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NHL on NBCSN: Flyers, Rangers duel for home ice advantage

Flyers Rangers Hockey

The Philadelphia Flyers scuffle with the New York Rangers during the first period of the NHL hockey game Sunday, Jan. 12, 2014, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

AP

NBCSN continues its coverage of the 2013-14 campaign tonight when the New York Rangers host the Philadelphia Flyers at Madison Square Garden at 8:00 p.m. ET. In addition to NBCSN, you can also watch the game online.

If the regular season ended today, the Flyers and Rangers would play against each other in the first round.

That makes this game an opportunity for both teams to send a message, but it’s also a chance for either squad to gain an edge in the battle for the second seed in the Metropolitan Division and home ice advantage in the opening series. The Rangers have a point lead over Philadelphia, but the Flyers have played in two less games.

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That extra game at home would be big in a series between Philadelphia and New York, given how poorly the Flyers have done at Madison Square Garden. Philadelphia has surrendered seven straight contests there by a margin of 28-8.

Of course, in order for the Flyers to improve their chances of avoiding a Game 7 at the Garden, they need to end that streak tonight.

“It’s a tough building. I don’t know what it is about it,” Flyers captain Claude Giroux told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “We’ll have to make sure the first period is our best period and go from there.”

Meanwhile, the Rangers will have their own set of challenges to overcome. They won’t have 22-year-old Chris Kreider at their disposal after he suffered a reported hand injury.

The status of Martin St. Louis and Derek Stepan is also up in the air. Both players attempted to work through an illness on Monday, but their ice time was limited and afterwards Rangers coach Alain Vigneault openly admitted that he shouldn’t have put them in the lineup.

“I should have taken that out of their hands. I saw them at 4 o’clock,” Vigneault told the Bergen Record. “They didn’t look good. They both said they wanted to play but, at the end of the day, I’ve got to take that out of their hands because they had no energy and, obviously, it showed.”

If he is healthy enough to play though, then St. Louis will be someone worth keeping a close eye on. He has just three assists in 11 games since joining the Rangers, but if he steps up in a big game like tonight’s, against his long-time teammate and fellow former Lightning captain Vincent Lecavalier, then his slow post-trade start will be easy to forget.

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