The Philadelphia Flyers are back in action and they are facing a team they might just provide a beating to.
The Chicago Blackhawks are still terrible. Owning a 7-12-1 record, they sit just one spot from the position as the worst team in the entire NHL and since they have the same point percentage as the title-holding Nashville Predators, it is just due to one, single more win that they are not in that spot. But this is still the sport of hockey and somehow, they most recently managed to get a 3-1 win over the champion Florida Panthers. Before that, though, Chicago suffered three consecutive losses against the Kraken, Canucks, and Ducks.
For some reason, this Blackhawks team (in results only) feels like the Flyers. They deserve to be one of the worst teams in the league overall, but have just enough firepower that if some players are clicking, they can stand a fighting chance against the cream of the crop. They previously earned victories against the downtrodden Oilers and Avalanche — when they were truly god awful earlier this season — but it’s really just against their peers at the bottom where they can provide a dominant-not-scrappy win. For instance, the Blackhawks have been outshot by their opponent in their last six games and have only managed to get more shots on goal than the other team five times this whole season.
If the Flyers are just normal, they should provide another beating to an opponent that is below them. Just as they have done recently against the Sabres, Senators, and Sharks recently. It feels like another classic Flyers game where they might win and we would walk away from it with improved opinions of some players, but then they would just lose the next five games purely because they are facing better teams.
Storylines to watch
Michkov vs. Bedard
While we haven’t been waiting for this matchup with bated breath, it will be just a joy to watch the very first meeting between two potential superstars. Connor Bedard has been toiling away in Chicago and in his second season, is really experiencing the lows of playing on a bad team. Considering he scored 22 goals and 61 points in 68 games through his rookie campaign, his 15 points in 20 is a little disappointing.
So with Michkov now coming in and being the player that many hyped up as equal a couple years ago, but slipping down to seventh overall for the Flyers, they get to meet in the NHL in a Saturday matinee.
Is this the new Crosby vs. Ovechkin as those legends fade away? Maybe, just maybe.
Morgan Frost, Cam York return to the lineup
In more technical news, center Morgan Frost has emerged from his healthy scratch slumber and will be centering the Farabee-Brink duo to make an entire line of young players not really finding their place in Philadelphia. And, after suffering an injury all the way back on October 23 against the Capitals, Cam York is back on the blue line having missed the last 13 games.
It will be a decent test for both of them. Frost needs to play well enough to keep his spot on the Flyers and seem like a center they should be committed to. And York just needs to look healthy once again since he was arguably this team’s best defenseman before Travis Sanheim has gone on a Norris-caliber run in his absence.
Aleksei Kolosov gets another start
Kolosov is back in between the pipes for this visit from the Chicago Blackhawks. After Sam Ersson went down with an injury, Ivan Fedotov looked good and stable and we assumed that he would just be taking the vast majority of the starts because of that. But now, for his second start in the last three games, Kolosov is in the crease.
On Monday, in Kolosov’s first actual game since Nov. 5, the 22-year-old earned a loss but did stop 26 of the 29 shots he faced from the Colorado Avalanche of all teams. It wasn’t a mind-blowing appearance but it was solid enough for us to not have any immediate concerns. Now, he is facing a team with less talent and it could prove to be a more solid test of where he is at with his game for his fifth start in the NHL. Just five appearances doesn’t tell you much but it is at least something.
Chicago still has some killers in their depth
Don’t get us wrong, we still think the Blackhawks are not a good hockey team but surprisingly as you take your eyes down the lineup, specifically when it comes to the forward group, they still have talent in the bottom six. For some reason, they have Connor Bedard dragging around the corpse of players who wouldn’t even be in this league if it wasn’t for the Chicago Blackhawks. And at the same time, a third line featuring Taylor Hall and Teuvo Teravainen — a bottom-six forward line that even we’re envious of — and even solid players like Craig Smith and youngster Lukas Reichel on the fourth line.
And when comparing these players to the Flyers’ bottom six, there is some concern. Of course they will not be directly matched up and John Tortorella will look to take advantage of them being on the ice to his scorers out, but if we’re thinking of Hall and Teravainen facing forwards like Scott Laughton, Ryan Poehling, and Noah Cates, they might have an advantage when it comes to the offensive zone.
Projected lineups
Philadelphia Flyers
Owen Tippett — Sean Couturier — Travis Konecny
Joel Farabee — Morgan Frost — Bobby Brink
Tyson Foerster — Noah Cates — Matvei Michkov
Scott Laughton — Ryan Poehling — Garnet Hathaway
Travis Sanheim — Rasmus Ristolainen
Cam York — Emil Andrae
Egor Zamula — Helge Grans
Aleksei Kolosov
(Ivan Fedotov)
Chicago Blackhawks
Connor Bedard — Jason Dickinson — Joey Anderson
Tyler Bertuzzi — Nick Foligno — Ilya Mikheyev
Taylor Hall — Ryan Donato — Teuvo Teravainen
Pat Maroon — Lukas Reichel — Craig Smith
Alex Vlasic — Connor Murphy
Nolan Allan — Alec Martinez
Wyatt Kaiser — T.J. Brodie
Petr Mrazek
(Arvid Soderblom)
