Wednesday night, famous broadcasting duo, Sam Rosen and John ‘JD’ Davidson reunited to announce a New York Rangers game for the first time since April 29, 2006.
For 40 years of legendary calls and 20 years of "Sam and JD", thanks for the memories Sam Rosen and John Davidson ❤️💙 pic.twitter.com/dvdu7jOSQX
— NHLonTNT (@NHL_On_TNT) April 10, 2025
The Rangers had some jump from the start of this one. Just over one minute into the game, Mika Zibanejad was on a breakaway and hooked by Cam York. The referee called a penalty shot which the veteran took and missed. The Blueshirts opened the scoring with Vincent Trocheck’s shorthanded breakaway goal at 11:33 of the first period. The goal was assisted by Mika Zibanejad and the Rangers starting goalie Jonathan Quick.
🚨 Vincent Trocheck shorthanded goal 🚨
(via @BR_OpenIce) pic.twitter.com/s6cvHaNACL
— Rangers Videos (@SNYRangers) April 10, 2025
The rest of the first period was dominated by the Blueshirts who maintained a 12-5 advantage in shots on goal in the period.
At 9:03 of the second period, the Flyers equalized on Tyson Foerster’s wrist shot. The goal was assisted by Noah Cates.
Seven minutes later, the Rangers were on the power play and Trocheck turned the puck over at the offensive blue line to Flyers forward Garnet Hathaway. Hathaway skated the puck into the Rangers defensive zone and took a wrist shot that trickled beneath the pads of Quick and into the net to give the visitors their first lead of the game 2-1. The goal was assisted by Ryan Poehling.
Artemi Panarin tied the game when he skated in from the right wing and cut to the net, before popping a backhand over Flyers goalie Aleksei Kolosov’s shoulder. The goal was the Breadman’s 300th career goal and was assisted by Zibanejad and Urho Vaakanainen.
300 CAREER GOALS FOR ARTEMI PANARIN 🥖 pic.twitter.com/1sS7ZQJV23
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) April 10, 2025
The Rangers defense let down their goaltender when the Flyers regained the lead just three minutes into the third period. Flyers defenseman Travis Sanheim made a shot pass to the front of the net to Cates whose one time shot was stopped by a magnificent save from Quick. However, Sanheim was able to get to the rebound and score it.
Again the Rangers came storming back, this time getting two goals, the first from Jonny Brodzinski and the second from J.T. Miller, his 20th of the season to retake the lead 4-3 at 7:01 into the third period.
J.T. Miller rifles one home for his 20th tally of the season, putting the Rangers up 4-3!#NYR pic.twitter.com/ewk26OC5pU
— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights & News (@HockeyDaily365) April 10, 2025
However, the Flyers tied the game back up one minute later on Jakob Pelletier’s deflection. A theme throughout this game was the Rangers inability to defend well in their defensive zone and it reared its ugly head at 11:55 into the third period. The Flyers were allowed to skate the puck into the offensive zone and tee up a shot from the point by rookie sensation Matvei Michkov. Quick stopped the initial shot but left a rebound which was slammed home by Sean Couturier who helped Philadelphia regain a 5-4 lead.
The Flyers weren’t done there neither; Foerster tacked on his second of the game at 15:33 to make it 6-4.
Then Chris Kreider pulled one back for the Rangers when he scored a wrister all alone in front of Kolosov with just under 2 minutes remaining in regulation. But it was too little too late, as the Rangers pulled their goalie and surrendered two empty net goals.
The first empty net goal happened because Rangers defenseman Adam Fox tried to catch the puck and missed in the neutral zone and then got checked to the ice by Foerster. Foerster, with no additional pressure coming from the Rangers, collected the puck and fired it from center ice into the empty Ranger net to give Philadelphia a 7-5 lead with 53.8 seconds on the clock and by that point the game was over.
The Rangers offense played valiantly as they were able to put up five goals for the second time in their last three games but again the woes that have plagued them all season, special teams and team defense came to roost in this game.
With the loss, the Rangers fall to sixth place in the Eastern Conference wild card standings, even though they have as many points as the third place team, the Red Wings, Islanders and Blue Jackets have all played fewer games than the Rangers and that is the first tiebreaker.
During the postgame press conference, Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette described what led to his team being outscored 6-3 in the third period.
"I didn't like the way we attacked the period"
Peter Laviolette talks about the Rangers' defensive breakdowns in the third period: pic.twitter.com/ojQsX5yTBZ
— Rangers Videos (@SNYRangers) April 10, 2025
The first star was Tyson Foerster who paced all players with a hat trick. The second star was Noah Cates who had two assists and the third star was Mika Zibanejad who contributed four assists giving him a season high four points.
With the playoffs now slipping out of their reach, the New York Rangers will have to pick themselves up and dust themselves off for a quick turnaround against their rivals the New York Islanders tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m. at UBS Arena.
