RANGERS VS FLYERS GAME DAY PREVIEW 11/23

Rangers Visit Philadelphia for NHL's Thanksgiving Showdown

New York Rangers (12-8-2) vs Philadelphia Flyers (9-10-2)

Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia PA

TODAY 1:00 PM, TV: NBC 

The Rangers head to Philadelphia today for the first of back to back games against Metropolitan Division Rivals. Today they take on the Flyers in an afternoon match up dubbed the NHL's Thanksgiving Showdown 2018.

The Metro Division first place Rangers (tied with Columbus, 26 pts) are coming off a 5-0 win over the New York Islanders on Wednesday night at MSG. The win was the Rangers 7th straight at home and are now 9-1-1 in their last 11 games played. In their last road game the Rangers lost to the Islanders in Brooklyn on November 15 and have not won on the road since five days earlier on November 10 in Columbus defeating the Blue Jackets 5-4 in the shootout.

The win over the Islanders saw 5 different Rangers score goals, Filp Chytil (his 5th in 5 games), Chris Kreider (his team leading 12th), Cody McLeod (his first as a Ranger & first of the season), Neal Pionk and Kevin Hayes. Backup Alexandar Georgiev picked up his first career NHL Shutout in the game.

Cody McLeod will be out 4-6 weeks with a broken hand suffered in a 2nd Period Altercation in Wednesday's win over the Isles.

Henrik Lundqvist is slated for today's start for the Rangers. Mats Zuccarello (groin) is questionable for today's game. If he cannot go and barring a recall from Hartford this morning we may see the Rangers dress 7 defensemen for this afternoon's contest with Brendan Smith being slotted in after being a healthy scratch on Wednesday. The remaining fourth line of Lias Andersson and Steven Fogarty will see a bump with a rotating winger.
Philadelphia comes into the contest in last place of the Metro having lost their last game 5-2 in Buffalo on Wednesday. The Flyers have lost four in a row after going 9-7-1 through November 10, dropping them to 9-10-2.  Calvin Pickard should get the start in net.

RANGERS TEAM LEADERS:
POINTS: Chris Kreider 20
GOALS: Chris Kreider 12
ASSISTS: Mika Zibanejad 12

FLYERS TEAM LEADERS:
POINTS: Claude Giroux 25
GOALS: Wayne Simmonds 9
ASSISTS: Claude Giroux 17

This is the first of four meetings between the Rangers and Flyers this season. Philadelphia won the season series last year 3 games to 1. The Rangers won the first meeting of the season 5-1 at Madison Square Garden and lost the following 3, 2 in Philly and at MSG for the final game of the season.

RANGERS ALL-TIME RECORD vs FLYERS
Overall. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131-117-37-8 (307 pts)
Home Record. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69-50-23-4 (170 pts)
Road Record. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62-67-14-4 (142 pts)
Goals For. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 868
Goals Against. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 864
Shutouts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15, last – 11/28/2014 (3-0; Talbot)
LAST TIME
Last Ranger Win at MSG. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/16/2018 (5-1)
Last Ranger Win at Philadelphia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/4/2017 (5-2)
Last Flyer Win at MSG. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/18/2018 (7-4)
Last Flyer Win at Philadelphia. . . . . . . . . . . . 3/22/2018 (4-3)

2017-2018 RESULTS: NYR 1 vs PHI 3
2018-04-07 NYR @ PHI 0-5 L
2018-03-22 NYR @ PHI 3-4 L
2018-02-18 NYR PHI 4-7 L
2018-01-16 NYR PHI 5-1 W