The Game: 7:00 PM. NBCSP. 97.5 The Fanatic.
It’s been a weird couple of games for the Flyers, and they’ll kick off their fourth game in six days with an important matchup in Columbus. After a weekend in which the Flyers dropped a tough overtime game in Boston and had a disappointing showing against Utah, the Flyers need to get back to their winning ways against the Blue Jackets on the heels of a three-game losing streak.
Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports
For Columbus, meanwhile, the Jackets are 6-3-1 in their last ten games and trending upwards on the season, despite dropping all three games on their recent Western Canada trip. The young team has turned some heads to begin the year, with Kent Johnson, Adam Fantilli, and Kirill Marchenko really beginning to settle in as impact NHLers.
There’s a surprising amount of early season stakes to this Tuesday night matchup. Heading into the game, the Jackets sit just one point behind the Flyers, and Columbus has a game in hand. A loss, coupled with a Penguins win, would suddenly push the Flyers to last place in the Metro.
Storylines to watch
Can Tippett, Drysdale continue momentum?
Finally, Owen Tippett has gotten going. In the earliest parts of this season, there had to be no Flyer more frustrating than Owen Tippett, who was getting an outrageous amount of chances and fumbling them in every way imaginable. Shots wide, one-timers on rushes, numerous pucks hitting the post, whiffed rebounds – Owen Tippett was missing everything. Well, maybe it is just that goal scorers are streaky, and that we need to recalibrate our expectations of Owen Tippett as a player. With four goals in his last five games, Tippett is up to 8 goals in 28 games, a near 24 goal pace for the year. That would be a disappointing output for Tippett, but it’s not incredibly far off from the ~30 goals we could have reasonably expected from Tippett. And, on the bright side, it’ll only take one or two more hot streaks for Tippett to reach that higher pace.
Meanwhile, Jamie Drysdale looks to continue his strong play from the Utah game after his return from injury. While he didn’t appear on the box score, Drysdale was all over the place, and dominated the advanced metrics. For a guy who has consistently shown poor underlying numbers for his entire career to date – the performance against Utah was noticeably impressive, and something the Flyers would love to see become a trend for Drysdale.
Bad power plays galore, Flyers PK could feast
One thing about this Jackets team that could prove to be important in this game? Their special teams are collectively awful, and their power play is only a mark better than the Flyers, which is saying something. Good for 25th in the league at 17.4%, the Jackets man-advantage is just barely ahead of the 28th-ranked Flyers, who sit at a 16.9% efficiency. It’s a bit of a surprising mark for the team, as the Jackets sit pretty high up in the league in terms of goals scored per game. Look for the Flyers to be high-pressure, looking to go the other way, as always on the kill. Might have quite a few chances tonight.
Meanwhile, on the kill, the Jackets are 30th at an awful 71.6%. So, if the Flyers, who’ve scored a power play goal in two of their last three games, want to continue their positive power-play momentum, this might be a pretty good opportunity to do so for Michkov and co.
The young Columbus forwards
The Blue Jackets, for the first time in a while, are actually a pretty exciting up and coming team. There’s a lot to like, especially on the forwards side with this Jackets team. There’s former third overall pick Adam Fantilli of course, who’s loaded with potential and has 13 points in the season’s first 27 games. But more impressive to start the season and perhaps more of a threat? Kirill Marchenko and Kent Johnson.
For Marchenko, the 24 year old right winger is at a near point per game pace, with 26 points in 27 games. He’s looking like he’s made a true leap forward in his third year, after putting up 42 points in 78 games in 2023-24. Meanwhile, after dealing with an injury, Johnson has tallied 14 points in 13 games, as he continues his upward trajectory from the past two seasons. If the Flyers can neutralize the young forwards of Columbus, there’s not that much to be scared about with this Columbus team. Tons of exciting young guys, not a lot of fun older ones (except Sean Monahan, and maybe our old pal James van Riemsdyk). The thing is, though – that’s been hard for a lot of teams to actually do, as Columbus has put up a 3.41 goals per game average, good for 7th in the NHL.
The lineups
Philadelphia Flyers
Joel Farabee — Sean Couturier — Travis Konecny
Owen Tippett — Morgan Frost — Matvei Michkov
Tyson Foerster — Noah Cates — Bobby Brink
Scott Laughton — Ryan Poehling — Garnet Hathaway
Cam York — Travis Sanheim
Emil Andrae — Rasmus Ristolainen
Nick Seeler — Jamie Drysdale
Sam Ersson
(Ivan Fedotov)
Columbus Blue Jackets
James van Riemsdyk — Sean Monahan — Kent Johnson
Dmitri Voronkov — Adam Fantilli — Kirill Marchenko
Zach Aston-Reese — Cole Sillinger — Mathieu Olivier
Sean Kuraly — Justin Danforth — Kevin Labanc
Zach Werenski — Dante Fabbro
Ivan Provorov — Damon Severson
Jake Christiansen — Jordan Harris
Elvis Merzlikins
(Daniil Tarasov)
