The Game: 7:00 PM ET, NBCSP, ESPN+, 97.5 The Fanatic
The Flyers’ home stand presses on, and they’re right back at it tonight with a normal time starting matchup against the Stars. They’ll be looking to get themselves back on track again in this one, as they’re still slightly reeling from two tough losses in their home-and-home series against the Leafs — losses that were tough because they were just so close, both coming in as 3-2 margins, and were, by the eye, close for just about the whole going. We can take a moral victory, but the lack of progress made in the actual wins department has meant that they’ve failed to gain ground in the standings, falling into the sixth position in the Metro and allowing the fifth place Penguins to create a bit of separation.
But as the Flyers look to respond to their pair of losses to the Leafs, they’re meeting an opponent not unlike the Leafs, at least on paper. The Stars are coming into this matchup with a 25-13-1 record, while the Leafs have a record of 27-13-2. The Stars are also sitting with a +29 goal differential, even higher than the Leafs’ already impressive +17. And to top that all off, the Stars are riding high on a five-game winning streak, making for a train that’s going to be difficult to slow down.
Storylines to Watch
Ersson’s return
The big news of the day, of course, is that Sam Ersson is officially back from injury, and he’ll be making the start tonight. It wasn’t as long of an absence as we feared it might be — we recall, he took the injury in the second period of their game in San Jose on New Year’s Eve, and then missed the next three games. Now, while three games missed doesn’t make for a huge layoff, we can still reasonably expect that Ersson will have to shake off at least a bit of rust in this one, so we’ll be sure to offer him some latitude while he inevitably works through that. But that said, the Flyers are going to be counting on Ersson to step up for them, as both Aleksei Kolosov and Ivan Fedotov (the latter of which we should note has been given the nod to back up tonight) have posted some positive results, but on the whole have been inconsistent. The Flyers are still trying to string together some wins, even if they’re not Contending just yet, and Ersson, whenever he returns to form, is their best shot at doing that.
Young guns on young guns
This is also going to be a pretty youthful matchup, on the whole. The Flyers are currently the third-youngest team (by roster age average) in the whole of the league, with an average age of 27, while the Stars are 13th ranked, not far behind, with an average age of 28.2 years. On top of that, of their top-10 players in scoring, half are aged 27 or younger. They have a good mix of veterans and youngsters, but the young players are making their presence known, making it clear they’ll soon be the ones driving the bus. This will certainly make for an interesting matchup, as the Flyers’ exciting young core faces off against the Stars’. Now, we’re not going to make any sweeping judgements on these players’ futures or projections based on the outcome of this game, we’re just looking for something fun to happen.
Hanging in there
As we’ve sort of teased already, this is likely going to be another tough matchup for the Flyers. Plainly, there’s a mismatch in both the level of talent on these rosters and in the momentum being brought into the game. They’ve shown that they have the potential to surprise in these tough matchups, but we’re not exactly banking on it, and if they fall short again, we won’t be too hard on them. But all of this said, our hope is just that they’ll be able to do the same as they did against the Leafs — keep it close, and make it a competitive game. Because wins are good, to be sure, but not essential for a rebuilding team. What’s more essential, particularly for the young players, is learning how to skate with these top teams, even if they don’t have the firepower to match them. This has been a work in progress so far this season, but tonight’s a good opportunity to take another step forward. We’ll see how they do.
The Lineups
Philadelphia Flyers
Scott Laughton — Morgan Frost — Matvei Michkov
Tyson Foerster — Noah Cates — Bobby Brink
Owen Tippett — Ryan Poehling — Travis Konecny
Joel Farabee — Sean Couturier — Garnet Hathaway
Travis Sanheim — Cam York
Egor Zamula — Rasmus Ristolainen
Nick Seeler — Jamie Drysdale
Sam Ersson
(Ivan Fedotov)
Dallas Stars
Jason Robertson – Roope Hintz – Evgenii Dadonov
Jamie Benn – Matt Duchene – Wyatt Johnston
Sam Steel – Mavrique Borque – Logan Stankoven
Oskar Back – Arttu Hyry – Colin Blackwell
Thomas Harley – Miro Heiskanen
Esa Lindell – Nils Lundqvist
Brendan Smith – Ilya Lyubushkin
Jake Oettinger
(Casey DeSmith)
