Thankfully, this one is not going to force us to stay up way too late. The Flyers are playing their final game of their California road trip and after taking down both the Kings and Ducks earlier this week (needing more than three periods to do so in each game), they’re up in The Bay and about to face Macklin Celebrini and his San Jose Sharks.
Can the Flyers now make it three wins in three games for their California road trip?
Puck drop: 10:30 p.m.
How to watch/listen:
📺: NBCSP
📻: 97.5 The Fanatic
Pregame reading
- Matvei Michkov had a statement game on Thursday against the Kings. He did earn two assists but it was much more than that — so much more than that that he earned praise from Rick Tocchet. [BSH]
- There’s a 24-year-old, 6-foot-3 center who is as skilled as he is a hard-worker both on and off the puck. Oh, and he’s available for free. Vitali Pinchuk is someone the Flyers need to go after as he is the top KHL free agent. [BSH]
Pregame watching
By the numbers
Philadelphia Flyers – 33-23-12 (5th in Metro)
Goals: Travis Konecny (25)
Assists: Travis Konecny (34)
Points: Travis Konecny (59)
San Jose Sharks – 32-29-6 (6th in Pacific)
Goals: Macklin Celebrini (35)
Assists: Macklin Celebrini (60)
Points: Macklin Celebrini (95)
Projected lineups
Alex Bump — Christian Dvorak — Travis Konecny
Nikita Grebenkin — Trevor Zegras — Owen Tippett
Denver Barkey?? — Noah Cates — Matvei Michkov
Garrett Wilson — Carl Grundstrom?? — Garnet Hathaway
Travis Sanheim — Rasmus Ristolainen
Cam York — Jamie Drysdale
Nick Seeler — Noah Juulsen
Emil Andrae???
Dan Vladar
(Sam Ersson)
Philipp Kurashev — Macklin Celebrini — Will Smith
William Eklund — Michael Misa — Kiefer Sherwood
Collin Graf — Alex Wennberg — Adam Gaudette
Barclay Goodrow — Zack Ostapchuk — Ryan Reaves
Mario Ferraro — Shakir Mukhamadullin
Dmitry Orlov — John Klingberg
Sam Dickinson — Nick Leddy
Alex Nedeljkovic
(Laurent Broissoit)
Storylines to watch
Flyers’ lineup shenanigans continue due to injuries
With the Flyers flying back home after this afternoon’s game to go face the Columbus Blue Jackets next Tuesday, it looks like they aren’t going to be trying to get out any last-minute call-ups and will be running the same lineup with the same gameplan as they did Thursday night in Los Angeles.
Due to all three of Sean Couturier, Luke Glendening, and Denver Barkey missing that game for various ailments, the Flyers had to go with 11 forwards and seven defensemen, but even rotated Emil Andrae as both a forward and a blueliner throughout the game. It ended up leading to a win, so we guess that’s fine.
Barkey’s absence was caused to him just being under the weather (reported by the Flyers as an upper-body injury) and Glendening missed the game against the Kings due to a lower-body injury. Both were considered day-to-day. So, both are also in contention to return this afternoon in San Jose. If they’re absent again, well, it might get messy again.
Can we see a repeat?
It might shock the neutrals who think the Flyers are some mediocre team who can barely even stand up against a team led by the great Macklin Celebrini, but when the Sharks visited Philadelphia just over three months ago, the Flyers walked all over them.
Aside from the 4-1 win and holding Celebrini without a single point, the Flyers also had complete control. At 5-on-5, they had a 50-28 advantage in shot attempts, 24-13 shots on goal advantage, and a 13-5 high-danger chances advantage. They were going nuts. And somewhat surprisingly, Christian Dvorak led the way with a goal and a team-leading four shots and six shot attempts at 5-on-5.
And maybe the best part is that the roster isn’t change all that much. Of course Bobby Brink was here, and Ty Murchison played almost 15 minutes on the blue line, but if Barkey is healthy and playing, and with an improved Michkov (he had just 12:46 TOI in that December game), the Flyers are icing a better team in San Jose this afternoon.
