Rangers vs. Flyers: 3 things you need to know

EAST
BOS vs. DET | TBL vs. MTL
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WEST
ANA vs. DAL | SJS vs. LAK
COL vs. MIN | STL vs. CHI

The New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers have not met in the postseason since 1997, but the Metropolitan Division rivals are sure to get reacquainted in a hurry when their first-round series begins at Madison Square Garden on Thursday.

Here are the three things you need to know:

New Coaches, Slow Starts, Strong Finishes

Both the Flyers and the Rangers looked lost early in the season, crumbling under the weight of inflated expectations.

Philadelphia fired its head coach three games into the season and had a 3-8-0 record at the end of October. New coach Craig Berube worked methodically to turn the team around, posting 17 wins over the next two months. A four-game winning streak heading into the Olympic break followed by a strong showing in March solidified the Flyers as a playoff contender. Philadelphia's resurgence was helped in no small part by Claude Giroux, who has put up MVP-caliber numbers since the beginning of December (68 points in 56 games).

New York began the season with a new coach of its own in Alain Vigneault and it took time for the team to accept his style. The Rangers won five games in October and owned a middling 20-19-2 record by the end of December. Goaltender Henrik Lundqvist shouldered much of the blame for the Rangers' early-season struggles, but his return to Vezina-candidate form in January (1.91 goals-against average, .938 save percentage) led the team to a 10-4-1 month and he hasn't looked back since.

No Love Lost

Approximately 100 miles separate Madison Square Garden from Wells Fargo Center - a distance close enough to build a fierce rivalry between the Rangers and the Flyers.

The two clubs split their four-game season series along home-ice lines, combining for 191 penalty minutes over those contests. They recorded four fights against one another this season, and according to hockeyfights.com, the Rangers have fought the Flyers more than any other team in their history.

Fighting tends to decrease in the postseason, but this series may prove to be the exception. Expect plenty of big hits and post-whistle scrums at the very least.

War of Attrition

A rough-and-tumble playoff series can take a bite of out a team's depth chart, and both the Rangers and Flyers enter this postseason with some key injury concerns.

New York is hoping Ryan McDonagh will be ready to go after holding the defenseman out of its final five regular-season contests due to a shoulder ailment. McDonagh plays some of the toughest minutes for the Rangers and recorded 43 points during the season - 19 more than any other New York defenseman. Also, rookie forward Chris Kreider has not played since March 24 due to a hand injury, but resumed skating last week.

Philadelphia received a scare when starting goaltender Steve Mason left Saturday's game against the Pittsburgh Penguins with an injury to his head and neck area. The Flyers insist Mason's injury is a minor one and he will be ready for the postseason, but if he is not the team will turn to backup Ray Emery, who helped the Ottawa Senators earn a Stanley Cup final berth in 2007. Defenseman Nicklas Grossman has missed three games due to a foot injury but should be healthy for Game 1.

Philadelphia also received some good news when the league decided not to suspend Scott Hartnell for a spearing incident on Sunday.

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