The Philadelphia Flyers are back at the Wells Fargo Center tonight after a three-game road trip through the American south that saw them go 1-1-1. Considering the level of competition they faced (and the fact that Matvei Michkov was a healthy scratch for two games), that’s a decent record: the Flyers were in it to the end with the Carolina Hurricanes, pulled off a gutsy 2-1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning, and took the reigning Stanley Cup Champion Florida Panthers to a shootout. Not bad!
There were other positives to take from the trip, too: Ivan Fedotov got his first NHL win and looked all right doing it (and we got an EBUG for a game!), Sam Ersson was outstanding against the Panthers and doesn’t seem affected at all by the injury that kept him sidelined, and the team put up 30-plus shots in two of the games–that shot volume is what made them surprisingly competitive last season, and it’s good to see it trending up after such miserable shot counts since this season began. Some of the younger core players looked revitalized, too–Owen Tippett, espeically, but Bobby Brink as well.
Tonight, however, is a matchup with the San Jose Sharks–a game that may end up having serious draft lottery ramifications. The Flyers are 5-8-2 this year, to the Sharks’ 4-9-2 start; both teams are wallowing at the bottom of the standings and have a real shot at the frontrunner for first-overall pick, James Hagens. A win for either team could represent a significant shift in their lottery odds.
The Sharks, as we all know, did win the lottery last season, and used the first overall pick on Macklin Celebrini. Unfortunately, Celebrini was injured after the season opener, and only recently returned to the lineup. When he plays, though, he’s as advertised, and is playing at a point-per-game pace, though it has only been four contests. Outside Celebrini, the Sharks are a weak team; Mikael Granlund showed he still has gas in the tank, filling in as top-line center in Celebrini’s absence, and there are exciting young talents in William Eklund and Will Smith as well. There’s also Yaroslav Askarov, who joined San Jose over the summer after demanding out of the Nashville Predators organization, and he’s banging the door down with a .942 SV% and 1.73 GAA on the Sharks’ AHL affiliate, the Barracuda. This Sharks team has a bright future, with other prospects like defenseman Sam Dickinson and winger Quentin Musty arriving in a few years.
However, the Flyers must face the Sharks team of the present, and that team is not very good. Last year, the Flyers gave the Sharks their first win of 2023-24 to snap their 11-game season-opening losing streak, which thankfully there is no risk of this time around. Still, the Flyers aren’t in a position to take a plucky opponent lightly, and they’ll have to continue the good efforts they brought in Tampa and Sunrise.
It wouldn’t be a Flyers game without a lineup shakeup, either. Matvei Michkov, unsurprisingly, draws back into the lineup while Nic Deslauriers will sit, and Ryan Poehling is back from IR to center Michkov’s line (because of course he would). Also not surprising, John Tortorella has smashed his “break in case of emergency button” and scratched Morgan Frost, who struggled during the road games. Jamie Drysdale won’t be in the lineup either, but the reports are that he’s banged up; that’s more concerning, given his injury history, but there’s no reason to worry unless it becomes a prolonged absence.
Players to Watch
Matvei Michkov
Barring any additional John Tortorella antics, Michkov should return to the lineup after he was healthy scratched for two of the three road games. While those scratches sent online Flyers fans into a tizzy, they were not without warrant: Michkov’s play had dropped off considerably over his last five games, where his average expected Goals-for percentage at 5-on-5 sat at an abysmal 36.40. Then came the Carolina game, where Michkov had atrocious underlying numbers (19.38 xGF% and 20.00 CF%) and found himself benched for most of the third period–rough. Keep an eye on Michkov to bounce back and prove those poor games were blips.
Joel Farabee
Someone who has been having a decent stretch of play, outside of the Carolina game? Yung Beez! Playing on a line with Scott Laughton and Bobby Brink seems to be working out for Farabee, who’s had generally favorable impacts while on the ice at 5-on-5. It’s been a slow process, but he seems on track to rediscover at least some of that elite form from the start of last season.
Macklin Celebrini
Gotta shout out the Calder competition in tonight’s game: Michkov vs. Celebrini. Though he missed a few weeks due to injury–and may sit tonight as a “development day”–Celebrini has shown he can score at the NHL level and, as the youngest active player in the league (Jett Luchanko, we hardly knew ye), already looks like the best player on this awful Sharks team. The Flyers will have to keep the most recent first-overall pick marked, or he will burn them for it.
Projected Lineups
Philadelphia Flyers
Owen Tippett – Sean Couturier – Travis Konecny
Joel Farabee – Scott Laughton – Bobby Brink
Anthony Richard – Ryan Poehling – Matvei Michkov
Tyson Foerster – Noah Cates – Garnet Hathaway
Emil Andrae – Travis Sanheim
Nick Seeler – Rasmus Ristolainen
Yegor Zamula – Erik Johnson
Sam Ersson
(Ivan Fedotov)
San Jose Sharks
Mikael Granlund – Macklin Celebrini* – Tyler Toffoli
William Eklund – Alex Wennberg – Fabian Zetterlund
Barclay Goodrow – Will Smith – Luke Kunin
Carl Grundstrom – Nico Sturm – Ty Dellandrea
Henry Thrun – Cody Ceci
Mario Ferraro – Timothy Liljegren
Jack Thompson – Jan Rutta
Vitek Vanecek
(Mackenzie Blackwood)
*Gametime decision
Gameday Tunes
This iteration of the Sharks is looking more like a school of sardines amirite?
Stats courtesy Hockey Reference
