The Philadelphia Flyers close out their three-game road trip out west tonight in Colorado against an Avalanche team that is the best in the league — and it’s not particularly close. Nathan MacKinnon & Co. lead the league with 191 goals scored and 114 goals allowed for a staggering +77 goal differential. Mind you, the next best goal differential is the Tampa Bay Lightning at +49, and then the Carolina Hurricanes and Dallas Stars each at +27.
So it’s safe to say that the Flyers will face a steep uphill battle tonight in Colorado following an unthinkable defeat in Utah on Wednesday night. They do still have three points on this trip, though, thanks to a win in Vegas, but heading into Colorado with four points on this trip would make tonight’s likely loss more bearable.
Nevertheless, the game still has to be played, and we’ve seen the Flyers show up against tough opponents in the past. They held the Avalanche relatively in check in a 3-2 loss in Philadelphia last month, so perhaps there’s an outside chance they can earn a point in Colorado to close out the road trip.
The Flyers won’t get any reinforcements back from injury tonight, unfortunately, although Dan Vladar did take part in morning skate, per PHLY’s Charlie O’Connor.
He also shared the Flyers’ lines and defensive pairings from Colorado, with a change on the blue line.
Lines and pairs:
— Charlie O'Connor (@charlieo_conn) January 23, 2026
Zegras – Dvorak – Konecny
Barkey – Couturier – Tippett
Michkov – Cates – Brink
Grundstrom/Hathaway – Pederson – Grebenkin
York – Sanheim
Seeler – Drysdale
Andrae – Juulsen
Deslauriers – McDonald
The forward lines remain the same, although it is interesting to see Garnet Hathaway rotating out on the fourth line after his empty-net gaffe in Utah. However, O’Connor reported that Nikita Grebenkin was still out there with the rest of the presumed scratches, so he could be the one taking a seat.
However, the big changes are on defense.
Rick Tocchet changes Flyers’ defensive pairs in Denver
While the top pair remains the same with Cam York and Travis Sanheim, who have played nearly 600 minutes together at 5-on-5 this season, Rick Tocchet has made a swap on the bottom two pairs.
Emil Andrae and Jamie Drysdale have become a solid second pair, playing 357 minutes together, but the two puck-moving defensemen will be split up against the speedy Avalanche. That will also break up the Nick Seeler – Noah Juulsen pair, which has 44.2% of the expected goals share in 103 minutes together.
Putting Seeler with Drysdale and Andrae with Juulsen makes sense against a team like the Avalanche to make sure that your two worst defensemen aren’t caught out there against Colorado’s top guys. Neither Seeler nor Juulsen can move the puck too well, which is where Andrae and Drysdale excel.
The Seeler – Drysdale pairing is one we’ve seen for 273 minutes this season, posting a team-best 55.4% expected goals share. The bottom pair also has some time together with 51.3% of the expected goals share in 158 minutes at 5-on-5.
Tocchet will try to get York and Sanheim out on the ice as much as he can against the MacKinnon line, but Jared Bednard has the last change and should look to avoid that matchup. We’ll see how the bottom two pairs are able to hold up against a dominant team like the Avalanche on Friday night.
Stats via Money Puck
