What a week, huh? Flyers got their first regulation win in quite some time, Matvei Michkov and Travis Konecny are heating up, and the team’s still in the running for a top five pick. Oh yeah, and the front office sacked cantankerous head coach John Tortorella–on baseball’s opening day, no less! The Flyers may be the kid brother of Philadelphia sports teams, but they’ve got main character energy in spades.
This afternoon, the Flyers take on the woeful Buffalo Sabres, who are, once again, at the bottom of the league’s standings. It’s been a Ruff season (get it? Cuz their head coach is Lindy Ruff?) that extends the longest streak of playoff misses in NHL history, and Dylan Cozens–who they traded at the deadline for Josh Norris to shake up the roster–has been excellent with the Ottawa Senators, adding further fuel to the, “everybody gets better when they leave” fire.
That all said, the Sabres have found some consistency lately, and they enter today’s matchup on a three-game winning streak, fulfilling the age-old prophecy:
This is a must-lose game for the Flyers if they wish to stay in the thick of the chase for a top pick, but the same could be said for the Sabres. We wouldn’t blame you if you’ve got a better way to spend a beautiful Saturday afternoon, to be honest: two bottom-feeding teams duking it out is can-miss television.
Storylines to Follow
Cam York is back
No Flyers has had a wilder week than Cam York, who found himself benched for 50 minutes of Tuesday’s blowout loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs, and then on the bench without a stick for the entire 60 minutes of Thursday’s win over the Montreal Canadiens. The first benching was a Torts special, and given the reports we’ve been hearing, must’ve led to quite the exchange that surely contributed to Tortorella getting canned. However, York must’ve taken things too far, hence the disciplinary benching–effectively a “healthy scratch,” though the team couldn’t recall another player to join the roster after they used their fourth and final on Aleksei Kolosov. Today, we see how York will respond to a) back-to-back benchings and b) a Tortorella-less Flyers.
Top line’s getting hot!
The top line of Travis Konecny, Sean Couturier, and Matvei Michkov has been cooking–Michkov and Couturier both had two goal, one assist nights against the Habs, and Konecny is no longer ice cold. It’s exciting to see Michkov scoring like this (and basically leading the league in 5-on-5 points since Four Nations), but more important might be Couturier. Given his injury history, age, and otherwise down season, a scoring burst late would do a lot to alleviate concerns over Couturier’s decline over the remainder of his contract.
1-for-March
They did it, they finally did it! A power play goal! Their first of the month of March! While it would’ve been funny to see the team go oh-for the month, it is a relief to see them get at least one. The five-forward formation is usually reserved for those teams with such high end offensive players (the Leafs are running a 5F unit right now, and the Florida Panthers have in the past) that you’d be foolish to not have them all on the ice at the same time, but the Flyers might have found a combination that works. Hopefully we get a look at Jamie Drysdale or–now that Tortorella’s gone–maybe York on the man advantage down the stretch of the season.
Projected Lineups
Philadelphia Flyers
Travis Konecny – Sean Couturier – Matvei Michkov
Tyson Foerster – Noah Cates – Bobby Brink
Owen Tippett – Ryan Poehling – Jakob Pelletier
Nic Deslauriers – Rodrigo Abols – Olle Lycksell
Cam York – Travis Sanheim
Nick Seeler – Jamie Drysdale
Emil Andrae – Egor Zamula
Sam Ersson
(Ivan Fedotov)
Buffalo Sabres
Zach Benson – Jiri Kulich – Tage Thompson
JJ Peterka – Ryan McLeod – Jack Quinn
Isak Rosen – Peyton Krebs – Alex Tuch
Beck Malenstyn – Tyson Kozak – Josh Dunne
Mattias Samuelsson – Rasmus Dahlin
Owen Power – Jacob Bernard-Docker
Bowen Byram – Connor Clifton
James Reimer
(Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen)
Gameday Tunes
With all of the youngins the Flyers are signing, this one feels appropriate as we play out the string. Who knows? Maybe we get to see one of them in the pros before the season’s over! Provided they’re not being recalled from the AHL, of course.
Stats courtesy Hockey Reference
