The Philadelphia Flyers are back home for exactly one game and it just so happens to be a fairly big one. The New York Rangers front office had to write their fans a letter for the second time and this is the first game where the team have the opportunity to respond. And, well, the Flyers have issues of their own with a hefty losing streak. Should be a, well, interesting one?
Puck drop: 1:00 p.m.
How to watch/listen:
📺: NBCSP
📻: 97.5 The Fanatic
Pregame reading
- To really get a sense of how big this Saturday matinee can be for this team, Ryan Gilbert went straight for the jugular: If they don’t win against the Rangers then there should be massive panic. [BSH]
- Five burning questions that will define the rest of the Flyers’ season. Everything from special teams to whether or not we see some trade deadline action. [BSH]
- Denver Barkey was a healthy scratch in Buffalo but responded in a massive way against the Penguins, as he was one of the only effective forwards for the Flyers in Pittsburgh. [BSH]
- As the days progress since the Christian Dvorak signing, it really seems like the Flyers are flirting with disaster after signing the career depth center to that deal. [BSH]
Pregame watching
By the numbers
Philadelphia Flyers – 22-16-8 (5th in Metro)
Goals: Trevor Zegras (18)
Assists: Travis Konecny (25)
Points: Trevor Zegras (42)
New York Rangers – 20-22-6 (8th in Metro)
Goals: Mika Zibanejad (18)
Assists: Artemi Panarin (35)
Points: Artemi Panarin (51)
Projected lineups
Trevor Zegras — Christian Dvorak — Travis Konecny
Matvei Michkov — Sean Couturier — Carl Grundstrom
Denver Barkey — Noah Cates — Owen Tippett
Nikita Grebenkin — Rodrigo Abols — Garnet Hathaway
Cam York — Travis Sanheim
Emil Andrae — Jamie Drysdale
Nick Seeler — Noah Juulsen
Aleksei Kolosov
(Sam Ersson)
Artemi Panarin — Vincent Trocheck — Alexis Lafreniere
Gabe Perreault — Mika Zibanejad — J.T. Miller
Brennan Othmann — Noah Laba — Will Cuylle
Taylor Raddysh — Sam Carrick — Jonny Brodzinski
Vladislav Gavrikov — Braden Schneider
Matthew Robertson — Will Borg
Storylines to watch
They really need to show something
The Flyers are desperate. Heck, we are desperate for the Flyers. After losing a game they should’ve won against Toronto, suffering two horrible losses to a Stanley Cup contender in the form of the Tampa Bay Lightning, and then dropping games against potential peers, the Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins, they need to show some fight.
Maybe the team just used up a month’s worth of effort on January 6 to show off against the visiting Ducks and Cutter Gauthier, but it really seems like they’re drained out there and can’t get a whole lot going. Specifically when it comes to both special teams, the Flyers have been just falling down on their face while on the ice. It’s been a little hard to watch.
On Saturday afternoon, they need to show some sign of life. Not just a couple players playing well, or a nice little defensive showing, but a spark of firepower or someone like Matvei Michkov going off — it would just mean more to see something significant like that happen and maybe even win the game.
The Denver Barkey and Matvei Michkov connection
On Thursday against the Penguins, Denver Barkey and Matvei Michkov were put on the same line for the first time and almost instantly formed a chemistry that led them to actually producing some points. On the Flyers’ second goal, it was Barkey and Michkov doing all the heavy lifting before Nick Seeler put it home (only the former earned a point on the play) and then we all saw what was coming: An outstanding and somewhat classic Michkov goal on an actual goalie, directly assisted by Barkey.
Now, the question is whether or not they will be sticking together (they better) and if we will be seeing the same level of play. Barkey should theoretically keep his tenacious forechecking against the Rangers, and Michkov has been getting better — so maybe we’ll see it continue?
How will the Rangers respond after the letter?
In case you didn’t know, the Rangers published a letter again. And we mean again because under former general manager Jeff Gorton, the team wrote the fans a letter back in 2018 all about their expectation to rebuild and how there will be upcoming pain — all the flowery language to just say that they’re switching paths. Well, that was before they won a couple draft lotteries and Artemi Panarin and Adam Fox fell into their laps.
But now, even with those very good players, they really stink. The Rangers are at the bottom of the Eastern Conference with a roster full of overpaid veterans and no real path to get to contending with the current assets they have, so current general manager Chris Drury penned another letter. But now it’s a “retool” instead of a “rebuild” — basically saying they will suck this year and maybe next year and they might trade off some long-time players (like Panarin) before the trade deadline on March 6.
So, now, in the first game since that new letter has been published and conversations with the team have been had, the Rangers are visiting the Flyers. It might just be a personal opinion, but this team might be as fired up as ever to try and prove that they don’t need to trade anyone away and they can win some games with the current situation they have going on.
In 2018, the first game after Gorton published his letter had the Rangers earn a 4-3 win over the Calgary Flames and then travel to Winnipeg for a 3-1 win over the Jets. And then, well, they went on a seven-game losing streak after that. So, they really put all the effort they had left into those games following that first letter — could they do the same here and we’ll see the floundering Flyers face a fired-up Rangers team?
