Flyers vs Rangers: Last Shot at Redemption

Tonight at the Wells Fargo Center, the Flyers try to avoid their first winless season against the Rangers in 40 years. In addition to breaking up the sweep, the Flyers can play spoiler tonight. The Rangers need just one point to lock up the top seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs, and the Flyers would love to make them wait at least one more game. Tonights game has a lot riding on it: breaking up the Rangers’ sweep, spoiling the Rangers’ clinch of the first seed, chasing down the Penguins for home-ice advantage in the first round, and oh yeah, it’s one of the biggest rivalries in hockey. Not that this game needs anymore additives to enhance its flavor, but this one should be intense. Especially after what we saw from the Flyers and Penguins in the last game.

Good news for the Flyers, the NHL’s player of the month, Ilya Bryzgalov will return to the net tonight. Ilya has missed a few games with a bone chip in his foot, but it has been confirmed by team sources that he will be in between the pipes against the Rangers; just another indicator that this is going to be a huge game for the Flyers. There is no way the Flyers are going to get swept for the season in front of their home crowd without putting up a fight (literally and figuratively). Bryzgalov has very bad career numbers against the Rangers, but we’ve seen a new Bryz over this past month and a half. The Flyers are hoping he can return to that same form tonight and carry it into the playoffs. If Bryzgalov plays the next month like he has played the past month, we could be watching the Flyers play hockey into the summer.

Bad news for the Flyers, Danny Briere and Nicklas Grossman are both out for this game and beyond. Both players were injured in the matchup with the Penguins; Briere suffered a back contusion during the hit from Vitale that sparked the melee. He is out indefinitely. Grossman, who was coincidentally also injured on an earlier hit from Vitale, will be out the remainder of the regular season. These are two pretty impactful injuries for the Flyers down the stretch. Danny Briere always seems to do his best work in April and May, and Grossman has been an extraordinary presence inside since being acquired at the trade deadline from Dallas. Any already battered defensive corps will definitely be challenged tonight by the Rangers. Bobrovsky saw 45+ shots in the Penguins game and Bryz should expect a heavy dose tonight as well. Also, the Flyers could really use all the help they can get on offense tonight as they square off with one of the best goaltenders in the NHL, Henrik Lundqvist. The NHL’s player of the week, Wayne Simmonds, and superstar, Claude Giroux, will have to pick up the slack and really get the puck in on Lundqvist if they want a shot at victory in this one.

The two keys in this game will be goaltending and special teams. The Flyers powerplay is better than the Rangers, but the Rangers

penalty kill is among the best in the league. The Rangers have hurt the Flyers all season during the powerplay, and the Flyers will really have to focus killing the penalty tonight if they’re going to win. On the other side, the Flyers’ powerplay has been very strong as of late, and they’ll look to ride that hot hand into this one. The Flyers have to feel a sense of confidence with Bryzgalov back in net, but you never know with Bryz. He is quite the character and extremely unpredictable. If he comes back like “March Bryz”, the Flyers will win this game; if he comes back like early season Bryz, the Flyers will lose this game: that’s how important goaltending is in this game. I’m not sure you’re going to get any more than 3 goals on Lundqvist, if that, even with the offensive firepower the Flyers possess. If Bryz holds the Rangers to 2 goals, the Flyers stay hot on the powerplay, and they’re able to efficiently kill Rangers’ powerplays, the Flyers will pick up a huge win at home and gain much needed momentum headed into the playoffs.

Section 215’s Prediction: Flyers 3, Rangers 2.