Preview: An Avalanche of doubt

The Game : 9:00 p.m. EST on NBC Sports Philadelphia, ESPN+/Hulu, and 93.3 WMMR

Does three games in a row count as a win streak? Sure, why not. The Philadelphia Flyers are in the midst of their second win streak of the season, with two wins over the rival Pittsburgh Penguins and one over the punching-above-their-weight Arizona Coyotes. In their last 10 games, the Flyers are 6-3-1 and sit at second in the Metropolitan Division behind the New York Rangers.

The Colorado Avalanche, meanwhile, have come upon a rough patch and are 5-3-2 in their last 10 games played, and come into tonight\'s game off a loss to the Winnipeg Jets. Superstar defenseman Cale Makar has missed time due to an injury and is questionable for tonight\'s game, which is a boon for the Flyers but a drag for the league as a whole--Makar\'s been putting together a Hart-worthy season, and it\'d be cool to see a defenseman take the award for the first time in quite a while.

Makar isn\'t the only Av missing. Captain Gabriel Landeskog remains out for the season, and it\'s anybody\'s guess when or if he\'ll suit up again; key depth cog Artturi Lehkonen and backup netminder Pavel Francouz are also on LTIR. Sam Girard is in the NHLPA assistance program, so he\'s out of lineup, too. With such important pieces missing, surely the Avs are cooked, right?

Nah. They\'re still first in the Central Division, though only just (the Dallas Stars are one point behind and have a game in hand). The Avalanche roster is still loaded with elite players, with Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen shouldering most of the offensive load while other forwards are absent--and Valeri Nichuskin\'s finally started scoring, too. On the backend, Devon Toews would be a No. 1 defenseman on any team that doesn\'t also have Cale Makar, so the defense has been mostly all right (though Jack Johnson definitely looks out of place these days).

The goaltending, however, has been hit or miss. Alexander Georgiev did fine for the Avs last season, but this year he\'s been less steady, posting a .900 save percentage and a 2.86 goals against average across 22 contests. When he\'s good, he\'s good, but when he\'s been bad...he\'s been real bad. Backup Ivan Prosvetov has been slightly better, with a .910 sv% and 2.45 GAA, but the young netminder (he\'s 24) only has 19 NHL games under his belt. The crease is a tenuous situation for Colorado, but not yet a disaster.

Regardless, this is a team two years removed from steamrolling their way to being Stanley Cup Champions; the Flyers cannot take them lightly.

Players to Watch

Travis Konecny That game in Arizona would\'ve been TK\'s best of the season if his error hadn\'t led to the lone Coyotes goal. He was flying in Mullett, netting two goals (one on the penalty kill, no less) and being a major pest all over the ice. Let\'s see if he can bring that energy once more--this time, against a much more intimidating opponent.

Cam York Speaking of players who had a big game in the desert: Yam! Hello! His PDO on the season is still bad (.940), but his other metrics are all positive and he\'s had seven points in his past nine games--that\'s not too shabby. It\'s possible York is experiencing something similar to Tyson Foerster--good on the details, but the production just wasn\'t there--and now we\'re seeing it all click into place. York\'s still got a ways to go (he was way out of position on Arizona\'s lone goal) but, at 22, he\'s looking like a solid top-four (maybe top pair) defenseman.

Nathan MacKinnon Like, who else was it gonna be? After a bit of a rocky start to the season (by his standards), MacKinnon\'s been on fire: he\'s rocking a 10-game point streak right now, with 16 points in that time frame. It\'ll take everything the Flyers have to contain MacKinnon\'s offense, and probably some big stops by the goalie.

Projected Lineups

Philadelphia Flyers

Cam Atkinson – Sean Couturier – Tyson Foerster Travis Konecny – Morgan Frost – Owen Tippett Joel Farabee – Scott Laughton – Bobby Brink Nic Deslauriers – Garnet Hathaway

Cam York – Travis Sanheim Nick Seeler – Sean Walker Egor Zamula – Rasmus Ristolainen Marc Staal

Carter Hart Sam Ersson

Colorado Avalanche

Jonathan Drouin - Nathan MacKinnon - Logan O\'Connor Miles Wood - Ross Colton - Mikko Rantanen Tomas Tatar - Ryan Johansen - Joel Kirivanta Andrew Cogliano - Fredrik Olofsson - Kurtis MacDermid

Devon Toews - Cale Makar (tentatively) Bowen Byram - Josh Manson Jack Johnson - Sam Malinski

Ivan Prosvetov Alexander Georgiev

Gameday Tunes

\"The winter knocked me out / Frozen in an avalanche of doubt.\" The Beths rule and have some of the most clever songwriting in the indie world these days.

https://open.spotify.com/track/7flN6MxB2SlRgnu9AhiLxz?si=d95f42261ed24885

Stats via Natural Stat Trick

Talking Points