Rangers vs. Flyers: Lineups, storylines for 1st game after Olympic break
For the first time in three weeks, the New York Rangers play a hockey game Thursday night, when they host the Philadelphia Flyers at Madison Square Garden.
It’s the first game since the Olympic break, and begins a stretch of four straight at home, where the Rangers won just six times in 25 games (6-15-4) this season. This is also the start of a sprint to the finish line, since the Rangers play 25 games in the final 49 days of the 2025-26 season.
It’s basically a lost season for the Rangers (22-29-6), who are last in the Eastern Conference and 30th overall in the NHL standings. It certainly felt that point was reinforced Wednesday, when Artemi Panarin made his debut with the Los Angeles Kings, after the Rangers traded their most productive player to Hollywood. And more moves are expected ahead of the March 6 NHL Trade Deadline.
“Yeah, so we’re going to get right back into it. I think our team is at a particular point in time. What we’re going to do is control what we can. That was one of the discussions I had with the group [Wednesday],” coach Mike Sullivan told reporters. “My hope is that we a) build an environment here that’s competitive, and we want to hold ourselves accountable to a certain standard. And I think if we do that, I think we’ll get some results and we’ll also get a better feeling of what’s going on around here.”
Sullivan is fresh off coaching the United States to a gold medal in men’s hockey at the Milan-Cortina Olympics. Rangers captain J.T. Miller and veteran center Vincent Trocheck played key bottom-six roles for Team USA, and each is in the lineup Thursday. Expect a pregame ceremony saluting the gold medalists at MSG.
Also, expect to see some familiar faces returning to the Rangers lineup. And some less familiar ones, as well.
Igor Shesterkin is back between the pipes, set to play his first game since he sustained a lower-body injury Jan. 5 against the Utah Mammoth. Top-pair defenseman Adam Fox is also good to go after he, too, sustained a lower-body injury in that same game. Including the Jan. 5 loss, the Rangers lost 12 of 14 without Shesterkin and Fox in the lineup.
Veteran forward Conor Sheary also appears set to return. He’s been out since a Dec. 31 lower-body injury. Brendan Brisson was called up from Hartford of the American Hockey League and looks to be in the lineup Thursday. Defenseman Vincent Iorio will play his second game since the Rangers claimed him off waivers shortly before the break.
3 storylines when Rangers host Flyers
1. Turn the golden page
It won’t be easy for Miller and Trocheck to not feel a letdown Thursday. Four days prior, they played the biggest game of their respective careers, the 2-1 overtime victory by the United States over archrival Canada in the Olympic gold medal game. Now they’re back to take part in a game between a pair of bottom-feeders in the League.
But they are team leaders for a reason. So, expect Miller and Trocheck to give it their best against the Flyers, and, perhaps, receive an adrenaline bump from the pregame ceremonies with The Garden expected to be rocking with “U-S-A!” chants.
“This the part where we are professionals and we have a job to do,” Miller said Wednesday after practice.” We kinda want to obviously change the narrative the final six weeks of this season. I think we get a lot of bodies back, get more of our team team looking more like it was the start of the season. It’s imperative that we come in and are ready to play.”
2. Welcome back!
Talk about sights for sore eyes. The Rangers were a mess without Shesterkin and Fox in the lineup most of January. So, yeah, it’s a big deal that they’re back to stabilize things for the Rangers on Thursday — and, knock on wood, for the rest of this season.
It’s a bit curious that Sullivan’s opting to get Sheary back in the lineup instead of, say, Brett Berard. Or that Sheary’s on the third line with Brisson and Noah Laba, ahead of Brennan Othmann, who’s on the fourth line. That is unless the Rangers are trying to showcase the two-time Stanley Cup winner ahead of the trade deadline.
Brisson, an AHL All-Star who’s second on Hartford with 13 goals, is expected to make his Rangers debut. It’ll be his first NHL game since Jan. 24, 2025, when he skated for the Vegas Golden Knights against the Dallas Stars. the forward has eight points (two goals, six assists) in 24 NHL games.
3. Not flying so high
The Flyers (25-21-11) came out of the break and lost 3-1 to the Washington Capitals on Wednesday. Since Jan. 8, the Flyers are 3-9-4 and sunk to 14th place in the Eastern Conference. They are eight points out of the second wild card and also eight behind the Islanders for third place in the Metropolitan Division.
Their offense dried up, and the overall goal differential of minus-15 is fourth worst in the conference. Philly scored two goals or fewer in nine of their past 16 games.
The Flyers did score seven goals, but lost both games against the Rangers so far this season, 5-4 in a shootout at MSG on Dec. 20 and 6-3 in Philly on Jan. 17, the first game after The Letter 2.0. The Rangers are 12-3-1 against the Flyers in their past 16 meetings.
New York Rangers projected lineup
J.T. Miller — Mika Zibanejad — Gabe Perreault
Will Cuylle — Vincent Trocheck — Alexis Lafreniere
Conor Sheary — Noah Laba — Brendan Brisson
Brennan Othmann — Sam Carrick — Taylor Raddysh
Vladislav Gavrikov — Adam Fox
Braden Schneider — Will Borgen
Matthew Robertson — Vincent Iorio
Igor Shesterkin
Jonathan Quick
Rangers vs. Flyers: When, where, what time, how to watch
Who: New York Rangers vs. Philadelphia Flyers
When: Thursday, Feb. 26 at 8 p.m. ET
Where: Madison Square Garden
How to watch: ESPN
