Rangers Return Home for Matinee Against Flyers – Pregame Notes

After a quick one game road trip in St. Louis, the Rangers return home where they will play a back-to-back that concludes in Nashville (12:30PM on MSG).

Rangers vs Flyers

• New York is coming off a 2-1 overtime victory over the St. Louis Blues. J.T. Miller scored his third overtime goal of the season to snap their two-game losing skid.
• Igor Shesterkin recorded 26 saves for his 14th win of the season
  • Shesterkin will be back in goal on Saturday afternoon in an important divisional game
  • With a win in regulation, the Rangers would tie the Flyers in points with 40. Philadelphia currently sits in the last wild card position, but there are many teams in the hunt including Boston and Tampa Bay
• Gabe Perreault scored his first goal of his career driving the net with the puck ricochetting off the 20-year-old winger on the dying seconds of the power-play
• Artemi Panarin will return to the lineup after missing the previous game due to illness.
  • Otherwise, expect the Rangers to stick with a similar lineup that won in St. Louis, which would see Perreault on the third line
  • One of Brennan Othmann, Taylor Raddysh, or Conor Sheary likely will draw out of the lineup with Panarin’s return
• The Flyers are coming off a 5-3 defeat to the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday night. Prior to that, the Flyers had a five-game point streak
• Philadelphia is led in points by Trevor Zegras. Zegras has 34 points in 33 games. The former ninth overall selection is well on pace to break his career high in points which was 65 and he is on track for the first 30 goal season of his career
  • Long time Flyer Travis Konecny has 30 points in 33 games. Konecny and Zegras make up two thirds of a dangerous top line which is centered by Christian Dvorak
• Dan Vladar has become the 1A in Philadelphia after serving as the backup in Calgary for the previous four seasons. Vladar is 12-5-3 with a .910 save percentage
• The only injury the Flyers currently have is to winger Tyson Foerster who underwent surgery after suffering an upper-body injury. Foerster is likely to miss the remainder of the regular season
• In the NHL, Montreal acquired Phillip Danault from Los Angeles and Columbus acquired Mason Marchment from Seattle on Friday night. Each trade saw draft picks go the other way
  • There has been a lot of rumors and trade talk surrounding the Rangers and them wanting to shake up their core. For now that will have to wait until after Christmas, due to the roster freeze

Projected Lineup:

Cuylle-Zibanejad-Miller

Panarin-Trocheck-Lafreniere

Perreault-Laba-Raddysh

Sheary-Carrick-Rempe

Gavrikov-Schneider

Robertson-Borgen

Morrow-Soucy

Shesterkin