The Game: 7:00 p.m. ET, NBCSP, ESPN+, 97.5 The Fanatic
Yes, there is a hockey game today. As some sort of distraction from everything going on around us on this Tuesday, our beloved Philadelphia Flyers are starting their southern road trip with a visit to the Carolina Hurricanes to see some familiar faces.
While we can’t say that the Flyers will be looking at Broad Street Hockey’s own Eric Tulsky up in the executive box, they will be staring face-to-face with some old teammates. Namely, Shayne Gostisbehere and Sean Walker are on this Carolina team and have formed one heck of a defensive pairing. But, we’ll get to that later.
The Flyers right now are in the middle of a quiet panic attack. Sam Ersson has gone down with an injury and will be away from the team for at least a week, according to reports, so it is on two very new guys to control the crease. We presume that Aleksei Kolosov will be in between the pipes in Raleigh and his athleticism will be desperately needed to face the barrage of shot attempts that the Hurricanes are known for. It will be the first true test of his ability.
Beyond what the Flyers’ whole deal is right now, the Hurricanes are on top of the world. After they had doubters this summer, wondering whether they can truly put it all back together after losing some solid players in free agency, they came back with just as much firepower. They are now 8-2-0 on the season and are on an absolute heater. Their last loss came at the hands of the St. Louis Blues all the way back on Oct. 19. They have one six consecutive games since then and some of them — like demolishing the Bruins by a score of 8-2 — have been overpowered beatings.
They just feel relentless in their offensive and everyone is working towards the same goal. Maybe, just maybe, they are really the opposite Flyers with how Philadelphia’s season has started. Should we prepare for something dramatic to happen? A loss so terrible that someone has to do something drastic? Maybe.
Players to watch
Emil Andrae
Emil Andrae is in a good position but it might not be for long. With Cam York back skating and potentially coming on this road trip to make his return from injury, Andrae’s place on the team could be in question. The young defenseman has more than impressed the coaching staff and all of us (one might mean just slightly more) so he certainly deserves to be in the lineup. But, the messy thing about Egor Zamula being Michkov’s assigned friend and translator, the team’s promise to Ivan Fedotov (and need for him until Ersson returns) and his presence preventing them from carrying eight defensemen on the roster; makes it just a jumbled mess.
If it was a pure meritocracy, Andrae would remain on this team and be in the top four. But things are not always like that and on Tuesday in Raleigh, he has another chance to prove why he needs to stay in the NHL. And at morning skate, it looks like he won’t be dragging around the elderly corpse of Erik Johnson and will instead of Egor Zamula to his right on the bottom pairing. So, that’s a new adventure.
Aleksei Kolosov
Well, here you go, you’re in the NHL. Kolosov wanted to be here and believed he should be in this league so much that he was willing to stir up so much trouble and head back to Belarus. But, with Ersson injured and Fedotov being terrible, the 22-year-old gets the starting role and will now be in charge of keeping a powerhouse Hurricanes team at bay.
It might be unfair to really judge him on just two appearances so far. But, through about 110 minutes of action, he has earned an .870 save percentage and 3.29 goals against average. Not great but certainly not terrible. Although, if Kolosov kept that save percentage and the Hurricanes shot their average amount of shots on goal, it means that they would score four or five goals against the Flyers. That feels like an automatic loss considering how brutal this team’s offense has been.
Tyson Foerster
Speaking of offense, Foerster needs to get something going. Coming into this season, he appeared to be the frontrunner of the “young core” of Farabee, Frost, and Tippett, to make the biggest impact. He is just so solid defensively, from what we have seen so far, so it wouldn’t take much for us to get excited about him being a key cog in the whole Flyers system.
Unfortunately, that has not gone according to plan. Through 11 games, Foerster has scored just two goals and three total points and has made just 12 shots on goal. That is just nowhere near enough for him to be an automatic top-six winger on any team. Now, he gets to have a position beside Sean Couturier and Matvei Michkov — a duo who has showed some promise for conducting some offense at 5-on-5 but need a spark to really put it all together. Just like some other Flyers, this is an opportunity Foerster cannot waste.
Shayne Gostisbehere-Sean Walker pairing
Looking at the Hurricanes, two names stick out like two, massive, swelling, sore thumbs. Two former Flyers have been connected in Carolina and when they’re on the ice, they are dominant. Among the 123 defensive pairings that have played at least 50 minutes at 5-on-5, Walker and Gostisbehere are at the very top with 70.71% of the on-ice shot attempt share. That is bonkers numbers. The Hurricanes have outshot opponents 78-34 when they’re out there, and when it comes to high-danger chances, it’s a 35-13 advantage for the Canes. Just pure control of the game.
It makes you wonder about a different future and then feel a little silly for even thinking that some Flyers general manager would keep these guys around.
Projected lineups
Philadelphia Flyers
Tyson Foerster — Sean Couturier — Matvei Michkov
Owen Tippett — Morgan Frost — Travis Konecny
Joel Farabee — Scott Laughton — Bobby Brink
Nic Deslauriers — Noah Cates — Garnet Hathaway
Travis Sanheim — Rasmus Ristolainen
Nick Seeler — Jamie Drysdale
Emil Andrae — Egor Zamula
Aleksei Kolosov
(Ivan Fedotov)
Carolina Hurricanes
Andrei Svechnikov — Sebastian Aho — Jack Roslovic
Eric Robinson — Jesperi Kotkaniemi — Martin Necas
Jordan Martinook — Jordan Staal — Seth Jarvis
Will Carrier — Jack Drury — Jackson Blake
Jaccob Slavin — Brent Burns
Shayne Gostisbehere — Sean Walker
Dmitry Orlov — Jalen Chatfield
Pyotr Kochetkov
(Spencer Martin)
