Blueshirts bested by motivated Flyers with playoffs approaching
The Rangers may not be one of the several NHL teams still battling to qualify for the playoffs, like the Flyers, their opponents on Thursday, but they are still playing for something.
Finishing out this regular season in a way that properly honors it — as the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference or as the Presidents’ Trophy winner or both — matters to this Blueshirts team, which has gone stagnant in its pursuit of such accomplishments after its second loss in a row, a 4-1 defeat at the hands of the Flyers in front of a hushed Garden crowd Thursday night.
“We want to end on a high note, and we’re fighting for the division right now,” Ryan Lindgren said. “These two games coming up here are big. We just want to be playing good hockey and feeling good about ourselves going into the playoffs, for sure.”
At the beginning of the week, the Rangers had four games to pick up four points to secure both the division and the conference.
Now, they’ll have to win their final two games in order to fulfill these apparent goals.
As much as it’s about winning as many games as possible this time of year, as well as wanting optimal playoff position, any of the aforementioned accolades would do so much more than just fill the trophy case for this Rangers team.
Stiff-arming the Hurricanes for the Metropolitan Division crown for the first time in three years would mean something to them.
Earning the top seed in the East could have a lasting effect on the Rangers’ psyche.
Any of it could be just what the Rangers need to fuel up on confidence before a very important postseason.
“That goal has kind of presented [itself] for us,” said Mika Zibanejad, who earned the secondary assist on the Rangers’ lone goal from Artemi Panarin on a first-period power play. “We get another chance to win a game on Saturday [against the Islanders]. Wins or losses, you try to analyze it and move on either way. Focus on the next game.” The Rangers’ short-term goals are still in play, and they control their own destiny. Still three points up on Carolina in the division, the Rangers are also still one point ahead of the Stars for the No. 1 spot in the NHL after Dallas fell to the Jets on Thursday night.
Philadelphia took advantage of the Rangers’ Achilles heel — defending the rush — to score all four of its goals.
Working to snap an eight-game losing skid, the Flyers consistently found lanes and open ice in the second period. That allowed the visitors to score twice to take a 3-1 lead into the second intermission.
K’Andre Miller and Jacob Trouba were largely caved in throughout the night, considering both were on the ice for two of Philadelphia’s four goals, with Miller on for the first three.
The defensive duo was outchanced 9-3 and finished on the wrong end of a 5-1 edge in high-danger chances, according to Natural Stat Trick.
“I don’t think we made good decisions,” head coach Peter Laviolette said. “I don’t think the urgency was there to pick up the rush the way we needed to on the way back into our zone, coming into D-zone coverage. That was definitely an issue where they scored goals.
“We knew that they were a highrush team and have been generating a lot lately. Even inside of where they’ve been in the last 10 games, they’re generating a lot offensively. The flip side of that is we weren’t able to generate.”