The Philadelphia Flyers are taking on the Carolina Hurricanes in a Metropolitan Division matinee matchup. It’s their third game against each other on the season, with the series tied at one game a piece.
The Hurricanes
The Hurricanes are one of the powerhouses in the NHL. They lead the Metropolitan Division with a record of 34-11-4 and are trying to keep their winning ways going coming into Philadelphia. They’ve won their two most recent games against the Nashville Predators and Pittsburgh Penguins, and they hold a 6-2-2 record over their last 10. They’ve continued to show why they’re one of the best teams in the NHL by scoring in a multitude of ways against very strong opponents.
Over the last five games, Andrei Svechnikov has been the leading goal scorer and point scorer with six and nine respectively. Leading in assists is the veteran Teuvo Teravainen with five in the last five games.
The team’s leading scorer is Sebastian Aho with 52 points in 46 games, followed closely by Svechnikov, who is also over a point per game with 47 in 46 games. In terms of goal scoring, it’s those two players as well with 22 goals, far and away ahead of the next player—Nino Niederreiter.
The goaltending has been very strong, especially from Frederik Andersen, who has fully immersed himself in the Vezina Trophy conversation after being deemed a lost cause after his problems with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Andersen has a .927 save percentage on the season, as well as a 2.10 goals against average, and a record of 26-7-2. He also has two shutouts. After a tough last season with the Leafs and what I’m sure felt like a long offseason, his resurgence has been very fun to watch, and the defense in front of him has surely helped him along the way. Head coach Rod Brind’Amour has an extremely squad strong and has put excellent systems in place for them to succeed.
The Flyers
I can rave about the Hurricanes all day long. They’re a fast-paced team with tons of fun players like Aho, Svechnikov, Vincent Trocheck, Martin Necas, and others. However, I cannot say the same about your favorite team, the Flyers. They are on the opposite end of the standings spectrum, and as we all know, the hockey that they have played this season has been very boring. They hold a 15-25-9 record, which is good for 39 points and tied for last with the New Jersey Devils in the Metropolitan Division.
Claude Giroux, who has been in trade talks for the longest time now as we all know, is the team’s leading point scorer with 38 points in 46 games with Cam Atkinson (37 points in 49 games) following close behind. After that, the totals fall to 29 in 47 games at Travis Konecny. Our very own Kurt wrote about him in an article here.
Over the last five games, Scott Laughton has led the charge in the box score. He three goals and six points, which are team-leading numbers. Gerry Mayhew, Laughton, Giroux, Atkinson, and Carter Hart have really been the only bright spots for a team that is waiting for the trade deadline and offseason to roll around.
One thing that Flyers fans have been able to look forward to over this time of very poor hockey and the Olympics is the prospect (no pun intended) that Juraj Slafkovsky could be a Flyer if everything goes well. The Hurricanes could very well be another loss in the long list of them that leads to a lottery pick. It’s been very disheartening to watch the Flyers in 2021-22, and this game against the Hurricanes is just another in a long line of games before the season mercifully comes to an end. Being a downer sucks, but that’s the kind of season that the Flyers are having, and I continue to wish that there were better things to write about coming out of Broad Street instead of what feels like a perpetual cycle of losing.
Sad rant about losing aside, it would be a big deal for this Flyers team to knock off Carolina and break this four-game losing drought. We will see if they can live up to the task.
Projected Lineup
Oskar Lindblom — Claude Giroux — Cam Atkinson
James van Riemsdyk — Scott Laughton — Travis Konecny
Max Willman — Morgan Frost — Gerry Mayhew
Isaac Ratcliffe — Patrick Brown — Zack MacEwen
Ivan Provorov — Justin Braun
Travis Sanheim — Rasmus Ristolainen
Keith Yandle — Nick Seeler
Carter Hart
Martin Jones
That’s all from me, everybody! Go Flyers!
