The Philadelphia Flyers are wallowing down in the mushy middle of the standings and this is the week where we care less about the games and just want to see transactions pop up before Friday’s trade deadline. Naturally, they’re visiting the Maple Leafs in Toronto so a whole lot of eyes will be on them.
Puck drop: 7:30 p.m.
How to watch/listen:
📺: NBCSP, Amazon Prime
📻: 97.5 The Fanatic
Pregame reading
- Sean Couturier finally scored a goal after going almost three months without one. It was in an empty net, but it still counts. Could this monkey off his back get him back to chipping in for the rest of the season? [BSH]
- Dan Vladar rose to the occasion and completely stole the game against the Boston Bruins on Saturday. That was the story of last weekend’s win. [BSH]
- ICYMI, the Flyers made an off-ice hire, according to a report. They got one of the best performance experts in the NBA. [BSH]
Pregame watching
By the numbers
Philadelphia Flyers – 27-21-11 (6th in Metro)
Goals: Travis Konecny (23)
Assists: Travis Konecny (34)
Points: Travis Konecny (57)
Toronto Maple Leafs – 27-24-9 (8th in Atlantic)
Goals: Morgan Geekie (33)
Assists: David Pastrnak (50)
Points: David Pastrnak (72)
Projected lineups
Trevor Zegras — Christian Dvorak — Travis Konecny
Denver Barkey — Sean Couturier — Owen Tippett
Matvei Michkov — Noah Cates — Bobby Brink
Nikita Grebenkin — Carl Grundstrom — Garnet Hathaway
Travis Sanheim — Rasmus Ristolainen
Cam York — Jamie Drysdale
Emil Andrae — Nick Seeler
Dan Vladar
(Sam Ersson)
Bobby McMann — Auston Matthews — William Nylander
Matthew Knies — John Tavares — Max Domi
Matias Maccelli — Nicolas Roy — Dakota Joshua
Steven Lorentz — Scott Laughton — Easton Cowan
Morgan Rielly — Brandon Carlo
Simon Benoit — Jake McCabe
Oliver Ekman-Larsson — Philippe Myers
Anthony Stolarz
(Joseph Woll)
Storylines to watch
Denver Barkey gets back in for his hometown
Rick Tocchet is doing one thing John Tortorella did not: Appropriately bringing players back into the lineup as they come and play in their hometown. Denver Barkey is going to be lacing up for the Flyers after being a healthy scratch in Saturday’s win over the Bruins and while he did get to face his hometown team in Philadelphia, now he gets to do it in front of more family in Scotiabank Arena.
Maybe he’ll go even more crazy on the forecheck.
Will Flyers explode offensively?
The Leafs are absolutely horrendous defensively. We just saw the Ottawa Senators (who are also not in a playoff spot) completely run them over in just every single way — at one point in Saturday’s game they consistently had over double the shots on goal and never left the Leafs’ own zone for several minutes. So, could the Flyers take advantage of this?
While some fans might not be cheering for wins, since playoffs seem extremely unlikely so it’s best to maximize that draft pick positioning, Toronto is so down bad right now that it could be a jumping off point for some players to really get those point totals up. We’re looking at Matvei Michkov maybe scoring a hat trick, Trevor Zegras scoring several points to get back to a point-per-game player, Travis Konecny showing Hockey Canada they missed him by putting on a clinic in his home province — there are dozens of possibilities against a porous defense like the Leafs’.
This could be the Leafs’ death knell
We’ve seen Flyers kill teams before. Coaches have been fired after they suffered a loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. But, as the Leafs are reportedly still trying to figure out how much to sell before Friday’s trade deadline, could a potential loss here truly send them spinning? It would mean back-to-back losses to teams who should not be above them in the standings and are still trying to cement themselves as consistent performers, as they stand there trying to fool themselves in thinking they can turn it around in a month or so.
Could we see a flurry of trades out of Toronto if they lose? It would be very funny to see Dan Vladar waltz into Scotiabank Arena, earn a shutout, and then within the hour after the final whistle just see someone like Bobby McMann thrown off the team as they start to tear it down in disbelief.
