The Game: 8:00 p.m. EST, NBCSP, ESPN+, 97.5 The Fanatic
The Philadelphia Flyers are making a quick trip to Tennessee to face the Nashville Predators in a one-game road trip before heading back home for Thanksgiving.
Nashville has maybe been the most hot-and-cold team so far in the NHL. Obviously, everyone expected them to be better than their current 7-12-3 record after buying just about every single notable free agent and switching from some young up-and-coming prospective team to one of the elders of the league. But, life hits those over 30 years old the hardest, and for the Predators, despite acquiring the likes of Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault, and Brady Skjei, they are worse off than they were.
But, after a truly horrid start to the 2024-25 season, the Predators have started to act more like their true talent level, while also putting up some brutal performances. In the month of November, they have dominant wins over the Winnipeg Jets and Vancouver Canucks, but then in turn, get shutout by the Seattle Kraken and most recently, they earned a loss to the New Jersey Devils where they got outshot 46-22. They seem to either sneak by some talented teams in one-night performances, or get stomped into the dirt.
No one really knows what Predators team will be showing up and that is where we can relate so much to the people of Nashville. The Flyers are just like that; they can either demolish a team that is a talent grade or two above them, or just roll over against a team like the Chicago Blackhawks, and hand them a point in the standings.
What will happen on Wednesday night between two teams who are just two giant, glowing and neon question marks? No one can predict it.
Storylines to watch
Trade rumor mill is churning for some players
It is so early in the season for trade rumors, but they are real, folks. While we normally have to wait until at the very least for the year on the calendar to change, the feeling that a significant transaction could happen at anytime is extremely present. Right in your gut. And it’s November.
This Flyers season is all about finding out what they have in some young players and trying to determine if they are worth keeping around for when this team wants to be good again. And right now, some players are failing. Joel Farabee, Morgan Frost, Bobby Brink, and to a lesser extent Tyson Foerster, appear to not be in favor for the Flyers and could really be swapped for a player with a similar age and ceiling, but might just gel more with what they have going on in Philadelphia.
And even beyond the young players, veterans like Scott Laughton and Rasmus Ristolainen are getting some heavy interest from around the league and both of those players could find themselves playing on different teams mid-season.
Right now, it feels like we are at the peak of rumors and the Flyers might use this holiday weekend to watch some tape, watch some games, and then spend their next week finalizing something. The transactions are in the air. A thick and heavy smog of trade rumors and tonight, players might just have an opportunity to either perform one way or another to stay or to go.
Helge Grans needs to make a strong impression
Grans is in the lineup but most likely won’t be long. He is essentially just waiting until Jamie Drysdale returns from injury and then he will be back in Allentown with the rest of the Phantoms. But, after playing some solid hockey through the first four games of his NHL career this past week, he should be looking to do even more. This team has one of the more flexible blue lines in the NHL and if he can do enough and maybe increase his reputation with the coaching staff, he could find himself penciled in for the 2025-26 lineup, even if he doesn’t play any more games for the Flyers this season.
Wednesday could be his last chance to do so.
Stamkos, Marchessault, O’Reilly should start scoring way more soon
A trio of Predators forwards should end up scoring so many more goals soon. Steven Stamkos was the big acquisition this summer and despite still having seven goals on the season, he is shooting a career-low 12.3 percent. Jonathan Marchessault has a career shooting percentage of 11.4 — right now, he is at a miserable 5.7 percent with just four goals scored on his 70 shots on goal. And even Ryan O’Reilly, who is not known as a goalscorer he is not getting the typical puck luck. Among the 680 skaters that have played at least 50 minutes in the NHL this season, O’Reilly sits at 671st overall in goals above expected. Essentially, considering where the Predators center is shooting the puck from, he should have so many more goals.
All of this should lead to the percentages going up to the mean and an explosion of offense from Nashville’s top forwards. Will it start Wednesday against the Flyers?
Projected lineups
Philadelphia Flyers
Joel Farabee — Sean Couturier — Travis Konecny
Owen Tippett — Morgan Frost — Matvei Michkov
Tyson Foerster — Noah Cates — Bobby Brink
Scott Laughton — Ryan Poehling — Garnet Hathaway
Cam York — Travis Sanheim
Emil Andrae — Rasmus Ristolainen
Nick Seeler — Helge Grans
Aleksei Kolosov
(Ivan Fedotov)
Nashville Predators
Filip Forsberg — Ryan O’Reilly — Gustav Nyquist
Steven Stamkos — Fedor Svechkov — Juuso Parssinen
Mark Jankowski — Tommy Novak — Jonathan Marchessault
Zachary L’Heureux — Colton Sissons — Cole Smith
Jeremy Lauzon — Roman Josi
Brady Skjei — Alexandre Carrier
Marc Del Gaizo — Luke Schenn
Juuse Saros
(Scott Wedgewood)
