After a busy deadline day, the Flyers are looking to refocus and hit their stride for the stretch run of the season. Their lineup is looking a little different, and they’re coming off of one of their rougher games of the season, but here’s hoping this next installment in the season series against those rival Penguins can give them a bit of a jumpstart.
Puck drop: 5:30 p.m.
How to watch/listen:
📺: NBCSP
📻: 93.3 WMMR
Pregame reading
- We made it, gang. The trade deadline has come and gone, and we’ve made it out on the other side. Before we get rolling here, the biggest bits of news: Bobby Brink is out. [BSH]
- The Flyers also couldn’t make a deal to move out Rasmus Ristolainen, which is kind of disappointing. [BSH]
- But, in lighter news, Alex Bump’s been called up! [BSH]
Pregame watching
By the numbers
Philadelphia Flyers – 28-22-11 (6th in Metro)
Goals: Travis Konecny (23)
Assists: Travis Konecny (34)
Points: Travis Konecny (57)
Utah Mammoth – 31-17-13 (2nd in Metro)
Goals: Sidney Crosby (27)
Assists: Evgeni Malkin (34)
Points: Sidney Crosby (59)
Projected lineups
Trevor Zegras — Christian Dvorak — Owen Tippett
Denver Barkey — Noah Cates — Matvei Michkov
Alex Bump– Sean Couturier — Nikita Grebenkin
Nic Deslauriers — Carl Grundstrom — Garnet Hathaway
Travis Sanheim — Rasmus Ristolainen
Cam York — Jamie Drysdale
Emil Andrae — Noah Juulsen
Sam Ersson
(Dan Vladar)
Egor Chinakhov — Tommy Novak — ???
Avery Hayes — Rickard Rakell — Bryan Rust
Anthony Mantha — Ben Kindel — Justin Brazeau
Connor Dewar — Blake Lizotte — Noel Acciari
Parker Wotherspoon — Erik Karlsson
Samuel Girard — Kris Letang
Ryan Shea — Connor Clifton
Stuart Skinner
(Arturs Silovs)
Storylines to watch
Bump’s debut?
We’re quickly approaching the dog days of the season here, and while the vibes have shifted a little more in the negative direction, there isn’t a complete shortage of things to be excited about. At the top of the list, of course, is the news the Alex Bump was recalled from the Phantoms and will be making his NHL debut soon. We won’t be hearing from Rick Tocchet until later this afternoon, so there’s no confirmation yet whether he’s in this evening, but between the wide opening in the lineup where Bobby Brink used to be, and the fact that Bump wasn’t in the lineup for the Phantoms last night (and didn’t seem to be present at the game in any capacity, from what I could see) and should therefore be fresh today, it’s not hard to imagine that tonight will indeed be the night. This is a big moment, and Bump is still a developing prospect, we remember, but it will be nice to see him able to get his feet wet and show at least a bit of what he can do at this level.
Finding a spark
If the Flyers want to get things back on track down the stretch, they need to find a way to get their offense going again. It’s been a rough stretch in this regard — the scoring has been down, has been inconsistent at best, but even more concerning has been the fact that they haven’t really been generating much in the way of chances underneath that. The Flyers have failed to hit the mark of 25 shots generated for eight games straight now, and in three of those games, they generated fewer than 20 shots. It’s been pretty abysmal and the team’s looking around for answers on what they can be doing to create more, but they’re somehow still coming up empty. Things have been trending the wrong way for them, but if they can make even some incremental progress in that underlying process, that can help them right the ship. We’ll see if they’re able to accomplish that today.
Flyers catch a break
This matchup is a bit of a mismatch just by nature of where these two teams sit in the standings at the moment, how their seasons have gone broadly, but if there’s any silver lining to be found here, it would be in that the Flyers seem to be catching the Penguins at a good time, all things considered. That is, with Crosby out with injury and Malkin serving a five-game suspension for a slashing incident in their game against the Sabres, the Penguins are down their two top contributors. Whether the Flyers will be able to take advantage of that, we’ll see, but that is a break going in their favor.
Soldiering on
The writing was on the wall well before the deadline moves made it more or less official — between the mountain left to climb to get to a playoff spot and the team’s inconsistent play in the face of it — but the Flyers’ clear position as sellers come deadline day effectively signaled that that is it on their season. It’s not hugely surprising, everyone knows what this team is and where they are in their rebuilding process, but it is a pretty direct message sent that, for as much as they want to remain competitive and stay in the fight to get into the playoffs, they’re not really competing in the same ways to get into the playoffs.
So, what now? The stakes might be different, but it’s still important for the team to find a way to stay engaged through this final month and change of the season. Thursday was as lifeless as we saw them look in a little while, and it’s hugely important for them to let that type of effort snowball on them. It’s a bit nebulous, but the focus now is shifting to proving that this team and these players are still committed to finding ways to win. It matters for the culture, and it matters particularly for individual players to make a strong case that they’re committed and able to be part of the solution going forward. That evaluation process begins now, and it will be illuminating to see how they fare.
