Last minute Rangers Changes, News and Reports ahead of Rangers vs Flyers

Tonight the Rangers play the worst team in their division and it almost feels like the Rangers cannot afford to lose this one. They're currently 8-7-1 with 17 points third place in the Metro and the Flyers are 4-9-4 with 12 points dead last in the Metro. And this is a must win because tomorrow this Rangers team gets on a plane for a hefty road trip where they play four games in seven nights in Seattle, Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver and their goaltender for tonight is a rookie. Who has made an appearance in every game since Igor Shesterkin got hurt. But we do have an update on the goaltending situation. Jonas Korpisalo got a lot of work in his first game of his conditioning stint. And a major update from Mike Sullivan on that conditioning stint. So we're going to get into all of that on this episode. Including what they did at Morning Skate this morning. The matchup with the Flyers. An update on Jonas Korpisalo. And an update on a player who's absolutely ripping it up. So let's start with an update that has serious implications on this Rangers team heading into this road trip. Jonas Korpisalo started his conditioning stint last night with the Hartford Wolfpack and he was busy. He stopped 34 of 37 shots in a 4-1 loss. Obviously, you don't like to see the team lose, but in terms of a conditioning stint, that's a good way to start it. Getting 37 shots on goal, he got his work in, and now Mike Sullivan said that the team has a certain number of games in mind for the stint, but he declined to elaborate on how many exactly. But this is the part that actually matters. Head coach Mike Sullivan said that he does expect Korpisalo to join the team and make the trip out west. Now, he may not start with them on the trip, but he will make his way out there at some point. point during the four-game road trip. Vince Mercogliano said this morning that he believes there's a really good chance that he makes a season debut in the next week or so, and that's his read. There's no real timeline on it. Mike Sullivan has been vague about everything all season, but I would imagine with him doing this conditioning stint back on the ice, He's going to join the team next week. And they need him. Dylan Grant, I think he's been great, but he needs help. And this is how long it's been going on. Korpisalo went on injured reserve on October 1st when the season started with a lower body injury. It was a foot infection. And then Dylan Grant got called up from the Hartford Wolf Pack. He skated with the team for the first time in a month on October 30th. And Jim Cerny called it a big step in his recovery. And boy, was it ever, because now he is actually back and playing games. And it looks like he is setting up a return next week. That also changes how you look at the next eight days or so, and especially this game tonight against the Flyers, because this could be a huge confidence booster building off that last win against the Blues heading into a very difficult road trip. And an update from Morning Skate revealed that. There really isn't any changes. The same lines apply as the last game. There is still no Sean Dursey, so he's still dealing with some type of injury. Dorofeev, Zibanejad, Lafreniere on the top line. Your second line is Cartier, Miller, and Perreault. And then you have Trouman and Cooley back at center again, and Bjorkstrand, and of course, Hemelash, Lafreniere, and Rempe on the fourth line. On defense, the pairings going into this game are Gavrikov and Fox, Pettersson and Schneider, and then Schmitz and Morrow. And Scott Morrow actually looked quite good last game. The power play is the same as well. So you have Fox, Zibanejad, Dorofeev, Perreault, and Lafreniere. And then the second unit, which is a new look unit, is Gavrikov, Bjorkstrand, Cartier, Miller, and Cooley on that second unit. And you know what? I don't know why I would have been expecting changes. I don't know if anyone was expecting changes. They won the last game. Keep things the same. Keep rolling. And this is an opponent that you can certainly beat. Now, they did get a victory in the last game, but it wasn't necessarily pretty. The Rangers were outshot 7-2 early in the first half of the first period, and it was scoreless through the first 20 minutes. But then Adam Fox takes over the game. He scores. Ty Cartier with a nice assist. And Grant made a big save, multiple big saves, but a big two-on-one save on Broberg. And then from there, the Rangers pull out the victory. Golikovser actually made 28 saves and had a .933 save percentage for the Blues. So that's a game that he could have stolen for them, but Dylan Grand was simply better on the other end. And everyone's thinking the same thing. It worked against the Blues. They started to build some confidence back as the game went on. Keep it the same as it is right now and then figure it out and what it looks like on the road trip, especially if Jersey is available before we go any further in the video. A quick reminder to hit that subscribe button. If you guys are enjoying the daily content on the Rangers, I'm going to continue to bring it every single day. So make sure you are subscribed to the channel because I am doing a Jersey giveaway here for whatever comes first, either 15,000 subscribers or the Rangers make the playoffs So now, let's get back into some updates. Sullivan didn't change anything going into this game, but let's have a look at who's doing the work for the Rangers so far. Adam Fox has 19 points, Lafreniere has 16, Miller and Zibanejad have 12 each, and Dorofeev has 9. The biggest change that they just made was Will Cooley moving to center, a position that he has never ever played in his life, and he said he was nervous before the game and that he settled in after a couple of shifts and it just seemed like second nature. Sullivan's MO this year is that nothing is ever etched in stone. I guess that has to do somewhat with the Igor Shesterkin injury too, so he could flip it back in one shift, but don't fix what isn't broken right now, and Cooley stays between Tolvanen and Bjorkstrand. And JT Miller gets demoted to the second power play unit again. We'll see if they continue to rock the. these units as they are but Sullivan says that he thinks JT understands the motion and honestly Perreault should be on that top power play unit. Adam Fox is the one carrying the load again this year he's been unbelievable if you look at all the advanced analytics and the JFresh charts he's been spectacular he had one goal and one assist in that game versus St. Louis and one model has him in the 100th percentile in projected wins above replacement 99th at even strength offense And .950 at even strength. Now, who's playing goaltender tonight? Well, you could have guessed it. It's Dylan Garan. Again, he was the first goalie off the ice, which means tonight he is making his 12th straight appearance, and he has played in every single game since Igor Shesterkin went down with that injury. 