The home matchups against the Rangers have become the litmus test for where the Philadelphia Flyers are really at.
For the past couple of years, ever since John Tortorella took over behind the bench and the Flyers entered an openly stated rebuild, New York in town meant a flood of Rangers fans to South Philly and the Wells Fargo Center essentially becoming Madison Square Garden South.
But the tides, they might be shifting now.
In a black Friday matinee against the longtime rival, the Flyers checked the Rangers into the ground, Ivan Fedotov made some bigtime saves, Bobby Brink and Travis Konecny put the Orange and Black ahead, then Konecny finished it all off with the empty-netter to put away a benchmark 3-1 win.
The Flyers improved to 11-10-3 on the season, 5-2-1 in their last eight games, and in a matchup where their fans had been desperate to take control back of their building for years, at long last took with a thundering roar as the final horn sound.
The Flyers swarmed the Rangers from the word go.
They hit the ice with speed, and attacked in waves of pressure, with the Rangers rarely ever fast enough to react.
Whenever New York tried to push a pass through the neutral zone, a Flyer was either there to meet its receiver or pick the puck entirely to turn it the other way.
The Flyers generated a slew of dangerous scoring chances through the opening period, and Bobby Brink and Travis Konecny cashed in on an early couple of them to spot Philly a 2-0 lead.
Tyson Foerster blocked an Adam Fox point shot several minutes in, as the bounce ricocheted through the neutral zone to send the two skaters in a race after it. Foerster, with the edge in momentum, won it and shielded possession with a spin along the boards to the backhand upon the zone entry.
All the while, Brink followed the play and went crashing in toward the net, taking the pass in from Foerster along the wall off the backhand, then making the quick shift over to the forehand to get off a shot that beat Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin for the opening mark.
The home crowd erupted, a "Let's Go Flyers!" chant carried off the ensuing draw, and in a matchup that Rangers fans have overtaken over the past couple of years – as the Flyers have been working to re-establish themselves while New York chased after Stanley Cup aspirations – the Philly faithful fought to keep the building this time.
Tyson with the turnaround, Bobby finished the job. 😤#NYRvsPHI | #LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/yIEDy5PYuH
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) November 29, 2024
Konecny gave the Wells Fargo Center more cheer about a minute later.
Rasmus Ristolainen gained control of the puck behind the Flyers' net, then threaded a pinpoint pass to Sean Couturier at center ice. The Flyers' captain tapped the puck ahead of Konecny, who started taking his strides up the ice on the right side, and the team's leading scorer was off to the races from there.
Konecny went barreling into the offensive zone, then made the cut inside toward the net and around New York defenseman Jacob Trouba, making the move to the backhand and slipping the puck five-hole through Shesterkin's pads for his 12th goal of the season.
THE BOYS IN BLACK ARE BUZZING!#NYRvsPHI | #LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/lXkdhdqnAs
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) November 29, 2024
By that point, the ice was going way downhill in favor of Philadelphia.
The Flyers were winning the shot battle, 6-0, which eventually snowballed into 10-0 by the midway point of the period on a rush opportunity that left Noah Cates trying to jam the puck through before it got swatted away wide, and then on a Konecny intercept of a Trouba pass through the neutral zone that he and Couturier broke for another look on, but that they couldn't connect with on the cross-crease attempt.
It took the Rangers 11 minutes before they finally registered a shot on goal, and Fedotov put the glove on it without issue, as a cheer of irony – probably from Rangers and Flyers fans both – echoed out of the seats upon the whistle.
Soon after, Brink stole his own neutral zone pass from New York's Reilly Smith and took off straight toward Shesterkin, who made the stop on the clear look and shot, and overall prevented Friday from looking far, far worse for the Rangers.
Joel Farabee got a chance when he cycled the puck out from behind the Ranger net and up the wall with Konecny, which freed Farabee to drift over top of the left circle for a shot as soon as a quick pass got out to him. The puck just sailed wide for what's been a snakebitten player of late, and one that went on to generate several more scoring chances in the second period to no avail.
Fedotov, in the Flyers' goal, didn't see any serious work until late into the first, when the Rangers finally got a puck to the front of the net as winger Brett Berard waited from in tight with no one else there. Fedotov put a wall up, with the bounce off the pads steering the puck clear and out of danger.
New York's Vincent Trocheck and Alexis Lafrenière came back with an odd-man rush when there were less than two minutes remaining on the clock, but Fedotov had the read on it and made the stop on the one-time look to keep the Rangers off the board.
We got a Feddy there. #NYRvsPHI | #LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/jqOJbDzdqp
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) November 29, 2024
When the horn sounded, the Flyers went down the tunnel carrying a 15-4 edge in shots and having thoroughly dominated possession of the puck in maybe their finest 20 minutes of hockey in the season so far.
They kept it rolling through the second, though with a Trocheck goal on a possession where Scott Laughton lost his stick and left for the bench too soon making for the blemish that kept Friday at a one-goal game for a majority of the remaining 40.
The Rangers started making some headway and giving some pushback, but the Flyers mostly kept the ice tilting down toward Shesterkin. They just couldn't crack New York's star goaltender after their initial two goals.
Tight checking had to carry them through, along with the unrelenting pressure they brought from the start and the continued control of possession they'd been maintaining.
Fedotov needed to make a few more key stops through the third, while his teammates in front of him made some timely blocks, and at the other end of the ice, continually tested Shesterkin and the Rangers' defense with some scary opportunities – like a well-placed shot from Couturier that put a rebound just over Konecny's stick blade and through his feet.
But the Flyers held on, maybe in their biggest win of this rebuilding era.
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