The Philadelphia Flyers are facing the Pittsburgh Penguins for the second time in 48 hours and considering how the first one went, this could be fun.
The Game: 7:30 PM, NBCSP, ESPN+, 97.5 The Fanatic
The Philadelphia Flyers are making the cross-state trip to Pittsburgh to face a Penguins team that is most likely trying to not get shelled by a score of 6-1 for the second time in a row.
On Tuesday, as the Penguins visited the Flyers, our beloved home team was able to hand a wholehearted beating to their archrivals. Every player was clicking. The young guys that mean so much to this team were contributing, the stars were doing star-level things, and Sam Ersson was continuing his 2025 form. The Flyers looked like a complete hockey team that could have fooled any newcomer into thinking that they are destined for a long run in the postseason.
And even before that, thanks to Matvei Michkov, the Flyers were able to earn a win over actual Stanley Cup contenders, the Edmonton Oilers. So, is this two-game post-4 Nations winning streak a true sign of things to come in this back third of the season? Or, are we just seeing a not-bad team beat up on teams having bad stretches of play? We won’t truly know until we see more, but we should get more of an answer tonight.
If the Flyers limp their way to a close loss, then we can just chalk those wins to taking advantage of some teams having a bad time. But, if the Flyers just overpower the Penguins once more, then we can firmly slot Philadelphia in as a team that is a step above the truly awful teams in the National Hockey League, but not quite contending for a playoff spot quite yet. We’re not saying that it will be confirmed one way or the other because Travis Konecny scored a couple goals against a goaltender who should not be playing in the NHL, but it’s just another sample of evidence to add to our Mind Palaces.
Storylines to watch
Dominant young gun line
On Tuesday, we got to see a line take over an entire game. Noah Cates, Tyson Foerster, and Bobby Brink combined to be an unruly force that penned the Penguins’ defense into a corner. Brink scored one, Cates scored two, and Foerster added another one as all three forwards earned at least three points on the night.
And in some sort of a miraculous way, that line actually had the worst underlying numbers on the Flyers that night. Through 11 minutes, when that trio was on the ice the Flyers lost the shot attempt battle 13-5, the Penguins had eight shots on goal to the Flyers’ four, and even when it came to high-danger chances, that line had just two as the Penguins had five. But still, piles of goals happened as the usually solid trio slipped up a little bit but got some puck luck.
Maybe tonight, we’ll see some more points on the board but some dominant underlying play as well.
Do the Penguins not want to get embarrassed again?
It’s all hypothetical, but if we were on a team that just got pummeled into the ground against our rivals from across the state we share, we would feel like getting up for the rematch two days later. Could we see the Penguins treat this one game in February as a do-or-die matchup? Certainly another loss by the hands of your rival would probably send them spiraling further down and make the rest of their season really not matter at all (more than it was already not mattering).
We want to be cautiously confident, but maybe Sidney Crosby decides to just absolutely go off once again against the Flyers in a disgusting way.
More offense coming from the new guys?
Both Andrei Kuzmenko and Jakob Pelletier have contributed to their new team in the first handful of games they have been able to play. Kuzmenko has been providing a jump to the team’s power play unit and is more of a scoring threat this season than Morgan Frost or Joel Farabee ever was (sorry). Meanwhile, Pelletier has been on the Flyers’ fourth line but still managed to earn his first point in Orange and Black on Tuesday night.
Do we see this trend continue against the Penguins tonight? Can we see Kuzmenko pot in his second goal as a Flyer? Or maybe Pelletier getting a brief appearance up the lineup if something is not clicking, to then contribute offensively?
Projected lineups
Philadelphia Flyers
Andrei Kuzmenko – Scott Laughton – Travis Konecny
Tyson Foerster – Noah Cates – Bobby Brink
Owen Tippett – Sean Couturier – Matvei Michkov
Jakub Pelletier – Ryan Poehling – Garnet Hathaway
Cam York – Travis Sanheim
Nick Seeler – Jamie Drysdale
Egor Zamula – Rasmus Ristolainen
Sam Ersson
(Ivan Fedotov)
Pittsburgh Penguins
Anthony Beauvillier — Sidney Crosby — Bryan Rust
Danton Heinen — Evgeni Malkin — Cody Glass
Michael Bunting — Kevin Hayes — Philip Tomasino
Matthew Nieto — Blake Lizotte — Noel Acciari
Pierre-Olivier Joseph — Kris Letang
Matt Grzelcyk — Erik Karlsson
Ryan Graves — Ryan Shea
Alex Nedeljkovic
(Joel Blomqvist)
