The Philadelphia Flyers are down a couple of their most important players just in time to welcome in a team who is on top of the world and is on pace to barely lose any games in regulation this season. The Colorado Avalanche have been almost perfect this season — the pessimists will be wanting the Flyers to just not get embarrassed, and the optimists will look for some weird shutdown game where the Avalanche appear mortal.
Puck drop: 1:00 p.m.
How to watch/listen:
📺: NBCSP
📻: 97.5 The Fanatic
Pregame reading
- Something to look out for this season is just how much head coach Rick Tocchet uses Sean Couturier. The veteran center has been leaned on hard and the coach himself admitted that he shouldn’t do a whole lot more of that. [BSH]
- It’s December so that means World Juniors! We’re going to be covering a whole lot of it, and to start let’s look at SIX Flyers prospects who could be at the tournament in Minnesota. [BSH]
- There’s some trade rumors swirling around Owen Tippett but according to Elliotte Friedman, the Flyers are trying to calm those down for the sake of the player. [BSH]
Pregame watching
By the numbers
Philadelphia Flyers – 15-8-3 (5th in Metro)
Goals: Trevor Zegras/Tyson Foerster (10)
Assists: Trevor Zegras/Travis Konecny (16)
Points: Trevor Zegras (26)
Colorado Avalanche – 20-2-6 (1st in Central)
Goals: Nathan MacKinnon (24)
Assists: Cale Makar (25)
Points: Nathan MacKinnon (48)
Projected lineups
Trevor Zegras — Christian Dvorak — Travis Konecny
Matvei Michkov — Sean Couturier — Owen Tippett
Nikita Grebenkin — Noah Cates — Bobby Brink
Carl Grundstrom — Rodrigo Abols — Garnet Hathaway
Nick Seeler — Travis Sanheim
Emil Andrae — Jamie Drysdale
Egor Zamula — Noah Juulsen
Dan Vladar
(Sam Ersson)
Artturi Lehkonen — Nathan MacKinnon — Martin Necas
Gabriel Landeskog — Brock Nelson — Ross Colton
Valeri Nichushkin — Jack Drury — Victor Olofsson
Parker Kelly — Zakhar Bardakov — Joel Kiviranta
Devon Toews — Cale Makar
Josh Manson — Brent Burns
Sam Girard — Sam Malinski
Trent Miner
(MacKenzie Blackwood)
Storylines to watch
Flyers have one, single advantage
Looking through both lineups, it’s easy to see that the Avalanche have the more talented and proven players in just about every single position. It also helps that Nathan MacKinnon is on pace to win the Hart Trophy and Cale Makar is most likely going to win the Norris. So, yeah, just two of the best talents of the generations playing at their peak right now.
But, there is something the Flyers have that the Avalanche currently don’t: Healthy and good goaltenders. Scott Wedgewood is injured and while MacKenzie Blackwood is healthy, he did just play against the New York Rangers yesterday. Logically, it will be Trent Miner in the crease for Colorado and the third-stringer has done fairly well with a .909 save percentage in his two NHL games this season, it’s not like he’s stealing any games. Dan Vladar can steal games, so that’s what we have to pray for.
And if we really want to stretch the definition of advantage, we could include that Colorado is 0-3 in the shootout this season and the Flyers are very, very good at that game-ending skills competition.
Cam York’s absence might be a big one
Hockey is weird and weird things can happen (like the Flyers somehow winning this game), but it’s still good to have as many good players as possible. So basically, missing Cam York — arguably the best defensive defenseman the Flyers currently have — up against the Avalanche is going to hurt a whole lot.
York has done excellent work to suffocate opposing scoring chances and limit shots against on the top pairing with Travis Sanheim, but as he’s currently out day-to-day he will be missing this game and in his place, it’s Nick Seeler. We’re crossing our fingers.
Best team in the world
Enough digital ink has been spilled on this Avalanche team to recognize their greatness, but just to really hit the point home. Colorado leads the league with a plus-48 goal differential. That is outstanding for a team after 82 games and this hypothetical team could finish at the top of their division fairly comfortably with that differential. But the Avalanche have done that in just 28 games. And, to just paint a more dominant picture, the next best team are the Dallas Stars and they’re at plus-27. Insane stuff.
