The Game: 7:00 p.m. EST on NBCSports Philadelphia, ESPN+/Hulu, and 97.5 The Fanatic
The Flyers have the opportunity to do something very funny tonight: if they win, that makes a five game win streak, so they’ll have gone five wins in a row, five losses in a row, and then another five wins. Rasmus Ristolainen, if still injured, will likely be sad to not play in a game that’d result in a 5-5-5 run.
Philadelphia gets that opportunity tonight against a struggling Toronto Maple Leafs team, who are holding down a wildcard spot and vying with Tampa Bay for safer harbor in the standings. The Leafs will be without one of their key players, defenseman Morgan Rielly, after he tried to behead an Ottawa Senator:
Yeah, doesn’t matter how “disrespectful” the slapper into the empty net was–you can’t crosscheck someone in the face like that.
The Leafs have gotten mediocre-to-bad goaltending most of the season–our old friend Martin Jones did briefly save their season while Ilya Samsonov and Joseph Woll were both out with injury (Woll remains a ways off from playing)–and Rielly’s absence will make a team that already can’t rely on its goalies even weaker in their own zone. The Flyers should be able to take advantage of this: they’ve been a volume shooting team most of the season, and a weakened Leafs defense corps means they should be able to fire away.
Still, the Leafs have some outrageously dangerous players. Auston Matthews is on pace to win the Rocket Richard again, William Nylander has been having a tremendous season and recently signed a massive contract extension, and Mitch Marner’s been a little less himself but still very good. The Flyers are going to need Sean Couturier–who’s struggled over this recent stretch and found himself centering the fourth line against the Coyotes on Monday–to be playing at Selke-level form to shut down that top line. Becoming Captain Coots may help with that, too.
This game also might serve as a bit of a preview for where a couple Flyers might end up after the trade deadline–as well as a showcase for a young player or two that the Flyers might push to acquire in return for such a deal. With less than a month to go until the deadline, it’s getting to be close to the time we might see a few guys play their last game in the Orange & Black.
Players to Watch
Sean Couturier
O Captain, my captain?? Congratulations to the new captain of the Flyers, Sean Couturier! It’s been a tough stretch for ol’ Coots lately: his ice time’s down, sure, but more concerning are the defensive gaffes that we’ve never really seen in his game–Torts said it best that the Flyers aren’t a good enough team for Couturier to take a night off. Hopefully, the demotion in Monday’s game–and the new leadership role–is a wake-up call, and we get to see Couturier back on the power play and shutting down Toronto’s star players.
Travis Konecny
In addition to Couturier being named captain, Travis Konecny now sports an “A” on his chest. TK has had an excellent season after a major bounce back last year, and has been especially good since returning from the All Star break: he’s got a four-game point streak with three goals and four assists, good for seven points. There have been some rumblings about a Konecny extension coming this off season (that’s the earliest he’s eligible to sign his next contract), and earning the “A” certainly lends credence to those rumors–a strong finish to the season will go a long way to cementing TK as a forever Flyer.
Morgan Frost
On the flip side of Couturier’s slide, Morgan Frost has looked stellar; if Frost played all 82 games of the season against the Coyotes, he’d be a Hart finalist. His play has been good-to-great ever since that fateful meeting with Torts last month, and that Arizona game was something of a statement, so it’d be nice to see him carry that momentum to Toronto. It helps that his most frequent linemate, Joel Farabee, has been having a great season as well–maybe the two of them can shake Cam Atkinson out of whatever stupor’s overtaken him.
Auston Matthews
It’s gotta be the guy on pace for his third Rocket Richard. Matthews has been outstanding after last year’s down season, which was largely attributed to a nagging hand injury that kept him from firing his shot the way we’ve become accustomed to. Seems he’s all better now, with 42 goals on the season. Watch for him to try and pad his stats against a Flyers team everyone still seems to underrate.
Projected Lineups
Philadelphia Flyers
Owen Tippett – Sean Couturier – Travis Konecny
Joel Farabee – Morgan Frost – Cam Atkinson
Noah Cates – Scott Laughton – Garnet Hathaway
Olle Lycksell – Ryan Poehling
Travis Sanheim – Jamie Drysdale
Cam York – Sean Walker
Nick Seeler – Egor Zamula
Marc Staal
Sam Ersson
(Cal Petersen)
Toronto Maple Leafs
Matthew Knies – Auston Matthews – Mitch Marner
Tyler Bertuzzi – John Tavares – William Nylander
Noah Gregor – Max Domi – Nick Robertson
Pontus Holmberg – David Kampf – Ryan Reaves
TJ Brodie – Timothy Liljegren
Simon Benoit – Jake McCabe
William Lagesson – Mark Giordano
Martin Jones
(Ilya Samsonov)
Gameday Tunes
We’ve gotta feature one of the biggest celebrity Leafs fans, right?
Stats via Hockey Reference
