The Game: 10:00 p.m. EST on NBCSports Philadelphia, and 97.5 The Fanatic
The Philadelphia Flyers are trekking through the state of California and their sunshine-filled road trip continues with a stop by the Anaheim Ducks on Friday night.
Players to watch
Morgan Frost, of course
Frost is making his return to the lineup (again) after playing last weekend against the Los Angeles Kings at home, and then being scratched (again) against the San Jose Sharks. Now, he will be making yet another return in this rollercoaster season he is having, yo-yoing in and out of the lineup.
With a the shortest leash imaginable — maybe a couple molecules long — the 24-year-old center will need to do something and maybe if he earns his first point of the year he will be able to stick around.
Pavel Mintyukov
Yes, the Ducks have a boatload of very good young players. Leo Carlsson, the most recent second-overall pick is at the top of the lineup, Trevor Zegras is here, Mason McTavish is possibly the most fun young player in the NHL, but the one that is potentially doing the most this season is rookie blueliner Pavel Mintyukov.
The 2022 first-round pick skipped the AHL entirely and has jumped right from the OHL to the big leagues and is not looking out of place whatsoever. He has a goal and eight points in 12 games. Incredible.
Projected lineups
Philadelphia Flyers
Owen Tippett — Sean Couturier — Cam Atkinson
Travis Konecny — Morgan Frost — Tyson Foerster
Joel Farabee — Noah Cates — Bobby Brink
Nic Deslauriers — Scott Laughton — Garnet Hathaway
Cam York — Travis Sanheim
Egor Zamula — Sean Walker
Louis Belpedio — Nick Seeler
Sam Ersson
Carter Hart
Anaheim Ducks
Alex Killorn — Leo Carlsson — Troy Terry
Frank Vatrano — Mason McTavish — Ryan Strome
Max Jones — Adam Henrique — Jakob Silfverberg
Ross Johnston — Sam Carrick — Brett Leason
Cam Fowler — Jackson LaCombe
Pavel Mintyukov — Ilya Lyubushkin
Urho Vaakanainen — Radko Gudas
Lukas Dostal
John Gibson
Some thoughts
- Carter Hart’s absence could have a silver lining. Sam Ersson is getting the start and that could mean either him rediscovering the juice that he had last year or the miserable season continues. It’s at least one more game of sample size to determine if he is bad or good early into his NHL career.
- Tyson Foerster needs to get going. The young rookie has struggled to produce as much as he did during his late-season debut into the big leagues last season, and there might be no better opportunity (except against the Sharks earlier this week) than against a not-so-good defense team like the Ducks. He might get outshot while on the ice, but there could still be some points to be had.
