Recap Of Flyers Rangers Game One

The Flyers continued their woeful streak at Madison Square Garden, dropping their 9th straight game on the Rangers home ice. The Flyers were simply outplayed in this one. They were out shot 36-15 by the Rangers and lost the game 4-1. They managed to keep it close until the third period when it all slipped away.

The Flyers took the lead 7 minutes into the game with Andrew MacDonald's slapshot from the point. The puck found its way through traffic and beat Henrik Lundqvist to kick off the scoring. The play was set up by Scott Hartnell's terrific effort on the forecheck. He laid Olympic Defenseman Ryan McDonagh out with a shoulder check, corralled the puck, and found MacDonald at the point for the assist. Besides that play, the Flyers offense did not look great tonight. The Rangers were able to tie the game on a weak goal let up by Ray Emery. Mats Zuccarello threw a shot on net, Emery made the save but allowed the rebound to bounce right back onto Zuccarello's stick and Zuccarello deposited the puck into a wide open net to knot it up at one a piece.

Flyers' Rookie, Jason Akeson Delivers Blow That Opened The
Floodgates For Rangers' Goals, And Carl Hagelin's Nose.

The game stayed tied at 1-1 the remainder of the first period through the conclusion of the second period. The third period proved to be deadly for the Flyers. Outplayed throughout the whole game, there was still a chance for the Flyers to steal Game 1 at MSG. That was until rookie forward Jason Akeson, who was playing in just his third career game, went to the penalty box 7 minutes into the third period with a high sticking call. It was ruled a double minor (4 minutes, basically 2 separate penalties on one play) because he drew blood when he hit Rangers' forward Carl Hagelin in the face with his stick. In Akeson's defense, it looked like he was trying to shoulder check Hagelin, fell off balance, and in doing so waved his stick around, which happened to catch Hagelin right in the nose. Regardless, it was a terrible penalty to take and the Rangers were able to score 2 goals in 47 seconds on the same powerplay.

Hagelin was able to stop his nosebleed long enough to tack on the Rangers' 4th and final goal with 4 minutes left in the 3rd and subsequently squash any hopes the Flyers had of a Game 1 win. The play began in the Flyers offensive zone. The Flyers rang one off the post causing the puck to deflect out of the zone, and Hagelin was able to capitalize on the ensuing odd-man rush.

Overall, this was a bad bad loss. The Flyers were out-skated, out-hit, out-shot, and thus, out-played. Giroux was completely shut down in this contest. The only reason he made his way into the box score was because he had one hit. Not even a single shot on goal by G. The Flyers need a lot more production out of their captain or else they're looking at a four game sweep.

The Flyers look to turn the tides and even the series at one a piece in Game 2 at MSG before returning to the Wells Fargo Center for Game 3. Game 2 is slated for Sunday at 12 PM and can be seen on NBC.