Rangers 0, Flyers 2

The New York Rangers lost to the Philadelphia Flyers tonight by a score of 2-0. For a box score, click here.

Tough loss heading into the All-Star break. Especially after a first 20 which they dominated Philly up and down the ice. However with each save by Steve Mason, the Flyer goalies’ confidence grew and the home team wound up unable to solve him.

The Rangers, like they done a lot this season tried making one too many passes several times from below the hashmarks which often wound up being picked off by a Flyer defenseman or simply missed wide.

I thought the game tonight turned after the Flyers’ second PK in the second period in which the Rangers did very little with and the Flyers had the better of the chances from that point on. Lundqvist had a pretty easy time in net prior to that power play and had to make some saves to keep the game scoreless.

As far as the Rangers go, you could say they were unlucky quite a bit… I counted 4 posts during the game, Nash had 2 or 3 glorious chances from in tight. The Rangers played a virtually perfect first 20 minutes despite not scoring. Beating the dead horse, it’s exactly how you should expect them to play almost every night.

But as it sometimes goes, the bounces just don’t go your way and you could ask Grabner about that.

There wasn’t much that I didn’t care for in tonight’s performance otherwise. Buchnevich should’ve had a pair of assists tonight as his passes found Nash effortlessly. Tonight was probably the last you see of Clendening as Staal should be available on the other side of the break. I think the Rangers miss Hayes a little bit on that third line with Miller and we’ll see where he is next week coming back from injury. 

Besides that there isn’t much left to pick from tonight’s game. It sucks to have to sit on a loss in which you deserved to have won. But that’s hockey. The Rangers are off for six days and will find themselves back at MSG next Tuesday against the Columbus Blue Jackets.