The Philadelphia Flyers are up 2-0 in their first-round series against the Pittsburgh Penguins and we feel, oh, we feel so good. Now is the opportunity to take a dominating lead in this series.
Puck drop: 7:00 p.m.
How to watch/listen:
📺: NBCSP/ESPN+
📻: 97.5 The Fanatic
Pregame reading
- The Penguins are desperate. They made sweeping changes to their lineup with a hope that it will make a difference. Let’s hope that it doesn’t. [BSH]
- One key thing is that the Flyers need to stay disciplined in this Game 3. They can’t let the veteran Penguins get under their skin, and also can’t take egregious penalties to then hand the game over to Pittsburgh. [BSH]
- The Flyers have Matthew Tkachuk on board as the Panthers star winger praised the team and loves Porter Martone. [BSH]
- In Game 2, Owen Tippett dunked on the Penguins and stood over their lifeless body. [BSH]
Pregame watching
By the numbers
Philadelphia Flyers – 43-27-12 (3rd in Metro)
Goals: Owen Tippett (28)
Assists: Travis Konecny (41)
Points: Travis Konecny (68)
Pittsburgh Penguins – 41-25-16 (2nd in Metro)
Goals: Anthony Mantha (33)
Assists: Erik Karlsson (51)
Points: Sidney Crosby (74)
Projected lineups
Tyson Foerster — Trevor Zegras — Owen Tippett
Travis Konecny — Christian Dvorak — Porter Martone
Denver Barkey — Noah Cates — Matvei Michkov
Luke Glendening — Sean Couturier — Garnet Hathaway
Travis Sanheim — Rasmus Ristolainen
Cam York — Jamie Drysdale
Nick Seeler — Emil Andrae
Dan Vladar
(Sam Ersson)
Rickard Rakell — Sidney Crosby — Bryan Rust
Evgeni Malkin — Tommy Novak — Anthony Mantha
Yegor Chinakhov — Ben Kindel — Justin Brazeau
Connor Dewar — Blake Lizotte — Noel Acciari
Parker Wotherspoon — Erik Karlsson
Sam Girard — Kris Letang
Ryan Shea — Connor Clifton
Stuart Skinner
(Arturs Silovs)
Storylines to watch
Penguins make lineup changes
You can read more about the lineup changes that the Penguins made right here, but just know that it is a bunch of their top nine just shuffling about and hoping to get some sort of chemistry in there. Notably, though, Elmer Soderblom is coming out and Justin Brazeau is making his series debut.
Brazeau has been a reclamation project for the Penguins after signing a short contract to reunite with Kyle Dubas — since Dubas originally signed Brazeau out of the OHL as an undrafted free agent when he was with the Maple Leafs — and he has been fairly solid. Scoring a career-high 17 goals and 34 points in 64 games and could be a punishing 6-foot-6 forward, but is also an extremely poor skater.
Soderblom at least had some velocity to his skating, but for Brazeau all of his offense comes parked in front of the net. Here’s hoping that the Flyers know how to deal with that easily.
Just drop the puck
I can’t even think of another storyline. My brain is mush and I just want to sit and watch this game right now.
But we’re buzzing. It’s going to be insane in that building and we are extremely jealous of anyone sitting in that crowd. That’s it. This is why we watch sports and why we watch the Flyers. It’s moments like this Game 3, finally getting playoff hockey back in Philadephia for us to enjoy.
