The Game: 8:00 PM ET, NBCSP, ESPN+, 97.5 The Fanatic
We’ve made it, folks! It’s the final Flyers game of 2024! What a year it’s been, and we here at Broad Street Hockey want to thank you for spending it with us. You’re the best!
But back to business. The Flyers are still deep in their road trip, and they’re closing out the California leg of it tonight in San Jose. The last time we saw them, you might recall, they were being dealt a real tough loss to the Kings, and they’ll be looking to rebound from that one tonight. It’ll be a rematch with the Sharks tonight, their first meeting since back in early November, in a game that the Flyers managed to win in the shootout, but almost got away from them entirely (but more on that later).
On the Sharks’ side, things are still not going great for them. They’re playing in some close games and getting some nice production from their young players, but they’re really struggling to string wins together. They have just 11 wins on the season, and they’re sitting second from the bottom in the league standings. They’re also coming into this game likely a more than a little desperate, as they’re trying to break the seven-game losing streak they’re currently sitting with. This is going to be another test for the Flyers, finding a way to not look past a cellar dweller, and take care of their own business.
Storylines to watch
Gone streaking
Listen, we all know the power of a good haircut, but Joel Farabee is taking that to a whole new level. Since showing up for the first game back from the break with a new buzz cut, Farabee has goals in back to back games, and looks like a wholly reinvigorated player.
And this, of course, is good news. Farabee’s spent what’s felt like much of this season really trying to find his game, and to hold on to it with some consistency, and while the latter bit of that equation is still something of an open question, Farabee looks like he’s making some real positive strides since returning from the break. And while we’re not necessarily banking on him extending his goal scoring streak tonight — we wouldn’t hate it though — the hope is just that he can stay nicely involved in play, and keep things moving in the right direction.
Can Michkov get rolling again?
Speaking of players getting things moving in the right direction, our last game against the Kings, despite the disappointing overall result, was a big one for Matvei Michkov. With his goal and assist picked up on the night, he snapped a seven game points drought and a nine game scoring drought. Things have been a bit up and down for him as of late, but that’s to be expected — he’s a rookie getting adjusted to NHL play, and he’s working through all of the growing pains that come in a very long season. That said, when he’s at his best, he’s a whole lot of fun to watch, and we’re hoping that last game’s performance can be a bit of a jumping off point, even just a short term one, and he can send this calendar year off with a bang.
Sticking with it
We’ve alluded to it a couple of times now, that a big issue with the Flyers remains this pattern of letting games get away from them. We saw it back in that first meeting against the Sharks, where they let them come back from a deficit, and we saw it again as recently as the last game in Los Angeles, when they started well but couldn’t maintain that high level of play across all three periods, and let the mistakes mount and the Kings take over in the third. This season is all about learning lessons, and this is one that’s taken some repetition to stick — the Flyers aren’t solid enough yet where they can afford to let off the gas late in games. It’s all a work in progress, and we’ll see if they do any better in this department tonight.
The lineups
Philadelphia Flyers
Scott Laughton – Sean Couturier – Travis Konecny
Owen Tippett – Morgan Frost – Matvei Michkov
Tyson Foerster – Noah Cates – Bobby Brink
Joel Farabee – Ryan Poehling – Garnet Hathaway
Cam York – Travis Sanheim
Egor Zamula – Rasmus Ristolainen
Nick Seeler – Jamie Drysdale
Sam Ersson
(Aleksei Kolosov)
San Jose Sharks
Klim Kostin – Mikael Granlund – Luke Kunin
Fabian Zetterlund – Macklin Celebrini – Will Smith
Nikolai Kovalenko – Alex Wennberg – Tyler Toffoli
Barclay Goodrow – Nico Sturm – Ty Dellandrea
Henry Thrun – Cody Ceci
Mario Ferraro – Timothy Liljegren
Shakir Mukhamadullin – Jan Rutta
Alexander Georgiev
(Yaroslav Askarov)
