It has been a tough month for the Philadelphia Flyers. They finished their homestand with a 1-6-0 record, got shutout in back-to-back games for the second time this season, and are dealing with injuries to Garnet Hathaway and Rasmus Ristolainen. Their five-game road trip’s off to a lousy start, too, with losses to the Tampa Bay Lightning, Washington Capitals and Dallas Stars–good for an 0-2-1 record. Talk about ending the season with a whimper.
Mandatory Credit: Kyle Ross-Imagn Images
Yesterday’s game against the Dallas Stars looked like it was going to be a rout early, with Ivan Fedotov allowing two goals on the first two shots by the Stars. He kept the puck out of the net for the remainder of the first period, but was replaced by Sam Ersson coming out of the first intermission–which presents a quandary for who will start against the Chicago Blackhawks today, though we suspect it could be Ersson again. The Flyers made it interesting, though, with Travis Konecny finally breaking his goal scoring slump, and Ryan Poehling continuing the heater he’s been on. They took it to overtime, only to lose nine seconds in. Yeah, it’s that part of the season where we’re grasping at straws for positives, folks.
As bad as it’s been for the Flyers, it might even be worse for the Chicago Blackhawks, who are in the midst of a seven-game losing streak. They’re the second worst team in the league behind the San Jose Sharks, but even the Sharks have better vibes. It’s been a mess of a season in Chicago. They fired their head coach, Connor Bedard is showing signs of deep frustration (even being moved to wing instead of center!), and trading Seth Jones–who, though maligned, is still a decent defenseman–has shown just how bad this team is. The tank was always the goal, but it’s starting to look like there’s no way out of the basement, either: a lot of premium picks have stalled in their development, and the free agents signed as reinforcements have flopped in every regard. The only bright spot of late has been the NHL debut of Artyom Levshunov–the second overall pick of the 2024 draft–on the back end, and he looks like he’s going to be an excellent player.
Storylines to Follow
The 2023 top prospect matchup
For quite some time heading into the 2023 draft, there was talk of it being a toss-up between Connor Bedard and Matvei Michkov going first overall. Then, when Russia was banned from international competitions, Michkov kind of fell off the radar: he was still viewed as a high-end prospect, but no longer in the same light as Bedard–plus, Michkov is a winger, while Bedard, Leo Carlsson, Adam Fantilli, and Will Smith (who went first, second, third, and fourth) are all centers, so that dinged him, too. There was the three-year KHL contract to contend with, as well.
Fantilli, Carlsson, and Bedard all debuted last season, with Bedard taking home the Calder, and Smith is starting to find his footing in the NHL this year as a rookie. As much as Michkov will be compared to his countryman Ivan Demidov, Michkov’s career will be observed parallel to Bedard’s, too. The Flyers and Blackhawks are in different conferences, so Michkov and Bedard won’t meet too often (barring a Stanley Cup Final series), and tonight’s an opportunity to see how the two stars are building their NHL careers. A decade from now, it’ll be fascinating to see who lived up to the pre-draft hype the most.
The 0-for-March power play
Is this possible? It doesn’t seem possible. The Flyers haven’t scored a power play goal for the month of March. They’ve played 11 games, and not once have they scored on the man advantage–that’s a zero (0!!) for 28 opportunities. It would be comical at this point, but it’s been the standard for the last three seasons: a bottom-of-the-league power play that has shown no tangible progress. The goalless streak is likely to continue tonight too because, shockingly, the Blackhawks have the 12th best penalty kill in the league with 81.2-percent efficiency. With another four games left in March after today, it’s plausible the Flyers fail to score a single power play goal for the month.
Pelletier promotion
We finally got a look at Jakob Pelletier with some actual linemates yesterday, playing alongside Ryan Poehling and Owen Tippett to start, and staying in the top nine all game after a lineup shuffle. Pelletier, part of the return for the Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost trade, is a pending restricted free agent; the Flyers need to see what they have in the 24-year old, and there was no way he was getting a fair shake alongside Rodrigo Abols and Nic Deslauriers. Hopefully, John Tortorella continues to give Pelletier a shot in the top-nine, and maybe even some special teams time. If he doesn’t show something in an elevated role, it’s hard to see the Flyers re-signing him in the off season, but he looked okay yesterday.
Projected Lineups
Philadelphia Flyers
Tyson Foerster – Noah Cates – Bobby Brink
Matvei Michkov – Sean Couturier – Travis Konecny
Owen Tippett – Ryan Poehling – Jakob Pelletier
Nic Deslauriers – Rodrigo Abols – Olle Lycksell
Cam York – Travis Sanheim
Nick Seeler – Jamie Drysdale
Emil Andrae – Egor Zamula
Sam Ersson
(Ivan Fedotov)
Chicago Blackhawks
Ilya Mikheyev – Frank Nazar – Connor Bedard
Teuvo Teravainen – Ryan Donato – Nick Foligno
Joe Veleno – Philipp Kurashev – Tyler Bertuzzi
Landon Slaggert – Lukas Reichel – Pat Maroon
Alex Vlasic – Wyatt Kaiser
Ethan del Mastro – Connor Muphy
Alec Martinez – Artyom Levshunov
Spencer Knight
(Arvid Soderblom)
Gameday Tunes
Nothing ages you like realizing an album has hit a significant anniversary, and of Montreal’s The Sunlandic Twins turns 20 this year. They’re playing it in full on tour right now, too, and in Philly this week–a tempting gig, for fellow former art school kids.
