One by one, Flyers players, now dressed in suits and rolling overnight suitcases, quietly filed out of the barren visitor’s locker room in the bowels of Madison Square Garden Sunday afternoon. Some left wearing blank expressions and some still had scowls on their faces, the result of the Rangers’ 4-2 win in Game 5 that sends the first-round series back to Philadelphia with the Flyers down 3-2.
As distasteful as Sunday’s loss was for the Flyers — falling behind 3-0 in the second period and going 1-for-5 on the power play — theys did not leave New York without hope despite facing playoff elimination in Tuesday night’s Game 6 at the Wells Fargo Center.
This is because the Flyers are not easy to eliminate. They have, it seems, been coming back all season —Â from a 1-7 start that bled to 4-10-1 and a players-only meeting to a franchise-record 11 third-period comeback victories.
The Flyers, too, have trailed the Rangers in all five games in this series.
“It’s frustrating when you’re always playing catch-up,’’ Flyers winger Scott Hartnell said. “You make it a lot harder on yourself.’’
The Rangers would be mistaken if they even have a thought the Flyers are done. The Flyers aren’t dead yet.
“Game 6 is going to be huge, obviously,’’ Flyers captain and leading scorer Claude Giroux said. “We are not looking at this like it’s the last game of our season. We’ve come back all season long when it matters, and we’re going to stay confident about that.’’
This wasn’t exactly a guarantee like the one Giroux made after the Flyers’ Game 3 loss in Philly when he told reporters the Flyers were going to win Game 4 and go back to New York tied 2-2. Which, of course, they did.
But, faintly recognizable in the haze of the Flyers’ disappointment about their Game 5 loss Sunday was a subtle sense of reassurance inside their hushed locker room that they’ll be back in New York for a Game 7 on Wednesday.
“This series is definitely not over,’’ Flyers goalie Steve Mason said. “We are looking forward to getting back home, having a big game and bringing it back here for Game 7.’’
Among the many things the Flyers know about their bitter division rivals is this: The Rangers have a track record of handling prosperity as if they were stick handling a puck on bad ice —Â which is to say: not well.
Though the Rangers have an all-time 13-2 record in best-of-seven series in which they’ve taken 3-2 leads, their handling of leads in recent times — including in this series — has been questionable.
“I know for a fact they don’t like to come into our building. That’s always a tough game for them and we feel comfortable at home,’’ Hartnell said. “We’ve got to hit the delete button on this one and refocus. It’s do or die in Game 6 at home, but we’ve been excellent at crunch time when we need big wins with big guys stepping up.’’
Giroux, who scored his first goal of the series Sunday, said: “We’re a team with a lot of character, a really passionate team, and we have to bring that to Game 6.’’
Flyers center Vinny Lecavalier, who’s struggled all series until scoring a goal Sunday, added: “All year we’ve been a team that comes back and never gives up. We can’t think, ‘Oh, we have to win two games.’ We have to win the next game and go from there. We have to think about what we have to do to be better, execute more and create more. I believe if we do that we’ll have a great game on Tuesday.’’
The Rangers must sniff out — and snuff out — the Flyers’ desperation Tuesday night, because the more desperate team has won each game of this series. And there is no question which team will be more desperate Tuesday night.
“Obviously, we know their backs are against the wall and we’re going to get their most desperate and intense game,’’ Rangers center Brad Richards said. “But we’ve been in that building and played well there, so we’ll get right back at it.’’
As Hartnell left the locker room Sunday, he talked about the “long night ahead thinking about what we could have done better.’’
“It’s going to be a frustrating night, but [Monday] is a new day to get to practice and get focused on back-to-back games,’’ he said. “I think everyone has known since the beginning of this series it was probably going to go seven games.’’