New York Rangers

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.

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.

Claude Giroux had three assists as the Flyers struck for two goals in the first and second periods, holding off the Rangers in a 4-3 win on Wednesday night at Wells Fargo Center.

The Flyers are also getting some reinforcements back in the lineup. Claude Giroux returned to practice on Tuesday and was the first of the players on the COVID list to return. More will follow in the coming days. For now, Giroux and the rest of the team continue their season, facing the New York Rangers on Wednesday night.

While the Rangers snapped a four-game losing streak and earned just their fifth win of the season against the Flyers on Thursday night, the circumstances the Flyers were in made this an uphill battle from the start. The Flyers got off to a good one at that, but ultimately had to overcome too much to secure that second point.

When it came down to the wire, a late goal managed to get them a point in the standings and force overtime, but in a shootout, the Rangers would prevail over the Flyers with a pair of goals in a 3-2 final at Wells Fargo Center on Thursday night.

The Flyers face the New York Rangers in their first game since last Sunday. The Rangers enter this game on a four-game losing streak, fresh off a loss to the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday in the Devils' first game back since their own COVID situation.

The NHL has announced that the Flyers game on Sunday against the New York Rangers has also been postponed. The league is expected to be able to re-open training facilities on Monday. Their next game would come against the Rangers on Thursday, Feb. 18.

Both the New Jersey Devils and Buffalo Sabres had to postpone multiple games as they deal with outbreaks, and that has forced four adjustments to the Flyers schedule.

Take the emotion of playoff hockey and bottle it up into a 56-game schedule where you play the same seven teams all season and it’s a recipe for rivalry. The 2020-21 season schedule will be the strangest we’ve seen so far, but it has a chance to restore some divisional rivalries for the Flyers.