Flyers lines: Jackson Cates to make NHL debut, Alex Lyon in net at MSG

The Philadelphia Flyers are looking to sweep the back-to-back set tonight in New York against the Rangers. They are 4-2-1 against the Rangers so far this season and tonight’s matchup is the last game between the two teams this season.

The Flyers beat the Rangers 3-2 on Thursday night, but they’ve struggled to find any sort of consistency this season. Their last back-to-back wins were on March 27th and 29th, with their last back-to-back regulation wins a month before that against the Sabres.

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It will be a similar-looking lineup for the Flyers tonight, but there are a few changes.

Here is the projected Flyers lineup against the Rangers:

Flyers lines

Flyers forward lines

Jackson Cates will make his NHL debut tonight. He’ll center the fourth line between Oskar Lindblom and Nicolas Aube-Kubel. Nolan Patrick comes out of the lineup for Cates.

Claude Giroux – Sean Couturier – Jakub Voracek
Joel Farabee – Kevin Hayes – Wade Allison
James van Riemsdyk – Scott Laughton – Travis Konecny
Oskar Lindblom – Jackson Cates – Nicolas Aube-Kubel

The top three lines played fairly well on Thursday night.

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The big three generated some scoring chances, including Voracek’s goal, and drew a penalty that led to JVR’s second goal. The second line has had plenty of energy with Farabee and Allison on the wings. The third line hasn’t been great, but JVR had those two power-play goals on Thursday night.

Follow @RGilbertSOP and @PhillyHockeyNow for lineup updates before and during the game.

Flyers defensive pairs

The Flyers will go with the same defensive pairs against the Rangers. Samuel Morin remains out of the lineup.

Ivan Provorov – Justin Braun
Travis Sanheim – Robert Hagg
Shayne Gostisbehere – Philippe Myers

Flyers starting goalie

Alex Lyon gets the start tonight after Elliott’s stellar start last night.

Lyon made 35 saves on 40 shots in a 6-3 loss to the Capitals on Saturday afternoon. He played well in the loss and had little-to-no chance on most of the Capitals’ goals.

Alex Lyon
Brian Elliott

Carter Hart is not with the team in New York due to a mild knee sprain.

Photo: Heather Barry Images