The Philadelphia Flyers are coming off one of the most exciting games of their young season after winning and losing and then winning again against the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre. And because of that powerful performance, head coach Rick Tocchet is going with the same lineup — an untouched roster to hopefully get another two points over the Nashville Predators.
The last time these two teams met in this season was just a week ago and the Flyers earned a 4-1 win thanks to two goals and an assist coming from Trevor Zegras. Could we see something similar tonight?
Puck drop: 8:00 p.m.
How to watch/listen:
📺: NBCSP
📻: 97.5 The Fanatic
Pregame reading
- Denver Barkey just had most likely the best game of his professional career so far as he proved a whole lot of doubters wrong for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. [BSH]
- After the Flyers’ win in Montreal, Zegras expressed just how comfortable and “at home” he is with his new team. [BSH]
- Dan Vladar and Sam Ersson are showing a whole lot of mental toughness during this early Flyers season. Bouncing back after tough games or dealing with a couple of bad goals — both netminders are holding their own. [BSH]
Pregame watching
By the numbers
Philadelphia Flyers – 7-5-1 (5th in Metro)
Goals: Bobby Brink/Owen Tippett (5)
Assists: Trevor Zegras (11)
Points: Trevor Zegras (15)
Nashville Predators – 5-6-4 (6th in Central)
Goals: Filip Forsberg (6)
Assists: Luke Evangelista (7)
Points: Filip Forsberg (11)
Projected lineups
Philadelphia Flyers
Trevor Zegras — Christian Dvorak — Owen Tippett
Matvei Michkov — Sean Couturier — Bobby Brink
Nikita Grebenkin — Noah Cates — Travis Konecny
Nic Deslauriers — Jacob Gaucher — Garnet Hathaway
Cam York — Travis Sanheim
Nick Seeler — Jamie Drysdale
Emil Andrae — Noah Juulsen
Dan Vladar
(Aleksei Kolosov)
Nashville Predators
Filip Forsberg — Ryan O’Reilly — Luke Evangelista
Steven Stamkos — Erik Haula — Jonathan Marchessault
Michael Bunting — Fedor Svechkov — Matthew Wood
Tyson Jost — Michael McCarron — Ozzy Weisblatt
Brady Skjei — Nick Perbix
Nic Hague — Nick Blankenberg
Spencer Stastney — Justin Barron
Juuse Saros
(Justus Annunen)
Storylines to watch
Same lineup, hopefully same result
Head coach Rick Tocchet saw nothing was wrong with what the team did in Montreal — or, at least nothing needed changing so badly that one of the extra players waiting up in the press box would make that much of a difference if they were on the ice instead. Which should generally be a good sign after he dove into the blender and came out with this combination for the game against the Canadiens.
Breaking up Brink and Cates, putting Michkov back with Couturier, Konecny with Cates and Grebenkin; these combinations are different than we’ve ever seen and it proved to be pretty powerful during the somewhat stressful but entertaining win on Tuesday.
Is this the game Michkov comes alive for?
Speaking of line combinations and potential chemistry, during Michkov’s reunion with Couturier and next to the red-hot Bobby Brink, there were some true signs of him re-finding his form. The 20-year-old winger may have only had three shots on goal but he did have the second-most shot attempts with nine and second-most scoring chances with six. He’s discovering his nose for the net once more with five of those attempts coming in that “home plate” zone in front of the net.
It may be nothing, or just a general trend of Michkov trying to breakout this season — or, it could be a sign of things to potentially come and all he needs to do is dominate against one of the NHL’s worst teams (like the Nashville Predators).
Stamkos might be wanting to prove something
In a similar vein, Steven Stamkos is trying to prove that he still has it and if anything, is worth a contending team to pay up to get him out of Nashville. He is slowly finding his footing once more though. To send the Predators to overtime against the Minnesota Wild earlier this week, with 0.3 seconds left on the clock we got to see some vintage Steven Stamkos absolutely wire the puck into the back of the net in heroic fashion.
Now, we’re suddenly worried that he might do that once again and become the ever-dangerous player that he was down in Tampa.
