The Flyers have made it to the weekend, and they’re set to kick off the first of two games against the Lighting on home ice tonight. Their lineup is looking a little thin, with some key absences at the top of it, but they’ll be looking to rally back and find a way to respond after a tough loss in overtime to the Leafs, last time out.
Puck drop: 7:00 p.m.
How to watch/listen:
📺: NBCSP
📻: 97.5 The Fanatic
Pregame reading
Pregame watching
By the numbers
Philadelphia Flyers – 22-12-8 (3rd in Metro)
Goals: Trevor Zegras (17)
Assists: Trevor Zegras/Travis Konecny (24)
Points: Trevor Zegras (41)
Tampa Bay Lightning – 26-13-3 (3rd in Atlantic)
Goals: Nikita Kucherov (20)
Assists: Nikita Kucherov (41)
Points: Nikita Kucherov (61)
Projected lineups
Matvei Michkov — Christian Dvorak — Trevor Zegras
Denver Barkey — Sean Couturier — Owen Tippett
Nikita Grebenkin — Noah Cates — Carl Grundstrom
Nic Deslauriers — Rodrigo Abols — Garnet Hathaway
Cam York — Travis Sanheim
Nick Seeler — Rasmus Ristolainen
Emil Andrae — Noah Juulsen
Dan Vladar
(Sam Ersson)
Gage Goncalves — Brayden Point — Nikita Kucherov
Brandon Hagel — Anthony Cirelli — Jake Guentzel
Zemgus Girgensons — Yanni Gourde — Pontus Holmberg
Nick Paul — Dominic James — Oliver Bjorkstrand
JJ Moser — Darren Raddysh
Charle-Edouard D’Astous — Erik Cernak
Declan Carlile — Maxwell Crozier
Jonas Johansson
(Andrei Vasilevskiy)
Storylines to watch
Next man up
The Flyers will be heading into this game, right off the bat, at a disadvantage. Having lost all of Bobby Brink, Jamie Drysdale, and Travis Konecny to injuries this week, their mix of skill is looking a bit thin at the moment, and while it’s good news that Brink and Drysdale are at least well enough to have taken the pregame skate (though dressed in non-contact jerseys), the Flyers will still have to find a way to keep things rolling without them tonight. It is, all in all, a test of that much-emphasized next man up mentality that the Flyers have been working to remain locked into. They’ll be top-loading their offense on the first couple of lines and hoping that this can help them wake up a bit of scoring, but it will be on everyone in a game like this to rise to the occasion and bring their very best, as the margin for error grows thinner.
Power play frustration mounting
Coming out of Thursday’s loss to the Leafs, there was a real feeling that missed opportunities were the thing that sunk the Flyers’ run at a regulation win that was well within reach. And the biggest missed opportunity within that collection, of course, is their continued failure to convert on the power play — the Flyers had three opportunities, including more than a minute with the two-man advantage, but came out on the other side with nothing to show for it. As it stands, they’re within spitting distance of the bottom of the league standings in power play efficiency (they’re tied for second to last with the Capitals). They’re looking around for answers, but between the pieces missing in the lineup and the third best in the league penalty kill staring them down on the other side, the push to get themselves back on track is going to be an even greater lift here.
Who knows, maybe they find some magic here, but this is an imbalance in front of them which has the potential to get ugly.
This is just the beginning
We’re heading into this one, too, with the knowledge that through an interesting quirk in the schedule, this is the first of two matchups between the Flyers and Lightning here in Philly between now and Monday. This means that there’s a chance that some momentum can be forged and carried over from one game into the next, which is the greatest hope in this tough matchup, but it’s also worth watching this one for a bit of a temperature check. This is a setting in which, if things get extra spirited physically (and there’s certainly a chance that they will with both Hathaway and Deslauriers in the lineup) could lead to an even nastier tone in the rematch. We’ll see if it breaks that way.
