It’s here. The Philadelphia Flyers are in Anaheim facing the Ducks and it’s yet another reunion of sorts. The headline will of course be Cutter Gauthier as we wonder just how fans will react to him facing the team he rejected, but Trevor Zegras is back in Southern California for the first time since his trade to the Flyers.
Puck drop: 10:00 p.m.
How to watch/listen:
📺: NBCSP
📻: 97.5 The Fanatic
Pregame reading
- The Flyers are going to be making some changes this summer and there are five (and probably more) current players who could be playing in their final games for this team. [BSH]
- Flyers prospect report! A Jett Luchanko update, Aleksei Kolosov is looking good in the AHL, and more. [BSH]
- Cole Knuble has signed his Entry-Level Contract and will be reporting to the AHL for the rest of the season. [BSH]
Pregame watching
By the numbers
Philadelphia Flyers – 31-23-12 (5th in Metro)
Goals: Travis Konecny (24)
Assists: Travis Konecny (34)
Points: Travis Konecny (58)
Anaheim Ducks – 37-27-3 (1st in Pacific)
Goals: Cutter Gauthier (34)
Assists: Jackson LaCombe (39)
Points: Cutter Gauthier (59)
Projected lineups
Nikita Grebenkin — Trevor Zegras — Owen Tippett
Alex Bump — Christian Dvorak — Travis Konecny
Denver Barkey — Noah Cates — Matvei Michkov
Carl Grundstrom — Sean Couturier — Luke Glendening
Travis Sanheim — Rasmus Ristolainen
Cam York — Jamie Drysdale
Emil Andrae — Nick Seeler
Dan Vladar
(Sam Ersson)
Chris Kreider — Leo Carlsson — Troy Terry
Alex Killorn — Mikael Granlund — Beckett Sennecke
Jeffrey Viel — Ryan Poehling — Cutter Gauthier
Frank Vatrano — Tim Washe — Jansen Harkins
Jackson LaCombe — Jacob Trouba
Olen Zellweger — John Carlson
Pavel Mintyukov — Ian Moore
Lukas Dostal
(Ville Husso)
Storylines to watch
How much violence should we expect?
While they only play twice, the Flyers-Ducks games as of late have always featured a heavy amount of physicality. It has mostly been extremely dirty and suspension-worthy hits coming from the Ducks roster — the Ross Johnston cheap shot on Jamie Drysdale for example — but there’s always been something going on that has led to more.
Now with the whole Cutter Gauthier situation slightly cooled down — as in, we’ve expected he’s a good player and have settled into just depression about the whole thing — it is possible that things don’t get as physical around him. It’s not the first time he’s faced the Flyers, it’s not the first time the Flyers are visiting him in Anaheim; it’s just another one of these games where we have to watch him.
But thankfully, Radko Gudas won’t be on the ice to perform attempted murder on Alex Bump.
The young guys’ performance
All eyes will be on the new(ish) youth in the Flyers lineup. Alex Bump has certainly been a welcome sight on the ice. While we didn’t expect him to take over games immediately, there was also a concern that he wouldn’t be able to perform this volume-shooting game at the same level in the NHL. Well, he’s certainly still been shooting the puck a whole dang lot.
Now, we’re just curious if he will be able to get his second career goal to start this California road trip.
Trevor Zegras Revenge Game
We already saw just how much Zegras welcomed the attention of facing his former team in Philadelphia. After Gauthier opened the scoring and we all collectively groaned, Zegras scored the next two goals and powered the Flyers to a dominant 5-2 win over the Ducks.
Now, in his first game back in Anaheim, it will be an emotional night to face the team that drafted him and developed him and where he truly grew into some potential stardom. He will need to rise to even greater occasion to maybe show just how much the Ducks are missing him right now.
