The Game: 7:00 PM, NBCSP, ESPN+, 97.5 The Fanatic
We’re back, folks! We hope you all enjoyed this little break in the action after a pretty frenetic stretch — we sure did — but now we’re starting to get a little antsy, and very ready for the Flyers to be back in action.
The Flyers themselves are surely excited to get back at it as well because, as needed as the breather might have been, it did come at a point when they were getting hot and building up a nice bit of momentum for themselves. As it stands, they’re rolling on a three-game winning streak, and they’re looking not just to extend that tonight, but to also propel themselves up and over the Rangers to claim fourth place in the Metro standings. They are in a playoff spot at the moment, but only just barely — they’re sitting in what would be the second wildcard spot and they’re just one point up on the Lightning behind them. So they’ve made up a nice bit of ground in the standings, but with how tightly packed everything is right now, their position is hardly a comfortable one.
Another win would go a long way for them, but it’s not an easy matchup that they’re staring down. Tonight, the Florida Panthers are in town, and they’re looking to keep the ball rolling in this season series, after they collected the first win of the three-game series early last month with a shootout win in Sunrise.
But the Panthers, since we last saw them, have been working through a bit of a rough patch, having lost their last game (somewhat inexplicably) to the Penguins in overtime, and have won just four of their last 10 games. They’re also looking to be without their starting goalie for a little bit longer, as Sergei Bobrovsky remains away from the team as he and his wife await the birth of their child.
All the same, it speaks to how well they’ve insulated themselves through the early part of the season, because even as things have dipped for them a bit recently, they’re still holding on to second place in the Atlantic, and are just two points back of first position. That’s the Panthers — that’s a very good team, and even when they’re not doing great, they’re still doing okay.
Storylines to Watch
Sam Ersson’s impending return
Things seem to be ramping up for Ersson, signs pointing towards his return being soon — he’s returned to practice, and Helge Grans was sent down earlier this week to make room for him on the roster. It looks like he’s close to being ready to go, but we’ll have to wait a little longer to see him back in action.
Ivan Fedotov is getting the nod for the start this evening, and in some ways, this feels unsurprising. Fedotov’s been playing pretty well recently, and he’s certainly earned another start. And this also allows them to be even more patient with Ersson’s recovery — there aren’t any indications that he’s dealing with a setback (he was present for morning skate, after all), but given that his injury is a re-tweak of the same thing that was bothering him earlier in the season, exercising the extra bit of caution feels like the right course of action.
-a power play goal… please
If the Flyers really want to get themselves well and fully going in this matchup, they’re going to need some help from their power play. And while both units have shown flashes over much of the season, they’re still quite lacking in the consistency department. It’s been four games since the Flyers scored a power play goal — their last was way back before Thanksgiving, against the Blackhawks. They’re also dropped to a 16 percent conversion rate, which has them sitting all the way down at eighth from the bottom of the league ranking in power play percentage. They have enough talent at their disposal to make something happen, we’ve seen them put together enough chances to prove that, but times are getting a little desperate, and they need to bear down and find a way to start burying some of their chances, before things start to spiral on them.
Staying disciplined
On the flip side, it will be especially important for the Flyers to avoid shooting themselves in the foot and putting themselves at a disadvantage in this matchup — that is, they need to find a way to stay disciplined.
And this has been something of an uphill battle for them for much of the season. They’ve struggled to find the line without going over it, and have seemed particularly susceptible to the needless ticky-tacky stick infractions, and it’s been a real hindrance to them. And they’ve struggled to make positive headway in limiting these gaffs as well — Friday against the Rangers was their first game of the season with zero minor penalties taken, but then they backslid on Saturday in St. Louis, putting up a clean sheet in the first period, but then taking an interference penalty inside the first minute of the second, and then two more penalties in the third.
Now, this clearly isn’t sinking them completely, but giving away chances for free will catch up to them eventually.
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 — Egor Zamula
Ivan Fedotov
(Sam Ersson)
Florida Panthers
Evan Rodrigues – Aleksander Barkov – Sam Rienhart
Carter Verhaeghe – Sam Bennett – Matthew TKachuk
Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Jesper Boqvist
A.J. Greer – Tomas Nosek – Jonah Gadjovich
Gustav Forsling – Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola – Nate Schmidt
Dmitry Kulikov – Adam Boqvist
Spencer Knight
(Chris Driedger)
