Sizing up the Flyers and Rangers before Game 2
Aiding Emery The Flyers need to give goalie Ray Emery much more support than in the opener, when he was their best player and New York spent a huge majority of the game in the offensive end.
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Aiding Emery
The Flyers need to give goalie Ray Emery much more support than in the opener, when he was their best player and New York spent a huge majority of the game in the offensive end.
Special teams
New York dominated the special-teams battle in posting a 4-1 win in Game 1, its first home playoff victory over the Flyers since 1987.
The Rangers were 2 for 6 on the power play, while the Flyers were 0 for 1. The Flyers were assessed 10 penalty minutes in the third period; New York was assessed two.
Before Thursday, the Flyers had not allowed two power-play goals in their previous 19 games.
Game 1 numbers
The Flyers were outshot in Game 1, 36-15, but had committed just four giveaways to the Rangers' 16. The Flyers had a 37-32 edge in hits, and New York won 53 percent of the faceoffs.
The Rangers outshot the Flyers, 13-1, in the third period. The last time New York allowed fewer shots in a playoff period was in a 1994 game against Washington, which had no shots in the third.
Key game in series?
History tells us Game 2 is ultracritical for the Flyers.
They are 17-16 in series that are tied at one win apiece; they are 3-14 when falling into a 2-0 series hole.
Did you notice?
Flyers center Vinny Lecavalier played a team-low 7 minutes, 42 seconds in Game 1.
Henrik Lundqvist could have read a novel between Flyers shots. The Rangers' goalie is 9-0 with a 1.12 GAA and a .959 save percentage in his last nine games against the Flyers at Madison Square Garden.
Sean Couturier won just four of 14 faceoffs in the playoff opener and was caught out of position when New York's Mats Zuccarello scored to tie the score at 1-1.
Who's hot?
Brad Richards had three points for the Rangers - including the game-winning, power-play goal - in the opener.
Who's not?
The Flyers' top line of Claude Giroux, Scott Hartnell, and Jake Voracek has combined for one goal in five games against New York this season. They combined for just two shots (both by Hartnell) in Game 1.
Quotable
Lundqvist on his team's killing a penalty with the score tied at 1 early in the third: "It felt like we got some energy from the boys there, the way they blocked some shots and made some big plays. . . . It was huge for us and you could feel the energy coming into the group after that, and then the power play did the rest."