The Philadelphia Flyers (25-21-11) struggled in their return to the ice on Wednesday night. It was another loss in Washington, and the road gets no easier as they get right back in action on Thursday night against the New York Rangers (22-29-6) at 8 PM.

How to WatchProjected Flyers Lines vs. CapitalsForwards

46 Trevor Zegras – 22 Christian Dvorak – 11 Travis Konecny
39 Matvei Michkov – 27 Noah Cates – 10 Bobby Brink
52 Denver Barkey – 14 Sean Couturier – 74 Owen Tippett
29 Nikita Grebenkin – 91 Carl Grundstrom – 19 Garnet Hathaway

Defense

6 Travis Sanheim – 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
8 Cam York – 9 Jamie Drysdale
24 Nick Seeler – 47 Noah Juulsen

Goalies

33 Sam Ersson
80 Dan Vladar

Scratches: Emil Andrae, Nicolas Deslauriers

Injury & Roster UpdatesLineup Updates: No changes are expected to the Flyers’ lineup ahead of Thursday’s game.InjuriesRodrigo Abols: fractured ankle, out at least two months from Jan. 21Tyson Foerster: surgery on right arm on Dec. 17, out five months.Opponent Snapshot: New York RangersOpponent record: 22-29-6Special Teams RankingPower Play: 22.7% (10th)Penalty Kill: 79.9% (14th)Who’s hot?: Mika Zibanejad has two goals and four points over his last five games. J.T. Miller has three assists in the last five games.Who’s in net?: Igor Shesterkin gets the start for the Rangers and returns from IR. He has a 17-12-4 record with a 2.45 GAA and .913 save percentage.Injuries: Adam Fox is expected to return for the first time since Jan. 5. Matt Rempe and Adam Edstrom remain on IR.Keys to the GameShot Mentality: Tocchet once again noted that the Flyers aren’t taking shots from the middle ice that are available to them. The Flyers’ struggle to score goals will only continue with this mentality.Lateral Goals: The Flyers didn’t allow much against Washington, but both goals against Dan Vladar were on cross-ice passes that force lateral movement, another big talking point for Tocchet. The Flyers continue to get caught in situations where these lateral goals are easy for the opposition.Ersson’s Return: Sam Ersson’s struggles have been no secret and another injury kept him sidelined going into the Olympic break. He’ll return tonight, with perhaps one final stretch to prove he should remain in the Flyers’ goaltending plans going forward.By the NumbersThe Flyers are 6-6-4 against the Metropolitan Division this season.Both the Rangers and Flyers have the same goals allowed per game at 3.16.The Flyers have lost 13 of their last 16 games dating back to Jan. 8.Quotable”The first nine minutes, we were dominating. But we still had pucks in the middle of the ice and we refused to shoot. I don’t know if it’s a confidence thing, but we’ve got to get shots in the middle of the ice with people.” – Rick Tocchet after Wednesday’s loss in Washington.X-FactorsBobby Brink: One of the few Flyers to deliver a really strong game, Brink had an assist on Wednesday and looked to be energized. The Flyers will need players like that in the back-to-back.Mika Zibanejad: The last time these two teams met, Zibanejad had a hat trick. It certainly wasn’t the first time it happened against the Flyers. Zibanejad had nine goals in seven games following the hat trick on Jan. 17. He has cooled since then with only two goals in the last eight games.

Kevin Durso is Flyers insider for 97.3 ESPN. Follow him on social media @Kevin_Durso.

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