The Anaheim Ducks are flying into town to face our Philadelphia Flyers in a battle that might end up being a little awkward.
Flyers vs. Ducks
When: 7:00 p.m. ET
Where: Wells Fargo Center
TV: NBCSP, BSSC
Radio: 97.5 The Fanatic
No Ducks fan wants their team to win anymore games for the rest of the season, and no sane Flyers fan wants that either. We all know that the Flyers are not good enough to sneak into the playoffs, and even if the miracle happened where every team suddenly got a bad case of food poisoning that put every good player out for three months, putting the Flyers into the playoffs, they would get murdered for the sake of some gate revenue. With all that being said, let’s just agree that the overall best thing would be for the Flyers to pick up these losses and get that first-round draft pick as high as possible.
But of course players don’t think that way, so it will simply be a match between two fan bases that are only thinking about what trades can be made before the deadline and two teams of players that are hoping to not lose so many damn games.
The first game of this two-game season series when the Flyers were in California ended as a 4-1 win that completed the sweep of the state and really kicked off the recent hot streak. We bet the Ducks are so mad about it. They want revenge so badly! Oh no, watch out, it would be absolutely terrible if the Flyers lost. Oh no!
Projected Flyers lineup
James van Riemsdyk — Morgan Frost — Owen Tippett
Joel Farabee — Noah Cates — Travis Konecny
Kevin Hayes — Scott Laughton — Wade Allison
Nic Deslauriers — Patrick Brown — Zack MacEwen
Ivan Provorov — Cam York
Travis Sanheim — Tony DeAngelo
Nick Seeler — Rasmus Ristolainen
After starting and getting absolutely murdered by the Boston Bruins yesterday, we have to imagine that Carter Hart takes a rest and Samuel Ersson comes in once again. Although Ersson did finish that game, so we never really know. Could be either!
At least we have some secure and stable forward lines to look at and it’s not just a pile of players experiencing hell. The top line has been consistently good and then Travis Konecny is just leading his All-Star campaign by wanting to score as much as he can.
Maybe it is just a pile of players.
Projected Ducks lineup
Adam Henrique — Mason McTavish — Troy Terry
Maxime Comtois — Trevor Zegras — Ryan Strome
Frank Vatrano — Sam Carrick — Jakob Silfverberg
Max Jones — Jayson Megna — Brett Leason
Cam Fowler — Dmitry Kulikov
Simon Benoit — John Klingberg
Urho Vaakanainen — Kevin Shattenkirk
Anthony Stolarz is projected to start for the visitors tonight.
Despite the Ducks having a 12-27-5 record (woof), there is still some talent that should be able to score against this Flyers defense. Troy Terry leads the team in scoring and plays hard enough to potentially be too much of a nuisance; and of course there is the double-headed prospect powerhouse of Trevor Zegras and Mason McTavish to inflict even more pain.
But, as we scowl down the lineup, the Ducks have the same problem as the Flyers and it is a disappointing blue line with just a handful of guys thrown at the wall.
This will sure be something to watch, either completely awful or somewhat entertaining.
Some Questions
Can the Flyers’ power play go back to being not terrible?
Philadelphia had an incredible six power play opportunities against the Boston Bruins yesterday afternoon, but managed to score zero power play goals. But against some not-good-defensively teams like the Washington Capitals and Arizona Coyotes recently, the Flyers were able to score multiple goals on the man advantage. Maybe they can do some more of that tonight.
Will the Ducks’ youngsters be held pointless?
Depending on the Flyers defense to prevent some stars from scoring any points is maybe the tallest task imaginable, but could they do that tonight? They might be tired from the flight, or were up all night on Snapchat or whatever. Let’s see if they can do that, or at least have just one of them score a goal and not all of them.
