New York Groove; Flyers Game 20 vs Rangers: Lines, Notes, How to Watch

The Philadelphia Flyers (10-8-1) will host the New York Rangers (13-3-1) on Black Friday at 1 p.m., in what will be their third of eight consecutive games against Metropolitan Division opponents. Four of the Flyers’ next six games will take place at the Wells Fargo Center, including this one.

After an uncharacteristically sloppy loss to the New York Islanders on Wednesday, the Flyers have fallen back down to fourth place in the Metro. Only four points separate Philadelphia from the seventh-place New Jersey Devils (17). Effectively, things are still wide-open unless you’re the Rangers or the Columbus Blue Jackets.

The Black Friday game against the Rangers will be the first leg of a Flyers back-to-back, as they’ll head back to Long Island to face the Islanders again on Saturday. Playing three games in four days against New York teams, but travelling back to Philly in the middle of the three, is simply incredible schedule design. Trust me, it just takes a different level of understanding.

Flyers Preview

The Flyers are 3-5-2 in their last 10 against the Rangers, and 1-2-2 in their last five. Carter Hart is 4-5-3 in his career against New York.

Artemi Panarin is over a point-per-game in his career against the Flyers, with 13 goals and 40 points in only 29 games. Panarin and the Rangers will be the quintessential litmus test for Philadelphia, as New York is currently camping out in first place in the Metropolitan Division.

This game might be one of the ones that decides whether or not the Flyers are ‘for real’, or ascertains their status as true rebuilders.

Scott Laughton, Nick Seeler, Nic Deslauriers, Noah Cates, and Marc Staal were all benched at varying times during the third period of the loss to the Islanders. A change or two to the lineup would not at all be surprising.

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Expected Flyers Lines

Tyson Foerster – Sean Couturier – Travis Konecny

Owen Tippett – Morgan Frost – Cam Atkinson

Joel Farabee – Ryan Poehling – Bobby Brink

Nicolas Deslauriers – Scott Laughton – Garnet Hathaway

Defense

Cam York – Travis Sanheim

Nick Seeler – Sean Walker

Egor Zamula – Louie Belpedio

Goaltending

Carter Hart

Sam Ersson

Expected Rangers Lines

Alexis Lafreniere – Vincent Trocheck – Artemi Panarin

Chris Kreider – Mika Zibanejad – Blake Wheeler

Will Cuylle – Nick Bonino – Kaapo Kakko

Jimmy Vesey – Barclay Goodrow – Tyler Pitlick

Defense

K’Andre Miller – Jacob Trouba

Ryan Lindgren – Erik Gustafsson

Zac Jones – Braden Schneider

Goaltending

Igor Shesterkin

Jonathan Quick

Flyers Special Teams

Flyers power play: 11.29%, 28th

Flyers penalty kill: 82.26%, 14th

Rangers power play: 30.91%, 3rd

Rangers penalty kill: 85.19%, 10th

Flyers Game Notes

After making his 738th Flyers appearance Wednesday, Sean Couturier is now three games from seventh-most in team history.

Marc Staal was benched in his return, while Egor Zamula remained in. It feels like the Flyers are going to give Zamula as many opportunities as he can handle.

Carter Hart is two wins away from tying Roman Cechmanek and Bob Froese for fifth-most in Flyers history.

Travis Konecny is five assists from 200 in his NHL career.

The Flyers‘ five-game win streak has been broken, but they’re still 6-4-0 in their last 10 games.

The Rangers are 8-1-1 in their last 10 games.

How to Watch the Flyers Game

TV: NBC Sports Philadelphia

Radio: 93.3 WMMR

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