The Philadelphia Flyers have a glorious opportunity to walk into Pittsburgh and hand them a third loss in the Penguins’ own building to kill their season and win the series in dominant fashion. They better not screw this up. It’s Game 5.
Puck drop: 7:00 p.m.
How to watch/listen:
📺: NBCSP/ESPN+
📻: 97.5 The Fanatic
Pregame reading
- It’s the story of the game. Matvei Michkov is going to sit this one out as Rick Tocchet thinks it’s best for the 21-year-old winger to take a break after not playing a whole lot and not looking good in his minutes. Alex Bump comes in as his replacement and the lineup had a big shake up. [BSH]
- After practice on Sunday, Rick Tocchet explained his thought process behind the lineup change and leaving Michkov off the ice. [BSH]
- Denver Barkey had a great Game 4 and earned a promotion up the lineup. But overall, he’s taking lessons away from this first playoff experience. [BSH]
Pregame watching
By the numbers
Philadelphia Flyers – 43-27-12 (3rd in Metro)
Goals: Owen Tippett (28)
Assists: Travis Konecny (41)
Points: Travis Konecny (68)
Pittsburgh Penguins – 41-25-16 (2nd in Metro)
Goals: Anthony Mantha (33)
Assists: Erik Karlsson (51)
Points: Sidney Crosby (74)
Projected lineups
Denver Barkey — Trevor Zegras — Owen Tippett
Travis Konecny — Christian Dvorak — Porter Martone
Alex Bump — Noah Cates — Tyson Foerster
Luke Glendening — Sean Couturier — Garnet Hathaway
Travis Sanheim — Rasmus Ristolainen
Cam York — Jamie Drysdale
Nick Seeler — Emil Andrae
Dan Vladar
(Sam Ersson)
Rickard Rakell — Sidney Crosby — Bryan Rust
Yegor Chinakhov — Tommy Novak — Evgeni Malkin
Anthony Mantha — Ben Kindel — Elmer Soderblom
Connor Dewar — Blake Lizotte — Noel Acciari
Parker Wotherspoon — Erik Karlsson
Sam Girard — Kris Letang
Ryan Shea — Connor Clifton
Arturs Silovs
(Stuart Skinner)
Storylines to watch
How the new lineup is going to look
The Philadelphia Flyers are changing it up for the first time in this series. Before tonight’s Game 5, the only other change that Rick Tocchet made was because he was forced due to Emil Andrae’s injury, as he put in Noah Juulsen and then kept him there because the veteran was playing fairly well.
That was it. Nothing else forced their hand or was determined as a reason to change. Now after the Game 4 loss and the need to kill off the Penguins in Game 5, to not even give them a glimpse of hope, Tocchet has decided to remove Matvei Michkov from the lineup and insert rookie Alex Bump to maybe get some energy going.
Additionally, Tyson Foerster is back with Noah Cates in a role that we know so well as a play-driving two-headed monster and Denver Barkey gets a massive opportunity on the top line to build off his goal from Game 4 in Philadelphia.
Need to get special teams back on track
While it is obvious to say “when the special teams were working, they were winning hockey games,” it’s certainly something that can be stressed when it comes to this Flyers team and this series. The only time the Flyers were able to score a goal on the power play was in the emotional and dramatic Game 3 win that put the penultimate nail in the Penguins’ coffin.
But, they also ended up allowing two goals shorthanded in that win and then also another one in Game 4. That comes after stopping everything the Penguins’ man advantage was throwing at them in the first two games of the series.
To really put away this game and this series, the Flyers will need to get both of them working hand-in-hand. Maybe even just one single power-play goal while allowing zero shorthanded. Just come out of this one with a net positive special teams performance, and that will go a long way.
