Flyers Walk Into a Garden That Rarely Lets Visitors Leave Happy

The Rangers have been a different team at Madison Square Garden. They are 7-2-0 at home and 1-5-1 away. The Flyers arrive with the same road mark, 1-5-1, and only 12 points from 17 games.

Over the last ten games, Philadelphia has been on the wrong side of the chances. Its expected goals (how many goals a team's chances were worth) averaged 2.82 a game for and 3.31 against. Shot attempts were close to even, so the issue has been the quality of the looks, not the volume. New York has been roughly even on chances over the same stretch.

The main storyline for the Rangers is in goal. Igor Shesterkin is out for the season and Joonas Korpisalo is working back from injury, so Dylan Garand has carried the crease and is coming off a win over St. Louis.

The standings gap is clear. New York sits third in the Metropolitan Division with 17 points. Philadelphia is eighth, with a goal difference of minus 21. Both teams are 4-4-2 or 4-5-1 over their last ten, but only one of them gets to play this game at the Garden.