The Philadelphia Flyers are looking to bounce back from missing out on the big opportunity earlier this week, and need to get the two points Thursday night against the Chicago Blackhawks if they even want to be able to think of the possibility of the playoffs.
Puck drop: 7:00 p.m.
How to watch/listen:
📺: NBCSP
📻: 97.5 The Fanatic
Pregame reading
- We might not get to see Nikita Grebenkin against the Blackhawks but it’s not because Rick Tocchet has decided to scratch the young forward once again. [BSH]
- Jack Berglund is playing beyond his years in the SHL and is really making an impressive jump. His SHL coach says it all. [BSH]
- The Flyers have the Maple Leafs’ 2027 first-round pick from the Scott Laughton trade, but how can they get something even better? Looking at all the scenarios surrounding the protection and conditions on that pick. [BSH]
Pregame watching
By the numbers
Philadelphia Flyers – 34-24-12 (5th in Metro)
Goals: Travis Konecny (25)
Assists: Travis Konecny (35)
Points: Travis Konecny (60)
Chicago Blackhawks – 27-31-13 (8th in Central)
Goals: Connor Bedard (29)
Assists: Connor Bedard (37)
Points: Connor Bedard (66)
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)
Ryan Greene — Connor Bedard — Anton Frondell
Tyler Bertuzzi — Frank Nazar — Nick Lardis
Andre Burakovsky — Ryan Donato — Ilya Mikheyev
Teuvo Teravainen — Sam Lafferty — Landon Slaggert
Alex Vlasic — Artyom Levshunov
Wyatt Kaiser — Sam Rinzel
Ethan Del Mastro — Louis Crevier
Spencer Knight
(Arvid Soderblom)
Storylines to watch
Nikita Grebenkin out for a couple weeks
We got the news from head coach Rick Tocchet yesterday that winger Nikita Grebenkin is most likely going to miss this game, but now the team has confirmed that he will be out for 7-10 days, which means at least the next five games. It’s just something so unfortunate. Grebenkin was clearly battling something for the last few weeks and now he will get a large enough absence at this time of the season to try and recover and play the handful of games remaining after he gets back to full health.
Now, we get to see Carl Grundstrom and Luke Glendening and Garnet Hathaway get regular minutes in the bottom half of this lineup.
Big opportunity to get right back on track
So much is being made of the Flyers’ attempt at pushing back into playoff contention. From this point forward, they are going to have to, roughly, win nine of their remaining 12 games to potentially make the playoffs, and that depends what other teams do around them. And it all starts Thursday against the Blackhawks.
If there is one opportunity to get the offense going again, especially considering the upcoming games against the Red Wings and the Stars, it’s against Chicago. The Blackhawks are averaging 3.09 goals against per 60 minutes (11th-worst in the NHL) and allowing the third-highest shots on goal per 60 minutes, with 29.52. They are just a bad defensive team and the Flyers are a bad offensive team. Let’s maybe just hope that the latter doesn’t remain true Thursday night.
Limiting Connor Bedard
For some reason, the Flyers have been able to handle Connor Bedard throughout his entire career. While against lower opponents like the Anaheim Ducks, where Bedard has scored 17 points in just nine games against them, in the four games against the Flyers in his career, he has just one goal and two assists. Bedard does have 11 shots on goal, so he won’t shoot just 9.1 percent for his entire career against Philadelphia, but the Flyers certainly can throw something at him that causes him trouble.
Whether it is Noah Cates, or maybe some of the fourth line’s job tonight, there is going to be some big attention directed towards that top Blackhawks line. And, just maybe, if it is Cates and Matvei Michkov remains on his wing, with the lack of defensive aptitude that Bedard and Frondell (for now) have on the ice, Michkov could potentially take advantage of those gaps and get a couple points on the board. We will see how it all shakes out.
