What to watch as Flyers try to snap a 3 game losing skid against Rangers

It’s been a long month for Philadelphia Flyers fans. The Flyers have gone 4-9 in the month of March, with a lot of bad bad losses. But, the Flyers look to turn that around as they face off against the New York Rangers Thursday night.

Here’s what to look out for in the game:

The skid

March in general has been an awful month of hockey for the Flyers, who have just four of 13 games. On Tuesday, on the heels of putting forth of their two best 60-minute efforts of the season one night earlier in a 2-1 overtime loss to the Islanders, the Flyers reverted to bad hockey in a 4-3 loss to the New Jersey Devils.

Not having attention-to-detail and costly turnovers dug a 4-1 hole from which the Flyers were unable to recover despite a third-period comeback that featured a pair of goals from Sean Couturier.

The Flyers had an off-day on Wednesday. the team will be a morning skate in Voorhees Thursday morning.

9-0

Thursday night’s game is the first of a two-game set between the Flyera and the Rangers and will be the fifth and sixth of eight meetings this season.

The Flyers are 2-1-1 against the Rangers this season, but three of the four games have gone beyond regulation, with the Rangers winning one in a shootout and the Flyers winning two in overtime.

On March 17 at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers put out one of the most humiliating blowout loses the Flyers have suffered in franchise history, a 9-0 defeat. The game included seven unanswered Rangers goals in a second period nightmare for Philadelphia. Mika Zibanejad scored a natural hat trick in that game.

Projected lineups

Flyers:

James van Riemsdyk – Sean Couturier – Joel Farabee

Claude Giroux – Kevin Hayes – Jake Voracek
Oskar Lindblom – Nolan Patrick – Travis Konecny
Michael Raffl – Scott Laughton – Nicolas Aube-Kubel

Ivan Provorov – Justin Braun
Travis Sanheim – Phil Myers
Sam Morin – Shayne Gostisbehere

Carter Hart
[Brian Elliott]

PP1: Giroux, Patrick, Farabee, Voracek, Provorov.
PP2: Hayes, Couturier, JVR, Konecny, Gostisbehere.

Scratches: Erik Gustafsson (healthy).

Injured reserve: Robert Hägg (shoulder, two-four weeks from 3/17/21), Morgan Frost (shoulder surgery).

COVID-19 protocol: None.

Rangers:

Chris Kreider – Mika Zibanejad – Pavel Buchnevich
Artemi Panarin – Ryan Strome – Kaapo Kakko
Alexis Lafreniere – Filip Chytil – Julien Gauthier
Brendan Lemieux – Kevin Rooney – Colin Blackwell ​

Ryan Lindgren – Adam Fox
K’Andre Miller – Jacob Trouba
Libor Hajek – Brendan Smith​

Igor Shesterkin
[Alexandar Georgiev]
​
PP1: Panarin, Zibanejad, Kreider, Strome, Fox.
PP2: Kakko, Chyti, Buchnevich, Miller, Trouba.

Scratches: Phil Di Giuseppe (COVID recovery), Vitali Kravtsov (healthy).

Injured reserve: Jack Johnson (hand surgery).

COVID-19 protocol: Brett Howden.

Tonight’s essentials

• When: 7:00 P.M. E.S.T.
• Where: Wells Fargo Center  
• Broadcast: NBC Sports Philadelphia 
• Radio: 97.5 The Fanatic
• Social media coverage: Philly Sports Reports’ Twitter & Instagram.