The game: 10:00 p.m. ET, ESPN, 93.3 WMMR
This is a way too familiar story. Some team is on a losing streak, experiencing an immense amount of misery, and then they get to face the Philadelphia Flyers and the direction changes for them. Just last year, the San Jose Sharks were approaching record level of losses to start the season. Just no wins through the first however many games it was, but they got to face the Flyers for the first time that year and were able to walk away with two points.
And now, the Flyers are visiting Edmonton to face an Oilers team that has still not tasted victory. After reaching the Stanley Cup Final and being almost every national reporter’s prediction to be the 2024-25 champions, the Oilers have started their season 0-3-0. Zero points through the first 3.6 percent of their season. This is just ripe for the picking.
The Oilers are an offensive powerhouse that relies so much on their power play and the Flyers have been in severe penalty trouble through the first two games. Ten total minor penalties have been taken by the Flyers in just two appearances so far — if they allow the Oilers to have five power-play opportunities, they are probably going to lose by five or more goals. McDavid and Draisaitl will eat the hearts of any Flyers shorthanded unit, so the Flyers desperately need to stay out of the box if they have any chance of walking away from Alberta with more points.
Maybe the one positive thing to think about is that the Flyers have more depth than the Oilers currently do, and generally, have more overall speed. Of course no one is touching McDavid’s skating, but when you look at that full lineup, you have to be more confident in the Flyers’ overall ability.
Beyond that, it will be interesting to see some lineup changes and players back on the ice for our Flyers.
Players to watch
Jett Luchanko
The prospect (other than Matvei Michkov) that we can’t get off our minds. Luchanko has been uber impressive throughout training camp and in the season-opening game in Vancouver, did not look out of place and could have even scored a goal if he wasn’t robbed. Due to him just being so young and inexperienced, the coaching staff gave him the day off for the second half of the opening back-to-back but he should be in the lineup tonight in Edmonton.
And where he is playing is even more interesting. Previously, he was in between Joel Farabee and Bobby Brink on the “third line” that formed a young threat. Now, Sean Couturier is down there to give those young wingers some maturity down the middle and Luchanko is up with Tyson Foerster and Travis Konecny — two of the best wingers the Flyers can offer.
That trio should be incredibly interesting to watch. Luchanko has more speed and agility than those two guys, but Foerster can work along the boards and retrieve those pucks extremely well, while Konecny could be a quasi trigger man in that unit. Essentially, Luchanko can be sort of the speedy motor down the middle and do some heavy lifting for the wingers that have more offensive skill than he does, right now.
It sure seems like he’s not going anywhere soon, with where he is in the lineup.
Jamie Drysdale
The team and player need this season to be a success for Jamie Drysdale. And so far it has been disappointing. Zero points through the first two games and diving even deeper, it’s a worse situation — just three shot attempts, one shot on goal, and at 5-on-5, has been absolutely killed on the ice to the tune of a 36.36 CF% and a 27.07 xGF%. Those are brutal numbers to see from a blueliner who is supposed to be a playdriver.
Let’s just hope that he can play some more and have some good games in there. Luckily, the Oilers bottom-six forwards and blue line are not that fleet of foot and you can just imagine Drysdale rushing down the boards and past loads of home sweaters to set up a goal. Hopefully, that happens tonight.
The Michkov, Tippett, and Frost line
We already mentioned how Luchanko is on a new line, and Couturier is going down to provide some stability to two offensively gifted wingers, but what about the top line? We are back to the trio that we saw through the preseason and that found some success in those exhibition games.
Morgan Frost down the middle, Owen Tippett to the left, and Matvei Michkov back to his natural right wing. That trio looked stellar leading up to the season — Frost could make some plays and mentally keep up with Michkov just enough to benefit from the Russian phenom’s own playmaking, and Tippett could speed through the zone with possession to initiate any offensive pressure. Those two combined with Michkov should provide some of the offense that was desperately missed in Calgary and it will certainly be nice to see the 19-year-old winger much more comfortable in his natural position. If they score even just one goal, we should see them together for some time.
Projected lineups
Philadelphia Flyers
Owen Tippett — Morgan Frost — Matvei Michkov
Tyson Foerster — Jett Luchanko — Travis Konecny
Joel Farabee — Sean Couturier — Bobby Brink
Noah Cates — Scott Laughton — Garnet Hathaway
Cam York – Travis Sanheim
Erik Johnson – Jamie Drysdale
Egor Zamula – Rasmus Ristolainen
Sam Ersson
(Ivan Fedotov)
Edmonton Oilers
Jeff Skinner — Connor McDavid — Zach Hyman
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins — Leon Draisaitl — Victor Arvidsson
Vasily Podkolzin — Adam Henrique — Connor Brown
Mattias Janmark — Derek Ryan — Corey Perry
Mattias Ekholm — Evan Bouchard
Darnell Nurse — Travis Dermott
Brett Kulak — Troy Stecher
Stuart Skinner
(Calvin Pickard)
