Rangers at Flyers - Open Game Thread
The Rangers take on the Flyers in their first meeting of the 2015-16 season.
On the front end of a back-to-back, the Rangers tonight will be taking on the fourth place Philadelphia Flyers. The Flyers are coming off 2 days rest, after a come-from-behind win against the Boston Bruins on Wednesday. The Rangers will be looking to continue their winning ways, after defeating Arizona on Thursday.
The Flyers are led by their captain Claude Giroux, who leads the team in goals and points, and goaltender Steve Mason, one of the more underrated goaltenders in the league. They have had an up-and-down start to their season, and own a record of 3-2-1 through six games. Their lineup is projected as follows:
Michael Raffl - Claude Giroux - Jake Voracek
Matt Read - Sam Gagner - Wayne Simmonds
R.J. Umberger - Scott Laughton - Brayden Schenn
Chris VandeVelde - Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - Ryan White
Nick Schultz - Mark Streit
Michael Del Zotto - Radko Gudas
Evgeny Medvedev - Brandon Manning
Steve Mason
The Rangers will ice the same lineup as their 4-1 win over Arizona on Thursday. Derek Stepan is slated to be in the lineup, however Alain Vigneault told NorthJersey.com "He's still in pain. The pain was real high during the night [Thursday]. He's on pills right now trying to contain it. He'll be fine for [Saturday]." Barring any last-minute scratches, the Rangers projected lineup will be:
Rick Nash - Derek Stepan - Mats Zuccarello
Chris Kreider - Derick Brassard - Jesper Fast
Oscar Lindberg - Kevin Hayes - J.T. Miller
Viktor Stalberg - Dominic Moore - Jarret Stoll
One of the players the Rangers will really have to keep a close eye on tonight is Wayne Simmonds. In 23 career games against the Rangers, Simmonds owns a 8-5–13 stat line, but he always seems to give the Rangers the most trouble. I suspect Dan Girardi will have his hands full keeping tabs on Simmonds tonight. The other thing the Rangers will have to do if they want to win is really pepper Mason with shots. They did a good job of it against Arizona, taking 27 shots, and they will have to continue that tonight. The Flyers do not have the strongest blue line, so let's hope to see less dump-and-chase plays and more set plays coming into the offensive zone.
Let's go Rangers.
