The Game: 7:00 PM. NBCSP+. 97.5 The Fanatic.
It’s been a wild ride the last week for the Flyers. Inconsistent play, two wins over the Blue Jackets, blowout losses to the Kings and Wild, Owen Tippett’s resurgence, and the drama over Emil Andrae’s demotion. There’s a lot of question marks for the Orange and Black right now, but also positive signs with some of the key young players on this roster – Tippett, Noah Cates, and Tyson Foerster. So, perhaps the Flyers deserve to be at hockey .500, sitting at 15-15-4 and four points out of the second wild card heading into Monday’s game.
On the Penguins side, it’s been a similar season for the Penguins as the previous two years, and it’s slotted Pittsburgh at 15-15-5, one point ahead of Philadelphia in the standings. The Penguins began the season on a 3-7-1 slide, and the team has been steadily climbing back to the surface ever since. Of course, leading the way is Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, with 35 points and 27 points, respectively. There’s also the continued offensive dominance from Erik Karlsson, who’s put up 22 points in 35 games thus far. The Penguins have been on more of a roll as of late, going 6-3-1 in their last 10 to surpass the Flyers in the standings. So, with only one point separating the two teams, this is a crucial game heading into the holiday break.
Storylines to watch
Can the Flyers buy a save?
Simply put, the biggest reasons for the Flyers recent struggles revolve around the defense being inconsistent, and the goalies being unable to make timely saves when they are needed. Looking at the Flyers most successful run of the season, a 7-2-1 streak from November 11-30, the Flyers allowed an average of 2.8 goals per game. In the nine game stretch since, the Flyers have gone 3-5-1, and allowed 4.56 goals per game. This is a mark that the Flyers offense will simply be unable to keep up with, and a lot of the blame here should fall on the Flyers goaltenders. For the current de facto starter, Ersson’s season stats are currently at a 3.09 GAA and a .881 SV%, but his last five games are even worse. Ersson’s has sported below .860 save percentages in each of his last five outings, with many weak goals allowed along the way. Sure, Ersson was injured prior to this stretch, but the goaltender must get back on track in order for the Flyers to stay afloat in the East. If not, we could be seeing a lot more of Alexsei Kolosov in the near future.
Stabilizing the defensive pairs
The other half of the goals allowed equation is the messy defensive pairs, which were thrown into the fire after the Emil Andrae demotion. What was once an extremely successful top-four of York-Sanheim and Andrae-Ristolainen – at least by most advanced metrics and also by the Flyers record – is now all over the place. York-Sanheim remains at the top, but the questionable play of Cam York over the recent stretch of games warrants concern. Seeler-Ristolainen is a fine second pair, but it lacks the puck-moving ability that was so evident in an Andrae-Ristolainen pairing. And finally, Zamula-Drysdale together is so prone for errors and turnovers that it is a little surprising the Flyers are trying that out. We’ll see if the final two pairs remain the same, or there’s a shakeup to try different combinations. You’d think the Flyers would go back to Seeler-Drysdale and Zamula-Ristolainen, though. Either way, the Flyers need to start getting consistent defensive play out of players besides Travis Sanheim and Rasmus Ristolainen, whether it’s from a more offensive perspective (Drysdale) or in limiting mindless turnovers (Zamula).
Stop the vets, stop the power play
It’s been the same story for 20 years with Pittsburgh: if you can find a way to stop Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, you should have a pretty good shot. Nowadays, this is especially the case, as the depth of the Penguins is nowhere close to what it was on the best Penguins teams of the era. There’s been a resurgence of players like Rickard Rakell, and the found gold of Philip Tomasino (acquired from Nashville), but Pittsburgh remains a team of Crosby, Malkin, and Bryan Rust on offense. Kris Letang and Erik Karlsson linger as well, and this high-powered personnel has made for a pretty good power-play this season. Operating at a 22.2% clip, stopping the Penguins on the man-advantage is paramount to shutting down the Penguins’ high end talent. So, it’s the same message that’s always said against the Penguins: Stop Crosby and Malkin, and the Flyers have a high chance of winning Monday night.
The lineups
Philadelphia Flyers
Owen Tippett — Sean Couturier — Travis Konecny
Joel Farabee — Morgan Frost — Matvei Michkov
Tyson Foerster — Noah Cates — Bobby Brink
Scott Laughton — Ryan Poehling — Garnet Hathaway
Cam York — Travis Sanheim
Nick Seeler — Rasmus Ristolainen
Egor Zamula — Jamie Drysdale
Sam Ersson
(Aleksei Kolosov)
Pittsburgh Penguins
Rickard Rakell — Sidney Crosby — Bryan Rust
Michael Bunting — Evgeni Malkin — Cody Glass
Anthony Beauvillier — Drew O’Connor — Philip Tomasino
Matt Nieto — Blake Lizotte — Noel Acciari
Matt Grzelcyk — Erik Karlsson
P.O. Joseph — Kris Letang
Ryan Graves — Ryan Shea
Tristan Jarry
(Alex Nedeljkovic)
