The Game: 7 p.m. on NBCSports Philadelphia & 97.5 The Fanatic
With Thursday’s loss to the LA Kings, that marks three regulation losses in a row for the Flyers–officially a losing streak. They’re 4-5-1 in their last 10 games, and one point ahead of the New York Islanders and Columbus Blue Jackets for last in the Metropolitan Division. Not great!
Today presents a golden opportunity to get a win back against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Less than two weeks ago, the Flyers waxed this same team, and they should be in position to do the same tonight. Funny enough, the Flyers were on a three game losing streak going into that last game, too–would be nice to win twice!
Not much has changed for Columbus since these two teams last met: they lost four more in a row after that loss to the Flyers, but got a win earlier this week against the New Jersey Devils. The Blue Jackets are rolling out essentially the same team as last time, though their roster is beset by injuries all over the place–most importantly their captain, Boone Jenner, and the promising young Yegor Chinakov.
This is an important game for the Flyers: a win puts them right back in the playoff mix, and a loss swings them into top ten lottery odds. According to Moneypuck, they’re favored at 60% to win tonight, but we all know how this team can surprise–in good ways as well as bad.
Storylines to Watch
Emil Andrae out
The big news yesterday was Emil Andrae’s return to the Phantoms. At first glance, this is a perplexing move, but there are cap and roster implications as well: if the Flyers lose a forward to injury, for example, they wouldn’t have been able to call one up due to the roster freeze and a full 23-man lineup with Andrae here. Now the team has flexibility during the Christmas break.
Still, Torts is gonna Torts.
John Tortorella on Emil Andrae: “It’s gotten too rich for him…He needs to go back down and play.” #Flyers #LetsGoFlyers
— Kevin Durso (@kevindurso.bsky.social) December 21, 2024 at 10:22 AM
Cam York’s response to being scratched
With Andrae out, Cam York obviously draws back into the lineup. York was healthy scratched on Thursday against the Kings, which sent the blue line pairs all out of whack and likely did cost the Flyers that game. To be fair, though, York had struggled in his previous two games, with one egregious mistake against Detroit that saw him ride the bench for the remainder of that game. We’ve seen the healthy scratch work for other players under Torts, and York once found himself on the Phantoms for half a season after a lackluster camp, so he’s no stranger to this sort of treatment. Still, York’s performance today will absolutely be something to keep an eye on.
New look top six
Lines and pairs in morning skate:
— Charlie O'Connor (@charlieo_conn) December 21, 2024
Tippett – (Couturier) – Konecny
Farabee – Frost – Michkov
Foerster – Cates – Brink
Laughton – Poehling – Hathaway
York – Sanheim
Seeler – Ristolainen
Zamula – Drysdale
Couturier isn't on the ice, but he'll play. Laughton is skating in his spot
It’s not a major change, but it looks like Tippett will be joining the top line while Farabee moves down to skate with Morgan Frost and Matvei Michkov. This isn’t an unexpected move: Michkov’s gone three games without a point, and Tortorella had recently expressed dissatisfaction with the performance of the Farabee-Couturier-Konecny line. A bit of a shake up might jolt a few players to life and help them rediscover their scoring.
Projected Lineups
Philadelphia Flyers
Owen Tippett – Sean Couturier – Travis Konecny
Joel Farabee – Morgan Frost – Matvei Michkov
Tyson Foerster – Noah Cates – Bobby Brink
Scott Laughton – Ryan Poehling – Garnet Hathaway
Cam York – Travis Sanheim
Nick Seeler – Rasmus Ristolainen
Egor Zamula – Jamie Drysdale
Sam Ersson
(Aleksei Kolosov)
Columbus Blue Jackets
Dmitri Voronkov – Sean Monahan – Kirill Marchenko
JvR – Adam Fantilli – Kent Johnson
Zach Aston-Reese – Cole Sillinger – Mathieu Olivier
James Malatesta – Sean Kuraly – Mikael Pyyhtia
Zach Werenski – Damon Severson
Jake Christiansen – Ivan Provorov
Jack Johnson – Jordan Harris
Elvis Merzlikins
(Daniil Tarasov)
Gameday Tunes
We got our first decent snowfall in Philadelphia last night, and a few more flakes today. Not enough to stick, but it still looked pretty falling past the street lamps in the dark. This album is as good as it gets on a snowy day.
