The Philadelphia Flyers and NY Rangers are playing live on the NHL preseason schedule ahead of the 2014-15 season starting at Madison Square Garden in New York and the matchup starts at 7 pm ET and is streaming online from NHL.com as the defending eastern conference champions with goalie Henrik Lundqvist play against their rivals and Philly is looking to get off to a strong start heading into the season.
The Rangers come into the season after making it to the Stanley Cup Finals and that was an amazing and surprising run for fans last year. The team was great and really gutted things out and they played well, but they could not get one over on the Kings until it was too late. The team now returns with many players gone, but the core is intact and even with Brad Richards in Chicago, the team has Rick Nash and Derek Stepan ready to take over with King Henrik.
The Rangers will need to score more for any chance to get back to the finals and they likely will have to matchup with Boston at some point as well and that is always a tough test. The team played against the Flyers in the playoffs last season and dispatched them in seven games and they ended up edging past the Canadiens as well to make it to the finals and this year the east should be very tough again. The team also had an amazing series comeback with the Pittsburgh Penguins in seven games and that was the galvanizing series that pushed the team through into the finals. The Rangers now come back looking to win the whole thing and that will be tough after coming up short last season.
The Rangers come into this game after playing an Original Six team with the Chicago Blackhawks and that game was on Friday night. The Rangers travelled to the United Center for that matchup and they won 4-1 and now they face off against the Flyers in back to back games. The teams will play a home and home and this comes after their very tough playoff series last summer. The Rangers have Hank in net and should be great there again, but they have to get out of the middle of the pack in scoring to get things done.
Mats Zuccarello was the points leader for the team last season and he is back after a strong year, while Rick Nash returns after leading the team in goals. The Rangers desperately need Nash to score more and they needed that badly in the playoffs and while he played well overall, he did not score nearly enough. The Rangers were a surprise team in the playoffs and now teams will know they are coming and while Martin St. Louis was a great addition, he will need to play like he is a younger man for them to make a major impact.
Check here for the Philadelphia Flyers and NY Rangers live coverage.