Chris Kreider

Now with nine games to go, the countdown is on until the end of the season. The Flyers sit 11 points out of the final playoff spot. Their tragic number is down to seven. It’s not a matter of if, it’s when. Friday’s game was just another example of all of the problems this team had over the course of this grueling schedule and this prolonged stretch of games without stringing together wins.

The Rangers scored two goals in the first period, then added two more in the third to claim a 4-1 result from the Flyers on Friday night at Madison Square Garden.

An unlikely hero emerged late in the third, as Sam Morin scored his first NHL goal with 4:27 to play in the game. That goal held up as the game-winner, in a much-needed, 2-1 victory for the Flyers over the Rangers on Saturday afternoon at Wells Fargo Center.

The Flyers took the ice against the Rangers at Wells Fargo Center and should have had revenge on their minds. Instead, the Rangers scored three in the first and three early in the second to pile on. Carter Hart was chased from the game. Mika Zibanejad had another hat trick and six-point game. And the Flyers were shelled by the Rangers again, this time by a score of 8-3.

If there is going to be the turnaround so many within the organization think is still possible, it's going to have to start on Thursday night. And guess who comes to town? The Flyers and Rangers face off for the first time since last Wednesday's embarrassing performance.

After allowing the first two goals of the game to put themselves in another hole, the Flyers gave up another goal in the first two minutes of the second period. The game was essentially over right then and there, because the 18 minutes that followed were not just the worst the Flyers have played this season, they were historically bad.

The Flyers return to the ice on Wednesday night to face the New York Rangers again in the second game of a four-game road trip.

Perhaps the start of this week can provide the spark for the Flyers. They are playing the New York Rangers, another team not in the playoff picture. These are games the Flyers need to have in order to keep up in the race and make the head-to-head matchups against the top teams in the division more meaningful as the season progresses.

With their full lineup back on the ice, the Penguins showed the formula that defeats the Flyers, and did it without Sidney Crosby in the lineup. Following a quick response to a Flyers goal off a turnover, they commanded the play from there, and it didn’t seem to matter that the Flyers were throwing plenty of rubber at the Pittsburgh net.

It wasn’t a pretty win, and it wasn’t going to be pretty with the Flyers still plenty shorthanded from their COVID situation. But Claude Giroux marked the first player to return on a list that will only be increasing with each passing day, and he showed just how motivated he was to come back strong.