The Philadelphia Flyers lost to the New Jersey Devils on Saturday, February 4. Now the team will be looking to redeem itself with a trip to face the New York Rangers. The Flyers have lost all three meetings against the Rangers this season so this is one the team desperately wants. The teams are still tight in the division race and every game counts. But this is extra important for the confidence of the Flyers. They don't want to drop to 0-4 on the season. As a Flyers fan I hope to see the team get the job done in this huge game.
The Flyers have alternated wins and losses a lot lately. This isn't the spot the team wants to start a losing streak. The Flyers will start Ilya Bryzgalov in net against the Rangers and he has been solid lately. After allowing one goal in consecutive games, Bryzgalov came in to relieve Sergei Bobrovsky in the loss to New Jersey and played well. The Flyers finally have a confident goalie and that is huge in this game. If we see the same kind of Bryzgalov we have seen in the last three games things should go pretty good in this one.
Offensively, the Flyers are still going to miss Danny Briere and James van Riemsdyk. But that doesn't mean that this team doesn't have weapons. Wayne Simmonds is playing well and Claude Giroux has regained his edge. After a sluggish first two periods against the Devils, the Flyers got four goals in the third. It wasn't enough to win the game but it should raise the confidence level of the team. I expect them to have a lot of momentum as they face the Rangers.
Winning this game is huge for the Flyers. First, the team needs to get points at every opportunity. The playoffs still might feel far away but every point is huge in a tight division like this. Second, beating the Rangers would bring a world of confidence to this team. You don't want to have a division rival ahead of you in the standings be able to win every game. The Flyers have to beat the Rangers so that they know they can beat them. I think that happens in this game.
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