Tonight at 8 p.m. ET, the Philadelphia Flyers (7-7-2, 16 points) and New York Rangers (7-7-4, 20 points) face-off for the first of four meetings this season live from Madison Square Garden in New York City. The game can be live streamed for free here. Philadelphia fans can hear all of the action on 97.5 The Fanatic while New York fans can do the same on 98.7 WEPN.
Philadelphia enters play having lost two straight games while New York is currently on a three-game skid. This is the first meeting between these teams since the Rangers defeated the Flyers in seven games in Round 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs last spring en route to the Stanley Cup Final.
The Flyers will be without Claude Giroux (lower-body) and Scott Laughton was called up to make his NHL debut. Giroux is second on the team with 21 points off of five goals and 16 assists this season.
Laughton is excited at the prospect of making his debut.
"I'm definitely a little bit surprised," Laughton said. "I was taking a nap back home and got a call from [coach] Terry Murray with the Phantoms. He just told me I was coming up. It's definitely an exciting time for me and my family. I'm definitely looking forward to coming here and trying to make an impact."
Philadelphia is trying to bounce back from a 6-3 loss to the Montreal Canadiens that marked the second straight loss.
Brayden Schenn notched two goals in the loss and is third on the team with 13 points off of six goals and seven assists while Jakub Voracek is tied for the NHL lead with 26 points and paces the league with 19 assists. Voracek enters tonight riding a 10-game point streak.
The Rangers are in a funk and are coming off of a 5-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning Monday that saw many familiar faces return to Madison Square Garden. Martin St. Louis scored the lone goal for New York against his old team.
"I think one of the hardest things is building chemistry with your linemates, and when you do finally find that chemistry, you need to have chemistry balance throughout your whole entire lineup," Derek Stepan told NHL.com as New York searches for some consistency.
Rangers forward Rick Nash is tied for second in the NHL with 12 goals and paces the team with 17 points while Derick Brassard has found the twine six times and added nine assists to rank second on the team with 15 points and St. Louis has 14 points off of seven markers and seven helpers.
New York has announced that backup Cam Talbot will start between the pipes tonight and he is 0-2-1 in his first three games this season while yielding 12 goals on 100 shots.
Philadelphia is likely to counter with Steve Mason between the pipes and he is 3-5-1 thus far this season with a 3.02 goals-against average and a .911 save percentage.
Two division rivals go head-to-head when the puck drops on the Flyers and Rangers tonight at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
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