If this game was a preamble to what could be a first-round playoff series between long-time rivals, then rest assured it's going to get a lot better.
Because on Wednesday night, the Rangers welcomed the Flyers into the Garden and subsequently bled the life out of them, taking a 3-1 win and earning their fifth victory in a row.
It gave the Blueshirts a three-point lead on the Flyers for second place in the Metropolitan Division with eight games remaining, while Philadelphia holds two games in hand.
"It's the biggest game of the season, right now," Rick Nash said before the game, before the Flyers came out tepid and struggled to pick up the intensity — the good chances they did have thwarted by goalie Henrik Lundqvist, who was less than two minutes away from his 51st career shutout before Jakob Voracek blasted a one-timer past him with 1:53 left.
"We know, we all look at the standings, it could be a playoff matchup," Nash said. "There is still a lot that can happen. With eight games after this, a lot can happen."
Playing without top-six forward Chris Kreider, sidelined indefinitely with a left-hand injury, the Rangers (41-29-4) pretty well sealed this one when fourth-liner Dominic Moore deflected in a point shot from Kevin Klein, giving them a 3-0 lead 7:39 into the third period.
Following Monday's 4-3 overtime win over the Coyotes, they had leapfrogged the Flyers, rounding into form just as a four-game road trip through western Canada and Denver begins on Friday in Calgary.
The Flyers (38-27-7) played host to the Kings on Monday night, and after coming back from a 2-0 deficit to tie it, dropped the game, 3-2, allowing the Rangers to pass them in what is becoming a seesaw battle for second place.
"We've won our last four games and we haven't budged a bit," coach Alain Vigneault said in the morning. "We have to focus on one game at a time and work on getting in, and we'll see what happens after that."
The Rangers picked up their play in the second period, when they pulled out to a 2-0 lead 5:34 in after Ryan McDonagh made just an absolutely filthy play, keeping the puck in the zone, executing a nice little toe-drag to create space near the right circle then ripping a wrist shot that bounced from the right post to the back of the net and to the far post, ringing like a winning pinball shot.
After that, it was the Lundqvist show, as he made a handful of great saves, none more impressive than when there was just over five minutes remaining in the period and he stoned Michael Raffl point-blank, then slid to his right and denied Adam Hall on the rebound.
"We don't have to look ahead," Lundqvist said. "It's easy to take one game at a time at this time of year."
The game opened with a quick first period, as the Flyers outshot the Rangers, 15-6, but the Blueshirts held the scoreboard with a 1-0 lead. That came 8:41 in, when a rimmed puck got past Philadelphia defender Kimmo Timonen and was corralled by Brian Boyle, who turned and fired a great pass to Derek Dorsett in front of the net, a quick backhand lifted over Steve Mason for first blood.
"We need to come out firing," Nash said beforehand. "We need this building to be a hard place to play in."
For one night, at least, it the Rangers made it just that.
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