The Game: 4 p.m. on NBC Sports Philadelphia and 97.5 The Fanatic
It may be a few days after Christmas, but it’s the gift we’ve been waiting for: the first time the Philadelphia Flyers will face the prospect that spurned them, Cutter Gauthier. This match also marks the first time Jamie Drysdale–acquired in the trade for Gauthier–will face the team that drafted him, the Anaheim Ducks. Sparks are gonna fly.
Or, more likely, won’t. Both teams are coming out of the holiday break, and neither is particularly good; the Flyers and Ducks are each 3-6-1 in their last 10 games. The Flyers enter tonight off a blowout loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins, and the Ducks are coming in off a 3-1 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights. This may be the most mediocre matchup of all NHL games today, but at least it starts at 4 p.m. EST–that’s a relief for a west coast game.
The Flyers limped into the Christmas break, and the outlook isn’t all that rosy. None of the goaltenders have established themselves definitively as a number one, and Sam Ersson in particular has underwhelmed since returning from injury–we’re leaving “slump” territory and entering “might not have it after all.” The defense has taken a step back, in no small part due to the questionable decision to loan Emil Andrae back to the Phantoms; he should be with the team now, because the second pair is lost without him. Up front, the forwards haven’t been able to finish on their chances (story of the year, really), and Matvei Michkov’s extended point drought isn’t helping, either.
Anaheim, for all its young and exciting talent, continues to muddle through an extended rebuild. The forward core may be the most disappointing this season: Trevor Zegras is out with an injury, Leo Carlsson and Mason McTavish have stalled, and Gauthier’s been meh–none of them have more than 14 points, and all have played at least 24 games. Not great! The defense is at least a bit more exciting, as Jackson LaCombe has stepped into a top-pair role opposite Radko Gudas with the departure of Cam Fowler to the St. Louis Blues, and Olen Zellweger is an exciting undersized blueliner paired with the newly-acquired Jacob Trouba.
The real story for the Ducks this season, however, has been goaltender Lukas Dostal. This is a bad Ducks team that bleeds chances, yet the young netminder has a .915 SV% and 2.77 GAA. Those are above average numbers on a below average team, and Dostal is just 24 years old–Anaheim may have their franchise goalie and, if he’s in net tonight, the Flyers will have their work cut out for them.
Storylines to Watch
The goaltending
The Flyers and bad goaltending: a tale as old as time. As it stands, the Flyers have the worst team save percentage in the league at .866–you won’t win many games when your goalie can’t stop a puck. It’s been a real drag to see Ersson struggling this much, and on the season his save percentage is down to .872. Not the kind of numbers you want to see from a goalie you’ve got a lot of hope for. Aleksei Kolosov, meanwhile, isn’t faring much better with an .878 SV%. We can still assume Ersson’s the starter for now, and this Ducks team represents an opportunity to get right after a break, but we could see more of Kolosov on this road trip if Ersson continues to stumble.
The Michkov point drought
It’s now been six games since Michkov has registered a point. Rookie slumps were expected going into the season, but it’s still been a bummer to see; in some of these recent games, he’s been downright invisible. To be fair to Michkov, this is probably the most hockey he’s played in his life, and a regular NHL season can be a real grind. Hopefully, a few days of rest will do him good and he’ll get on the scoresheet tonight. We could really use a power play goal, bud!
Will there be bad blood?
We still don’t know all the details about why Cutter Gauthier gave the Flyers the cold shoulder, but it resulted in him being traded to Anaheim in January, and the Flyers received Jamie Drysdale and a 2nd-round pick in return. Gauthier never had much opportunity to ingrain himself within the Flyers organization, so there likely won’t be a second thought from the Flyers players about his departure–however, the manner in which he orchestrated his exit may have caught their attention. We already know Matvei Michkov likes to stir things up, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him in Gauthier’s face at some point, but with the game being in Anaheim things ought to be pretty tame. When the Ducks visit the Flyers next month, though? That game could get wild.
Projected Lineups
Philadelphia Flyers
Scott Laughton – Sean Couturier – Travis Konecny
Owen Tippett – Morgan Frost – Matvei Michkov
Tyson Foerster – Noah Cates – Bobby Brink
Joel Farabee – Ryan Poehling – Garnet Hathaway
Cam York – Travis Sanheim
Egor Zamula – Rasmus Ristolainen
Nick Seeler – Jamie Drysdale
Sam Ersson
(Aleksei Kolosov)
Anaheim Ducks
Frank Vatrano – Ryan Strome – Troy Terry
Brock McGinn – Leo Carlsson – Alex Killorn
Cutter Gauthier – Mason McTavish – Robby Fabbri
Jansen Harkins – Isac Lundestrom – Brett Leason
Jackson LaCombe – Radko Gudas
Olen Zellweger – Jacob Trouba
Brian Dumoulin – Drew Helleson
Lukas Dostal
(John Gibson)
Gameday Tunes
End-of-year lists have been rampant the last week or two, and this album was near the top of many of them. Let us know your Album(s) of the Year in the comments!
Stats courtesy Hockey Reference
