As the East Coast gets battered by snow on Saturday, the Rangers will be snug as bugs in a rug in Philadelphia as they face the Flyers at 1 p.m. (MSG). I refuse to address this newly spouted accountability nonsense from Torts. The guy gets his team to win one game and tries to regain some kind of credibility? Yeah, not quite pal, this isn't Tampa.
Where We Are: But even though Torts shouldn't be floating on Cloud 9 and spewing nonsense to beat writers, we should still be celebrating our winning streak! A one-game winning streak but a win streak just the same!
Where They Are: The Flyers are 3-11-1 in their last 15 games. Peter Laviolette is juggling lines and searching for answers in a mess not of his own creation.
Who To Watch For: Blair Betts returned from injury just in time to help Philly avenge a 6-1 loss and earn a point against the far superior Penguins Thursday in a 3-2 shootout loss. The Flyers are 10-3-1 with Bettsy in the lineup this season and 5-13-1 without him. How about that. Oh yeah, and they still have some other guys worth named Richards, Carter and Briere. Middleweight/super pest Danny Carcillo game off of his undeserved suspension and was put on the first line and given power play time - where he promptly assisted on a Claude Giroux goal.
What To Watch For: Donald Brashear finally fighting in a poor attempt to justify his paycheque. Pronger, Hartnell, Laperriere, Asham and Carcillo doing anything and everything to intimidate the Rangers any way they can. The Flyer penalty kill pressuring the Ranger points to turn over the puck. That 3-on-5 Richards goal remains one of the most impressive things I've ever seen in the Garden.
What We'll (Hopefully) See: Brash not doing anything dumb. Torts not doing anything dumb. Gabby not to get injured going against Pronger and Coburn. Cally to keep up his Graves act. Smithtown to keep trying and to actually, finally, succeed. MDZ to keep proving that he is more deserving of the Calder than James van Riemsdyk. Hank getting angry again and shutting down the Flyer attack ... hey, if Valley can succeed against Philly, why can't Hank? Redden and Kotalik kept out of the lineup.
Also Check Out: Flyer Files is a decent MSM blog, SBN hosts Broad Street Hockey and the The 700 Level aint' all that bad.
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