The Game: 7:00 p.m. EST on NBCSports Philadelphia, ESPN+, and 93.3 WMMR
While we have been pleasantly surprised by our Philadelphia Flyers’ performance so far, lately, they have gone back to some of their losing ways. They have now lost their last three games and against teams who are just like them — trying to shimmy and make their own room to cement a playoff spot. An overtime loss to the Kraken, a gutsy one-goal loss to the Flames, and then a late-game collapse and domination by the Oilers; all to just find themselves slipping down the standings.
Now, they get to host a Columbus Blue Jackets team they have already seen twice before and have, well, simply demolished them. In the season opener, the Flyers took a commanding 4-2 win to start this so-far-successful campaign. And then in last November, thanks to Ryan Poehling earning three points out of nowhere, the Flyers earned a 5-2 win over their divisional foe.
Despite some former Flyers and a player who is not having a great time because he wanted to be a Flyer, being on this roster, the Blue Jackets just cannot find any success whatsoever this season against Philadelphia. Now, the Flyers could use this opponent at the perfect time to try and get the two points and not slip too far down and completely out of a playoff spot for the first time in a pretty long time.
Players to watch
Tyson Foerster
Foerster’s previous experience while being on the top line alongside Sean Couturier and Travis Konecny should be considered a success. They controlled play as one of the top forward lines in the entire NHL when it came to some underlying numbers at 5-on-5 and would score their fair share of goals along the way. Now, Foerster finds himself off that trio of the Flyers’ best.
He played on this new line against the Edmonton Oilers and simply got crushed. Foerster was on ice for 11 shot attempts for, compared to the Oilers unleashing a total of 24 during that same timeframe. It was rough. Now against weaker competition, we should see if he can improve on that and maybe have more responsibility for a line’s offense.
Egor Zamula
Zamula keeps on showing an offensive side to his game on the big stage. The young blueliner is slowly earning more and more trust to get involved in the top zone and the growth in confidence is showing. A goal in Calgary, and then leading all defensemen in shot attempts in Edmonton — Zamula is really trying to break out of his shell and he should be a bigger player. Maybe against the Blue Jackets he can unleash some of that.
Adam Fantilli
After starting the season fairly slow for someone who demolished college hockey at such a young level just a year prior, Adam Fantilli is starting to find his scoring touch. Four points in his last five games and two goals in his last three, while also playing in his largest opportunity next to the Blue Jackets’ best players. With Johnny Gaudreau a little motivated to perform in Philadelphia, we might see Fantilli get on the end of a lot of high-danger passes.
Projected lineups
Philadelphia Flyers
Joel Farabee — Sean Couturier — Travis Konecny
Owen Tippett — Morgan Frost — Bobby Brink
Tyson Foerster — Ryan Poehling — Cam Atkinson
Nic Deslauriers — Scott Laughton — Garnet Hathaway
Cam York — Travis Sanheim
Nick Seeler — Sean Walker
Egor Zamula — Rasmus Ristolainen
Carter Hart
(Sam Ersson)
Columbus Blue Jackets
Johnny Gaudreau — Adam Fantilli — Jack Roslovic
Yegor Chinakhov — Dmitri Voronkov — Kirill Marchenko
Kent Johnson — Cole Sillinger — Emil Bemstrom
Alexandre Texier — Justin Danforth — Mathieu Olivier
Damon Severson — Ivan Provorov
Jake Bean — David Jiricek
Jake Christiansen — Erik Gudbranson
Elvis Merzlikins
(Spencer Martin)
Some thoughts
- Special teams killed the Flyers against the Oilers, that will have to change. We all know that the Flyers power play is big-time doo-doo. In Edmonton, the team had some chances spattered throughout the game and these stop-start periods completely halted any momentum the team got. Even after they tied the game in the second period, all it took was a brief Oilers man advantage and then collecting themselves after the second intermission to put it away. The Flyers will either need to stay out of the box — and even not let the Blue Jackets go there either — to solidify some solid opportunities on Thursday night.
- Flyers need a controlling game. Ever since the Flyers got some national attention for how well they are doing this season, games have started to slip away. Most recently it has been the results, but further back, the process was lacking. Since the Flyers’ Dec. 16 game against the Red Wings, they have had just one single game where they managed to have more shot attempts than the other team at 5-on-5 (it was that wild 7-6 loss against Detroit). They have been walked all over and the pressure has just not been the same. Maybe it’s the sudden expectation to keep a playoff spot, or just pure fatigue, but there has been a slow decline. They need to stop that and kickstart a new effort against Columbus.
