Interim head coach Brad Shaw's Philadelphia Flyers (31-37-9) are in the Big Apple on Wednesday evening to take on former Flyers coach Peter Laviolette's New York Rangers (38-34-7). Game time at Madison Square Garden is 7:30 p.m. EDT.
The game will be televised nationally on TNT, TRUTV and MAX. The radio broadcast is on 93.3 WMMR with an online simulcast on Flyers Radio 24/7.
This is the third and final meeting of the season series between the Orange and Black and the Blueshirts. The series is tied at one win apiece. On Black Friday at Wells Fargo Center, the Flyers skated to a 3-1 win. At MSG on January 23, the Rangers cruised to a 6-1 victory.
The Flyers were mathematically eliminated for the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs after losing in Montreal on Saturday, 3-2. The team, which is 19-19-1 at home and 12-18-8 on the road, has five games remaining on the schedule. The Rangers are still mathematically alive with five games left in the regular season, but are in severe jeopardy of missing the playoffs. New York is six points behind Montreal for the final postseason slot. Additionally, while the Rangers and Detroit Red Wings both have 79 points, Detroit holds one game in hand.
Here are the RAV4 Things to watch on Wednesday plus an X-factor heading into the game.
1. Banged-up Flyers
Flyers centers Sean Couturier and Ryan Poehling are both, in Shaw's words, "nicked up" heading into this week's games. Their availability or unavailability for the game at MSG will become clearer as Wednesday moves along. Poehling has been the Flyers hottest offensive player of late, with 12 points (eight goals, four assists) in his last 11 games, including four tallies and six points over the last three games. Couturier, meanwhile, has logged 19-plus minutes of ice time in three of the last four games.
Regardless of whether Couturier and/or Poehling are able to play, Noah Cates will be heavily relied upon to absorb a heavy burden. Karsen Dorwart made his NHL debut on Saturday, while Rodrigo Abols is available for duty if needed. Cates overall game has remained remarkably consistent for months. However, he's found it tougher to generate points since mid-January with 10 points (5g, 5a) over the last 30 games including four points (1g, 3a) in the last 12.
2. Quest for 20 goals: Foerster and Tippett
Flyers wingers Tyson Foerster and Owen Tippett are each one tally away from reaching the 20-goal milestone for the 2024-25 season. Foerster (36 points) has begun to heat up late in the season, with three goals and four points over his last four games. Due to a scoring change after a recent game against the Buffalo Sabres (a goal was changed to an assist), Tippett has two helpers to show for the last three games but no goals (three assists) over his last 13 games. The streak-scoring Tippett has one goal in his last 17 games.
If Tippett can get his 20th goal of the season out of the way at MSG on Thursday, he's perfectly capable of adding several more before the season finale. He'd be hard pressed to match his 2022-23 or 2023-24 goal totals at this point but a strong finish is within reach. Meanwhile, Foerster needs two goals to top his 20-goal season as a rookie last season.
3. Quest for 80 points: Konecny
Flyers leading scorer Travis Konecny has already hit the 50-assist milestone for the 2024-25 season, a single-season career best. Dating back to the 1999-2000 campaign, only seven Philadelphia players have accomplished the feat: Claude Giroux (five times), Hockey Hall of Famers Mark Recchi (twice) and Peter Forsberg (once), Jakub Voracek (twice), Mike Richards (once), defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere (once) and now Konecny.
Konecny (24 goals, career-high 74 points) needs six points over the season's final five matches to reach the 80-point milestone. Over the last quarter century, it's been done nine times by Flyers players: Giroux (four times), Voracek (twice), Recchi (once), Jeff Carter (once) and Richards (once). Simon Gagne missed by a single point in 2005-06.
4. Drysdale in an offensive groove
By any measure, Flyers defenseman Jamie Drysdale had a rough first half of the 2024-25 season between missing 12 games, struggling defensively and not being as involved in joining the offensive attack as expected of him. However, in the second half of the campaign, the fleet-footed 23-year-old has begun to attack with much more frequency and confidence.
Since the break for the 4 Nations Faceoff tournament, Drysdale has posted five goals (plus three assists), while seeing his ice time increase to 20:41 per game. There are still aspects of his game that are a work in progress, but Drysdale now seems to be getting on the right track after injuries and inconsistency marked his development path after being the sixth overall pick of the 2020 Draft.
X-Factor: Desperate Opponent
The Rangers' flickering playoff hopes were dealt a severe blow after suffering a 4-0 shutout road loss to the New Jersey Devils and a 5-1 home defeat at the hands of the Tampa Bay Lightning over the last two games. It's now or never for Laviolette's club this season. The Flyers may need to withstand an early push from the Blueshirts on Wednesday night while playing in a charged-up atmosphere at MSG. If the Flyers can silence the home crowd -- or even outwork their opponent and get Rangers fans to turn on the home side -- they could get the better of a vulnerable squad.
