It’s hard to know where to start.
Mika Zibanejad had a hat trick and six points in the second period for the New York Rangers
The Wednesday night game between the Philadelphia Flyers and New York Rangers was an unqualified disaster.
The final score says it all, 9-0, in favor of the Rangers on their home ice.
“No doubt that we weren’t good tonight,” Flyers head coach Alain Vigneault said. “We couldn’t defend and couldn’t make a play. Got truly embarrassed.”
The Flyers made Alexandar Georgiev look terrific after being pulled from his previous two starts, he made 26-saves for the shutout.
“It was surreal,” Georgiev said. “I obviously tried to focus on my job during the game, but you could not ignore how unbelievable the guys were playing.”
The Rangers were coached by former Flyer, Kris Knoblauch; he was called up from Hartford Wolf Pack of the American Hockey League after the Rangers’ primary coaching staff was placed on COVID-19 protocols.
“It happens very quickly,” Knoblauch said. “Getting the call at 11:30 that you might be. I rush home and pack. Initially it was going to be one game, but then they’re like, ‘Well, you might be going on the road trip,’ so then you pack extra. Really, you didn’t have much time to think about it. Everything was laid out for us by the coaching staff and when the game started there are some nerves, definitely some excitement, but then you’ve got to get into game mode, coach mode. It’s certainly a night that I’ll never forget.”
It gets worse, Pavel Buchnevich picked up four points in the with two goals, to open the seven-goal middle frame for New York.
That, after the Rangers had posted two goals in the first period from Brendan Lemieux and Artemi Panarin.
Jacob Trouba pushed the lead to 5-0 with his first goal of the season.
The Mika Zibanejad went to work with a natural hat trick to snap out of his funk this season.
“Everyone is going to go back to last season and the expectation is obviously higher, but if the puck doesn’t want to go in it doesn’t want to go in,” Zibanejad said. “I’ve been trying to get myself through this and it hasn’t been easy, but it is what it is. It’s one game, but I feel like the game just overall has been feeling a little bit better for the past little bit here. Production is a big part of it when you get the ice time I’ve been getting and the role that I have, but as long as we keep winning then I’m happy.”
Zibanejad also had three assists in the period for six points, breaking a Rangers franchise record and tying a league record.
The hat trick came off a power play goal, shorthanded strike and a 5-on-5 marker.
“His stat line says enough,” Knoblauch said. “Looked like a guy that has added a lot of confidence. He was playing very similar to what I recognized from him last year.”
Mercifully, Filip Chytil ended the scoring in the period and the game on a cross-slot pass to make it 9-0.
No part of the Flyers’ game worked on Wednesday. Not that they didn’t click, they didn’t work.
The defense pair of Travis Sanheim and Philippe Myers were dreadful, each was a minus-six on the night.
“I don’t know what to tell you, it’s embarrassing the way we played,” the Flyers’ Claude Giroux said. “The effort has to be better. It’s not one or two guys, it’s everybody’s got to be better. That’s all I got to say.”
The forwards did not challenge a single Rangers’ rush, and back-checking was nonexistent.
All this, as the NHL trade deadline approaches.
The Flyers are now looking ahead of them at the Boston Bruins in the standings and behind at the Rangers, who are just three points back.
Goaltending? If there was less disastrous portion of the Flyers’ night, it was their netminder corps.
Brian Elliott got the start and was given the hook in the second period after yielding five goals and making eight saves.
Carter Hart was placed in the barrage and gave up four goals and made 12 saves.
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