he did in Pittsburgh but in front of fans who actually like him. Barkey is going to use these final games to cement his spot on the roster next season, while Michkov will need to truly give us something positive to go off of and tonight might just be the night.
Travis Konecny, game-time decision
The lineup will depend whether or not winger Travis Konecny gets back involved. He was out Saturday against the Penguins but is a game-time decision tonight, according to head coach Rick Tocchet.
If Konecny is back in, the lineup will surely be scrambled to give the returning player one of the top lines. It could be easy to see him taking over for Owen Tippett on the top line, and then the other winger going down in Nikita Grebenkin’s spot with Sean Couturier and Alex Bump — but Bump and Tippett being two shooters on the same line might not be what Tocchet wants. This might require more shuffling.
It’s going to be a mid-off
While the Flyers are certainly no slouches defensively and have been able to keep the puck out of the net as well as some of the top teams in the NHL, that’s just about all they do well right now. And when it comes to the Rangers, it’s all completely middle-of-the-pack for any team-wide statistic you want to throw onto your screen.
In almost every category, the Flyers and Rangers are hovering around the middle-third of the NHL — not bad enough to be truly awful but not good enough to make anything (other than the Flyers’ goal prevention) worthwhile to think about. It’s just a big slog of two teams struggling.
And I guess we can throw in that the Flyers are complete dog water at generating offense, so, whatever. This is a game in March between two teams unlikely to make the playoffs.
