Rick Tocchet's Philadelphia Flyers' (4-9-4) are in Manhattan on Thursday to take on Mike Sullivan's New York Rangers (8--7-1). This is the first of four meetings between the Metropolitan Division rivals.
Game time at Madison Square Garden is 7:00 p.m. EST. The game will be broadcast on NBCSP.
On Tuesday, the Flyers had a good process but a poor outcome in a 4-2 home loss to the Minnesota Wild. Two bad bounces, one coverage lapse and an empty net goal accounted for the four Minnesota tallies. At the other end of the ice, the Flyers did a good job at creating quality looks but they struggled to put pucks on target.
Tyson Foerster (3rd goal of the season) and Denver Barkey (PPG, 1st) scored for the Flyers. Dan Vladar absorbed the loss in goal.
Meanwhile, the Rangers bounced back on Tuesday from a loss to the Edmonton Oilers the previous game, On Tuesday, the Blueshirts defeated the visiting St. Louis Blues by a 3-1 score.
Dylan Garand, who has appeared in each of the Rangers last 11 games, stopped 32 of 33 shots for the win. He flirted with a shutout until the final minute of the game. Adam Fox (2nd), Oliver Bjorkstrand (6th) and Eeli Tolvanen (ENG, 4th) scored for New York. Tolvanen also assisted on the Bjorkstrand goal, while J.T. Miller collected two apples.
Here are the RAV4 Things to watch on Thursday.
1. Hit the net
The front end of the process -- winning puck battles, skating to the high-danger areas, killing plays defensively -- has been pretty good for the Flyers in the last two games. However, the latter part -- putting the puck on net -- was a key factor on Tuesday.
The Flyers missed the net on 23 shot attempts and 16 others got blocked by Minnesota. Twenty-five made it to the net. Opposing goatender Jesper Wallstedt made some excellent saves along the way -- there's nothing the Flyers could do about that -- but too many pucks never got on net to force a save.
If the Flyers can create looks similar to Foerster's deflection goal and Barkey's power play snipe from the bumper, they can have success against the Rangers. The pucks need to get on net to do so, of course.
2. Offense from the back end
Offensive defenseman Fox leads the Rangers in scoring this season with 19 points (2g, 7a) in 16 games.The Flyers are no strangers to being burned by Fox. Philly needs to be vigilant about his ability to create opportunities or to present a threat as a trailer.
Among Flyers defensemen, Travis Sanheim (1g, 6a) and Jamie Drysdale (also 1g, 6a) are the leading blueline point getters. Oliver Bonk has one goal and six points in 11 games.
3. Special teams
The Flyers had such a rough start on the power play over the season's first eight games that their overall team numbers still look pedestrian. However, the team has made unmistakable progress -- and gained some confidence -- on the man advantage.
The Flyers rank 26th on the power play overall (16.7 percent). Over the last 10 games, however, the power play has clicked at a very respectable 21.2 percent success ratio. They'll face a good challenge against the Rangers, who bring the NHL's No. 1 ranked penalty kill (90.4 percent) into Thursday's tilt.
Meanwhile, the Flyers penalty kill enters Wednesday ranked in the top half of the NHL (tied for 12th, 81.0 percent). The Rangers power play is ranked 22nd (18.6 percent success).
4. Martone
Any player's first game at Madison Square Garden -- arguably the most famous arena in the world -- is a rite of passage. For Flyers rookie winger Porter Martone, Thursday is his first career regular season game against the Rangers.
For the 2025-26 season to date, Martone has posted eight points (3g, 5a) in 17 games. However, he's posted five points (1g, 4a) over his last five games and has generated assists in back-to-back matches.
