Preview: A Golden streak?

The Game : 1:00 p.m. EST on NBCSports Philadelphia, ESPN+/Hulu, and 93.3 WMMR

Children, avert your eyes: the Philadelphia Flyers are streaking. After losing to the lowly San Jose Sharks at the start of their West Coast trip, the Flyers have won three games in a row and hold an 8-7-1 record. They\'re back at the Farg today and hosting the reigning champs, the 13-3-1 Vegas Golden Knights.

The Flyers have already played Vegas once this year, and that game was a bit of a nail-biter: the Flyers entered the third period with a 2-1 lead before giving up a pair and losing 3-2. That\'s what championship teams do though: they turn on the jets and takeover a game in the blink of an eye. The Flyers, on the other hand, can\'t quite do that yet--but they\'ve put together a surprisingly strong string of games.

The Golden Knights haven\'t gone through too many changes since the last time the Flyers faced them. Shea Theodore, Zach Whitecloud, and Alec Martinez are all healthy and playing as usual. Vegas\'s top stars are tearing it up. Their depth players are solid contributors. Their goaltending has slipped a bit, but Vegas is such a sound defensive team that they can usually cover their mistakes and protect their goalies.

However, Adin Hill had a real clunker on Thursday against the Montreal Canadiens, allowing five goals on 28 shots--good for a .821 SV%. Woof. The Knights are one of several teams running more of a tandem when it comes to goaltending, so there\'s a good chance Logan Thompson taps in for today\'s match.

Players to Watch

Tyson Foerster (Consecutive games we’ve used this bit: 7)

Tonight’s the night. I (sentient blog) can feel it in my HTML-coded bones: Tyson Foerster will score a goal. It will be a gorgeous wrister. It will ping so loud you can hear it in Las Vegas. It will go in the net. We will rejoice.

Owen Tippett

Owen Tippett, hello! Nice of you to start scoring goals. Tippett has four goals and an assist in his last three games, good for five points. A lot of fans (including a few folks here at BSH) had Tippett down for 40 goals this season, and while that may be a little out of reach, 30 is definitely back on the table. Now all we have to do is decide what nickname suits him best: Tipper the Ripper? Tippercanoe and Travis, Too (for the history nerds out there + when one of the Travii has the assist)? Goalen Tippett? Let us know in the comments!

William Karlsson

One of the last remaining original Golden Misfits, Karlsson has started the year on an absolute tear: in 17 games, he has a team-leading eight goals and 19 points. Karlsson hasn\'t cracked 15 goals since the 2019-20 covid-shortened season, but he\'s already more than halfway there. If he keeps up this scoring pace, he could have a season on par with his first few with the Knights--though his 110 PDO scream regression at some point.

Projected Lineups

Philadelphia Flyers

Travis Konecny – Sean Couturier – Tyson Foerster Cam Atkinson – Morgan Frost – Owen Tippett Joel Farabee – Ryan Poehling – Scottt Laughton Nic Deslauriers – Noah Cates – Garnet Hathaway

Cam York – Travis Sanheim Nick Seeler – Sean Walker Marc Staal – Louis Belpedio

Carter Hart Sam Ersson

Vegas Golden Knights

Ivan Barbashev – Jack Eichel – Jonathan Marchessault Brett Howden – Mike Amadio – Mark Stone Paul Cotter – William Karlsson – Pavel Dorofeyev Will Carrier – Nicolas Roy – Keegan Kolesar

Alec Martinez – Alex Pietrangelo Brayden McNabb – Shea Theodore Ben Hutton – Zach Whitecloud

Logan Thompson Adin Hill

Gameday Tunes

This album\'s 20th anniversary edition just dropped. It\'s got bangers for days, and wouldn\'t \"Hysteria\" be a cool goal song? Are Flyers fans suffering from \"Stockholm Syndrome?\" It\'s like high school never ended!

https://open.spotify.com/track/2klVsYrWaYjyPSXMyokE9s?si=1d7891afd25f4144

Stats courtesy Hockey Reference

Talking Points