Coming into this game, the New York Rangers won 20 of their 14 games on the road, so maybe it makes sense that they finally crushed the Philadelphia Flyers at Madison Square Garden in white uniforms. The Flyers were looking to go 5-for-5 against the Rangers so far this season, but Ryan Callahan and Henrik Lundqvist said “No” in a big way with a 7-0 throttling.
Callahan scored his first career hat trick by the second period, but he wasn’t done yet as the American born winger notched a goal and an assist to increase his daily total to four goals and one assist.
It’s appropriate that Callahan wears number 24 for the Rangers, because that’s how many saves Lundqvist needed to make for his league-leading ninth shutout of the season. This marks Lundqvist’s 33rd career goose egg and third against the Flyers. Mats Zuccarello also had a great game for the Rangers, scoring two goals in just 13 and a half minutes of ice time. (Artem Anisimov scored the team’s other tally.)
Callahan and the Rangers built a 2-0 lead after a first period overshadowed by shoddy officiating, then the team doubled it to 4-0 after two. Things didn’t get any better for the Flyers in the third, as New York added more insult to injury by scoring three more times.
It was a total team failure for the Flyers, as you cannot blame one facet of their game alone.
Brian Boucher was pulled after allowing four goals on 18 shots, but Sergei Bobrovsky’s luck wasn’t much better (only making 15 out of 18 saves). Even Dominik Hasek in his prime probably wouldn’t have been enough for Philly, though, as the Rangers seemed to beat them to almost every loose puck and won the vast majority of board battles. Maybe it’s still too early for Philadelphia to panic, but after a single game meltdown like this and a four game losing streak overall, they cannot feel very happy about themselves either.
This win strengthens the Rangers’ hold on seventh place in the East, as they now have 74 points, good for a three point edge on the Carolina Hurricanes and four point lead against the Buffalo Sabres. They’re not out of the woods since they’ve played two more games than Carolina and four more than ninth place Buffalo, but this win makes the picture much rosier.
Meanwhile, the Flyers weren’t able to improve on two point leads over the Pittsburgh Penguins for the Atlantic Division title and the Boston Bruins for the top spot in the East. They hold two games in hand over Pittsburgh, but both Boston and Philadelphia have played 65 games. Philly has 40 wins to Boston’s 38, but the lead is still slim.
The Rangers and Flyers play one more game this season in Philadelphia on April 3rd. It’s likely that New York will once again be the more desperate team in that game, but chances are the Flyers are going to have revenge on their minds.
They should too, because the Rangers absolutely dominated the Flyers this afternoon.