Folks, we are finally back in action. We last saw the Flyers what feels like ages ago, but was actually just on Saturday, when they closed out their back-to-back on the road with a loss to the Stars. It was a tough one, especially coming on the heels of a pretty good win the night before over the Blues (those same Blues who are in town tonight and will be looking to find a bit of revenge and avoid being swept in the season series). It’s been a long layoff for the Flyers, but the hope is that the rest and extra focused practice time will have served them well, and that they can quickly get the ball rolling again here.
Puck drop: 7:00 p.m.
How to watch/listen:
📺: NBCSP
📻: 93.3 WMMR
Pregame reading
- With such a long time off between games for the Flyers, it only felt right to take some time to reflect on where we’re at in the season and what’s gong well for the team. At the top of that list, of course, would be the contributions from the offseason additions. [BSH]
- The coaching staff split up Travis Konecny and Matvei Michkov ahead of this one, and honestly, it might be for the best. [BSH]
- And finally, it’s just been announced that Guelph will be hosting the 2027 Memorial Cup, and believe it or not, this news could well have an impact on Jett Luchanko, even though he’ll be long gone from the team by then. [BSH]
Pregame watching
By the numbers
Philadelphia Flyers – 9-6-3 (7th in Metro)
Goals: Christian Dvorak/Owen Tippett/Trevor Zegras (6)
Assists: Trevor Zegras (13)
Points: Trevor Zegras (19)
St. Louis Blues – 6-9-5 (6th in Central)
Goals: Jordan Kyrou/Jake Neighbors (6)
Assists: Robert Thomas (10)
Points: Robert Thomas (13)
Projected lineups
Tyson Foerster – Noah Cates – Travis Konecny
Matvei Michkov – Sean Couturier – Bobby Brink
Trevor Zegras – Christian Dvorak – Owen Tippett
Nic Deslauriers – Rodrigo Abols – Garnet Hathaway
Cam York – Travis Sanheim
Nick Seeler – Jamie Drysdale
Emil Andrae – Noah Juulsen
Dan Vladar
(Sam Ersson)
Dylan Holloway – Robert Thomas – Jake Neighbors
Brayden Schenn – Dalibor Dvorsky – Jordan Kyrou
Pavel Buchnevich – Pius Suter – Jimmy Snuggerud
Alexey Toropchenko – Oskar Sundqvist – Nathan Walker
Philip Broberg – Colton Parayko
Cam Fowler – Justin Faulk
Tyler Tucker – Matthew Kessel
Joel Hofer
(Jordan Binnington)
Storylines to watch
Shaking off the cobwebs
It’s been four days since we last saw the Flyers in action, and as far as these things go, that’s a really long time to be on a break while most of the rest of the league is going on without them. The Flyers may have gotten some valuable rest and practice time in during that break, but they’ve also lost some ground in the standings while they’ve been stuck still, dropping into last place in the Metro. It’s ground that they’ll want to make up quickly, but that’s going to be easier said than done, as they’ll have to get themselves back up to speed from a standstill.
And the Blues, having played on Tuesday night in Toronto, even though they’re coming off an overtime loss, will still be coming in with the edge in momentum just by virtue of having not have the brakes thrown on in their schedule. The Flyers will need to be prepared for this, and rise to meet this challenge.
Starting strong
Going hand in hand with that, of course, will be the Flyers’ need to start this game on time and not find themselves needlessly falling into a hole before the game has even really gotten going. This has been a real issue for them across the whole of the season, and while they’ve found some success in battling back from those early deficits, it’s not really a strength that they want to be testing extensively as they get farther and farther into the season. It feels obvious to say that if they Flyers can get themselves out to an early lead in this one, they’ll be in a much better position to build towards a win, but even this most obvious saying hasn’t yet translated into doing. But hey, maybe this is the night that changes. Time will tell.
Lineup shakeups
The Flyers are still struggling to get their scoring game going, and they’re getting deeper into throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks territory, and ahead of this matchup, it’s meant breaking up the very consistent and highly productive trio of Bobby Brink, Noah Cates, and Tyson Foerster. Now, this isn’t so much an indictment of this line’s play, but rather seemingly more of an attempt to shake things up and spread out the hotter hands, hoping to get more than one line going at a time. It’s a disruption of some of the early chemistry that was forming over the first few weeks of the season, but when things have looked like they were starting to stagnate, moving players around seems to be the play before anything surrounding their approach is tackled. Will this work out for them? That’s yet to be seen. This might be do the trick over the shorter term, but the feeling lingers that their problems might just be bigger than who they have playing on which line.
