The Flyers are back in action tonight for the first game of this weekend’s back-to-back. They’ve taken this show on the road, heading to Detroit to face off against the Red Wings and looking to build on the momentum from Thursday’s huge win over the Blackhawks, and for a chance to remain right in the thick of the playoff race. It’s make-or-break time again, folks!
Puck drop: 8:00 p.m.
How to watch/listen:
📺: ABC
📻: 93.3 WMMR
Pregame reading
- The kids have been showing up for the Flyers in a big way down the stretch here. [BSH]
- Speaking of kids, Cole Knuble made his professional debut with the Phantoms last night, and he looked really good! [BSH]
- And finally, we’re not going to be seeing him tonight, but it’s looking like Tyson Foerster might be inching a lot closer to returning to action. [BSH]
Pregame watching
By the numbers
Philadelphia Flyers – 35-24-12 (5th in Metro)
Goals: Travis Konecny (25)
Assists: Travis Konecny (35)
Points: Travis Konecny (60)
Detroit Red Wings – 39-25-8 (6th in Atlantic)
Goals: Alex DeBrincat (36)
Assists: Lucas Raymond (47)
Points: AlexDeBrincat (77)
Projected lineups
Alex Bump — Christian Dvorak — Travis Konecny
Denver Barkey — Trevor Zegras — Owen Tippett
Carl Grundstrom — Noah Cates — Matvei Michkov
Sean Couturier — Luke Glendening — Garnet Hathaway
Travis Sanheim — Rasmus Ristolainen
Cam York — Jamie Drysdale
Nick Seeler — Emil Andrae
Dan Vladar
(Sam Ersson)
J.T. Compher — Dylan Larkin — Lucas Raymond
Alex DeBrincat — Andrew Copp — Patrick Kane
Marco Kasper — Emmett Finnie — James van Riemsdyk
David Perron — Mason Appleton — Dominic Shine
Simon Edvinsson — Moritz Seider
Ben Chiarot — Justin Faulk
Albert Johansson — Jacob Bernard-Docker
Michal Postava
(John Gibson)
Storylines to watch
Unsurprisingly, no changes to the lineup
Coming off of such a huge, commanding win over the Blackhawks on Thursday, it’s no surprise that the coaching staff have opted to keep everything the same as far as the skaters are concerned in hopes that they can just keep on rolling. They’ve got momentum behind them, and that’s a real positive, but this matchup is going to be much more challenging than what they had before them with that Blackhawks team (that frankly didn’t even look like they were playing hockey out there at times) as they face this Red Wings team that’s a pretty even match for them. It’s another test of the resilience of this young team, and their ability to bear down and keep doing what’s working as the stakes get higher.
Taking advantage of the rest advantage
All of that said, the Flyers do have one thing potentially working in their favor in this one, as that’s the fact that they’re quite a bit more rested than the Red Wings. The Flyers arrived in Detroit yesterday and were able to settle in, meanwhile the Red Wings were playing a huge game on the road last night against a divisional opponent in Buffalo (which, we should add, they won by a 5-2 margin). This doesn’t make it a gimme for the Flyers, far from it, but there’s a chance that if they’re able to keep the early parts of the game under control, they could really take over late as the Red Wings’ legs begin to get heavy.
Major playoff odd implications
This late in the season and with the race for the final wildcard positions in the East as tight as they are, every game is really kind of make or break, but this is a particularly critical game for the Flyers. As it stands, they’re sitting five points behind the Blue Jackets for that final spot, and the team they’re most closely chasing is these Red Wings, who are four points up on them (though with one more game played). The Flyers can’t go so far as to catch them with a win alone here, but the outcome of this game still has major implications for their chances of getting into the playoffs — per Moneypuck, if the Flyers can win this one, their odds of making the playoffs will jump up to 17.2 percent from 11.5 percent, but if they lose in regulation, they’ll drop all the way down to 5.8 percent. That’s a pretty massive swing at stake here, and while we’ve already seen the Flyers stumble in one major game so far this week, hopefully they can fare better this time around.
