Game 75 and Hell Week Game 1: Rangers at Flyers

It's longer than a week because it's 8 games spread over several weeks, but we'll call it that anyway.

New York Rangers: 39-26-9, 87 points
Philadelphia Flyers: 36-28-10, 82 points

Steve Valiquette v. Martin Biron

The Flyers officially begin the home stretch tonight, when their final eight games are all against divisional opponents. First up are the New York Rangers, who have presented all kinds of problems to the Flyers this year. They're 1-3-2 against the Rangers this season, and those three regulation losses are all shutouts.

Philadelphia needs to find a way to beat the strong defensive system of the Rangers and beat Steve Valiquette. Valiquette has obviously played well against them this year, but one problem is the lack of quality scoring chances. They don't test him much, mostly because the rush has already been cut off by the Rangers' trap like system. The Flyers need to stay patient with the puck, have nice breakouts and find a way to generate some offense. Early.

If the Flyers manage to grab a lead, they need to do a better job of holding it than they've been doing lately. They've become prone to allowing goals late in periods or the game in general, and that's a mistake we were hoping was corrected between last season and this year. They blew the game against Florida, they blew a huge lead against Toronto, they blew the game against Boston and they nearly did it again against Atlanta. It was good to hear they practiced 6 on 5 situations in practice, but they need to execute it in a game.

Bill Meltzer posts lineups and scratches. No real surprises, although Jones may be back tonight.

This is it for the Flyers. 8 games, 4 divisional opponents. These are the guys you're chasing, and there's no better way to make up ground than by beating them. They've played poorly in the past month or so, but a good showing in the final couple of weeks can make people feel more confident.