12 games out of the team's 16, and he's faced 285 shots. He has five wins, the most on the team, and Igor Shesterkin, before he left, had three. His save percentage is well above average right now, still at .905. The league average is 890 and he has 258 saves on 285 shots and a 2.57 goals against average. Five wins just looks okay. But if you dig under that, if you look at the advanced analytics by the shot quality numbers and everything out there in terms of advanced numbers, he has saved about two goals more than an average goalie would have so far this season. And like we talked about, this team, the way they're built, Igor keeps them afloat. And right now, talking about keeping afloat, Dylan Garan is keeping this team afloat. So with Shesterkin on long-term injury reserve and waiting for Korpisalo, Korpisalo is coming back and that should help in a big way so Garan can continue to mentally lock in for this team. Sullivan was even talking about the workload recently. He said that Garan has had a lot of really good starts for the team, but he also has a very heavy workload. So I'm hoping, and the biggest question going into tonight is, can Dylan Garan play his 12th straight appearance and have it be maybe, hopefully, an easy game for once? And that might be because the Flyers literally cannot score. They get 2.2 goals a game. The league median is 3.2. Their goal differential right now is a minus 20, and they take 23 shots a game, whereas the league average is 27.5. And it looks like Joseph Wall will get the start for the Flyers tonight. He was the first goalie off the ice. He's won 5-2 this season with a 3.13 goals against average and an 8.99 save percentage. The Rangers also beat this team, this Flyers team that made the playoffs last year, three games to one in the season series, including a 6-2 win on March 9th. The Flyers also needed some goaltending help this summer. So they made a trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs in June for him. Simone Benoit and then they sent back Sam Urson, Emile André in a third round pick and so far it hasn't really panned out for them. The Flyers have taken 35.3% of the points available to them so far this season and again the league average is 57. This is not a really good team and here is the recipe. Here's what's on the menu for beating a team that cannot score tonight. The penalty kill Kill is 90.4%. Against the league average of 76, it went six for six last game. Add in a Flyers offense at 2.2 goals a game and a goal differential of minus 20, and you have a result that should end up in a win. Now, the penalty kill did look good last game, but they took a lot of penalties. And Mike Sullivan talked about how some of the penalties or most of the penalties were stick infractions. And he's concerned about the stick infractions that they're taking game in and game out. And a penalty kill that is good is getting tested night in and night out, but you would like to play more five on five or power play time. And that's what I'm watching today. We know that on paper, the Rangers are better than the Flyers, but can they stay out of the box? Can they capitalize on this power play that hasn't been good enough this season? The Rangers also win 54% of their faceoffs. So in a night where it could come down to the little things, that is a little thing and a little statistic that could matter in the end tonight. And why the little things matter tonight is because you need to pick up a win here. After tonight, there is no easy part. There's no easy game. Seattle tomorrow, then Edmonton on the 10th, then you have Calgary on the 12th and Vancouver on the 14th. We have four games coming up in a week. And the last time we saw the Edmonton Oilers at MSG last week, they lit up the Rangers four to one. The Rangers, however, right now are still in a playoff spot. Now, it's going to get a little sketchy if you fall into a wildcard spot because the Atlantic Division is going to gobble those up. The Hurricanes right now have 26 points. The Rangers have 17. The top three in the division get in. So third place right now, where you are, you want to stay there. And you have to pick up as many points as possible. If they win tonight, they leave and go on this road trip with a record of 9-7-1. And without Igor Shesterkin and a bit of a cushion there, I mean, that is something I didn't expect. But if you go out and you lose to the last place team in the Metro, that trip, it's going to be a tough start to that trip. Now, one more thing before we go, and I would be remiss if I didn't mention this. I want to bring up Liam Greentree and how he's been doing in the AHL because he's actually been lighting it up. He has played 14 games. He has six goals and four assists for 10 points so far in his pro career. And five of those six goals have come on the power play. So he's becoming a special team specialist as well. He definitely leads the Wolfpack in power play goals. He's first amongst. AHL rookies and tied for second in the whole league amongst skaters. And then finally came his sixth goal of the season, which was the first one at even strength. Now, this is a kid who just started his pro career. And a couple of years ago, he had 119 points in 64 games in the OHL in 2024, 2025, and had 74 points in 52 games last year in the OHL with Windsor. His first pro goal came on October 10th against the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins, and he beat Joel Blomqvist in a 7-1 loss. Now, the Hartford Wolfpack this season, they are 6-7-1, which is not great. They're not doing a lot of winning, but they were a lot worse last year and the year before that. The one blemish on his record so far is a minus 7 rating. Of course, a lot of his goal scoring is coming on the power play. But, you know, that's obviously a team stat and something that they're continuing to work through new coaching staff, new staff in general, bunch of new young players. They're going to figure it out now. He's not being called up and I don't know where he is in terms of the list of being called up. I would prefer that he just stays down there and plays and continues to develop. And then we'll see him at some point either next year or the year after that. But just keep an eye on him because he's continuing to do his thing. That's a really good thing because sometimes it doesn't translate to the pro game. So that's everything you need to know heading into tonight. Same lineup. Dylan Garand is back in net. The Flyers are not very good. They do not score goals. And you have a big road trip that's coming up right after this that you get another goaltender back for and one that. I don't know how much I trust him period but I would trust him a lot more than any of the other options they have. So who wins this game? Is it the Rangers? Is it the Flyers? Let me know in the comments below. Who scores in this game? Let me know how you feel. Is it Zibanejad? Does he get back on the board? Let me know how you feel in the comments below. My name is Darius Dominguez. This is Rangers Digest and guys I'll see you for another video tomorrow.