After a quick two-game road trip during the week, the Flyers are back on home ice for a matinee matchup against the Senators. It’s a good chance for them to keep the momentum rolling after pulling off a sweep of the road trip, but sustaining momentum has been a bit of a trouble spot for this team so far this season, so we’ll see how this one goes.
Puck drop: 1:00 p.m.
How to watch/listen:
📺: NBCSP
📻: 97.5 The Fanatic
Pregame reading
- The Flyers pulled off a big win to close out their road trip in Nashville, and not everyone was super pleased with how that went down. [BSH]
- Down on the farm, despite missing some key pieces in their lineup, the Phantoms are finding ways to continue to get it done. [BSH]
- Speaking of the Phantoms, their roster has been shuffled once again, as the Flyers have returned Aleksei Kolosov again, and called up Carl Grundstrom to get his first look with the NHL squad. [BSH]
Pregame watching
By the numbers
Philadelphia Flyers – 8-5-1 (4th in Metro)
Goals: Bobby Brink/Owen Tippett/Travis Konecny (5)
Assists: Trevor Zegras (11)
Points: Trevor Zegras (15)
Ottawa Senators – 6-5-3 (7th in Central)
Goals: Shane Pinto (8)
Assists: Drake Batherson (10)
Points: Drake Batherson (15)
Projected lineups
Philadelphia Flyers
Trevor Zegras — Christian Dvorak — Owen Tippett
Matvei Michkov — Sean Couturier — Bobby Brink
Nikita Grebenkin — Noah Cates — Travis Konecny
Carl Grundstrom — Rodrigo Abols — Garnet Hathaway
Cam York — Travis Sanheim
Nick Seeler — Jamie Drysdale
Emil Andrae — Noah Juulsen
Sam Ersson
(Dan Vladar)
Ottawa Senators
Nick Cousins — Tim Stutzle — Drake Batherson
Ridly Greig — Dylan Cozens — David Perron
Michael Amadio — Shane Pinto — Claude Giroux
Kurtis MacDonald — Lars Eller — Fabian Zetterlund
Jake Sanderson — Artem Zub
Thomas Chabot — Nick Jensen
Tyler Kleven — Nikolas Matinpalo
Linus Ullmark
(Leevi Merilainen)
Storylines to watch
Michkov’s momentum
One of the high points from Thursday’s game in Nashville was Matvei Michkov managing to get himself on the board, receiving a flashy pass from Cam York and putting it away with some real emphatic flair. It’s impossible not to feel that with that goal, there was a real lifting of weight off his shoulders, as his start to the season has been a slow one, the discourse surrounding it has reached truly critical levels, and it’s spiraled into a funk that’s been hard to lift out of. Now, he’s been making some real progress over the last week, and the hope is that now that’s he’s improved a bit of his process and finally snapped out of his cold spell, that he can start building up in a more dramatic way. We’re still not expecting this to be an overnight thing, but the springboard could well be in place here, he just needs to take advantage.
Grundstrom’s debut
It’s been kind of a busy week around here, in terms of the Flyers making tweaks to their roster. It began on Thursday, with the Flyers announcing that they’ve activated Sam Ersson from IR, and loaned Jacob Gaucher back to the Phantoms to make space on the roster for him. But when Aleksei Kolosov was returned to the Phantoms (because there was no shot they would willingly carry three goalies again this year after how badly it went last year), the Flyers were left with another open roster spot, and still a desire to keep an extra forward around, so they opted to call up Carl Grundstrom.
It’s a move that makes some sense — things were looking like they were beginning to get a little rich for him, and Grundstrom has been playing some really good hockey for the Phantoms of late, so a swap to bring in a player who might have a bit more juice, and who might offer a different fit on that fourth line. Grundstrom will make his official Flyers debut this afternoon, and while it’s still uncertain how long term of a fit this could be, Grundstrom still has a chance to make a strong impression, and potentially force a longer look in the lineup on that line, which the Flyers are clearly still trying to find the right mix on.
Ersson back in action
Speaking of Ersson, after getting back into action to a small degree on Thursday, dressing as the backup against the Predators, he’s now gotten the nod for the start this afternoon. It’s a timing that makes sense — he was able to ease into this one with the backup duty on Thursday, and then he can ease out of this one, as the Flyers will be off (minus any practice time) until Wednesday. Even though he was only out for a week, there’s sure to be at least a little bit of rust that will need to be shaken off, but Ersson has a good chance here to make quick work of that, and get himself back on track in short order. It won’t necessarily be an easy task for him, as the Senators are bringing some firepower in their lineup (even as they’re without their captain), but the next step in ramping back up has arrived, and we’ll see how Ersson can rise to that occasion.
