After a truly brutal showing against a struggling Rangers team on home ice on Saturday afternoon, and seeing their losing streak stretch on to six games, the Flyers are still looking around for answers and hoping that a trip out West will see their luck change. They have quite a steep hill to climb here — not only have they dug themselves quite a deep hole with their own play, but their first stop is Vegas to face off against the Golden Knights, who sit at the top of the standings in the Pacific. There’s a bit of a mismatch in the strength of their lineups, to say the least, but the hope is that the Flyers can at least manage some incremental improvement, and get things slowly moving in the right direction again.
Puck drop: 8:00 p.m.
How to watch/listen:
📺: NBCSP+
📻: 93.3 WMMR
Pregame reading
- The Flyers’ center depth has taken a hit, and that’s thrown a bit of a wrench in the works of the plan to do a bit of managing of Sean Couturier’s workload. [BSH]
- Speaking of which, it seems a little weird, and a bit of a missed opportunity, that the Flyers haven’t used this moment to take a real run at the Trevor Zegras at center experiment. [BSH]
Pregame watching
By the numbers
Philadelphia Flyers – 22-17-8 (5th in Metro)
Goals: Trevor Zegras (18)
Assists: Travis Konecny (25)
Points: Trevor Zegras (42)
Vegas Golden Knights – 24-11-12 (1st in Pacific)
Goals: Mika Zibanejad (18)
Assists: Artemi Panarin (35)
Points: Artemi Panarin (51)
Projected lineups
Trevor Zegras — Christian Dvorak — Owen Tippett
Matvei Michkov — Noah Cates — Bobby Brink
Denver Barkey — Sean Couturier — Owen Tippett
Nikita Grebenkin — Lane Pederson* — Garnet Hathaway
Emil Andrae — Travis Sanheim
Nick Seeler — Jamie Drysdale
Noah Juulsen — Cam York
Sam Ersson
(Aleksei Kolosov)
Ivan Barbashev — Jack Eichel — Mark Stone
Pavel Dorofeyev — Mitch Marner — Reilly Smith
Keegan Kolesar — Tomas Hertl — Braeden Bowman
Cole Reinhardt — Tanner Laczynski — Alexander Holtz
Jeremy Lauzon — Shea Theodore
Noah Hanifin — Rasmus Andersson*
Ben Hutton — Kaeden Korczak
Adin Hill
(Akira Schmid)
Storylines to watch
A more even effort
The Flyers’ showing against the Rangers on Saturday was, in a word, rough. There’s a small positive to be found in that they were able to build up a bit more offense later in the game, found their legs eventually, but it remains that the damage was well and truly done by then, and waking up only when it turns to garbage time is not the most remarkable of feats. The Flyers’ sluggish, disorganized start was as much a killer in that one as was the less than optimal performance from Aleksei Kolosov, and the reality of their situation right now is that they simply cannot afford to keep not fully starting these games on time. They had the benefit of getting the first goal, which wasn’t nothing, but their inability to sustain that bit of momentum was troubling. This matchup will make things more challenging on them, but starting this game well and keeping up a more consistent level of energy and attention to detail will need to be a particular point of emphasis as they approach tonight’s game (and this challenging trip, broadly).
Brink returns
The Flyers’ troubles at the moment are numerous, but their depleted offense has certainly presented as one of the more significant ones, as they’re looking to really get their scoring game firing again. And while it’s going to take more than just one piece added into the mix to fix things around here, the group getting healthier is moving them in the right direction.
The Flyers look like they’ll be getting a bit of a boost this evening, as Bobby Brink has been removed from IR and, after taking practice yesterday, appears to be an option to return to the lineup tonight. He’ll slide back in on the right side of the line with Noah Cates — who he’s already developed some nice chemistry with — and Matvei Michkov, who’s been picking up a bit of steam in his individual game of late. We’ll see how this trio fares together — they showed some promise in earlier showings — and if they can combine for a bit more scoring punch.
Ersson gets the start
Ersson, though scheduled to have the afternoon off, ended up coming into Saturday’s game in relief very early, after Aleksei Kolosov gave up his third goal on the third shot of the game, and, despite giving up three more goals on 25 shots through his 51 minutes and change of play, was able to deliver a level of play which was fine enough, given the caliber of defensive play unfolding under front of him. It wasn’t exactly his A-game, but it was a small step in the right direction, and the Flyers are going to need him to find a way to keep that forward progress rolling as he’s called upon to start against this high-powered Golden Knights team. It certainly presents as a challenge, but he’s the Flyers’ best option at the moment, and the team is both rooting for and deeply in need of him finding his footing again.
