Trevor Zegras and the Flyers visit the Rangers tonight, and the center sits three goals shy of 100 for his NHL career.
He has 97 over 366 games, and the Flyers could use every one of the next few. They're 4-9-4 after Tuesday's 4-2 loss to the Wild, and the offense has leaned on the same few names for weeks.
The Flyers kept it simple on social media before puck drop.
Philadelphia posted a short message from Broadway: "Under the Broadway lights."
Zegras leads the team with 14 points through 17 games, built on 4 goals and 10 assists. That puts him ahead of Matvei Michkov, who has 13 points but a very different profile.
Michkov is the finisher with 10 goals. Zegras is the one setting the table, and 10 assists on a team that has scored 37 goals all season makes him a rare playmaker in this lineup.
Why the Flyers need his passing more than his milestone
The 100-goal mark is a nice storyline, but the standings don't care about it. Philadelphia sits 30th in the NHL and eighth in the Metropolitan Division, with a goal differential of -21.
Zegras has also been a factor on special teams. He has 1 power-play goal and 6 power-play assists this season, plus 1 game-winning goal.
The one blemish is his -5 rating, which is better than Michkov's -10 but still tells you the Flyers get hurt when the game opens up. That is a team problem more than a Zegras problem, and I'd rather see him getting the puck in space than being asked to defend a 4-2 hole.
The road is where it gets ugly. The Flyers are 1-5-1 away from home, and tonight they face a Rangers team that is 7-2-0 at Madison Square Garden.
New York is 8-7-1 and coming off a 3-1 win over the Blues on Tuesday, so this isn't a gimme for either side. But the Rangers are 18th in the NHL, and the Flyers have a real chance to prove the road record isn't permanent.
Rick Tocchet's group needs a result more than Zegras needs a milestone. If the goals come, great. If the points keep coming through passes, the Flyers will take that too.
You can read more on the lineup's production problem in Flyers need more than Zegras and Michkov at Rangers, and the Wild loss is covered in Michkov carrying a Flyers team stuck at 29th.
Whichever way the night goes, the trip continues with Zegras three goals from 100 and the Flyers still hunting a road win away from Philadelphia.
