Flyers try not to fall on their own sword as they head to battle with the Golden Knights.
The Philadelphia Flyers fell to the Penguins 5-1 on Saturday, after allowing 3 goals in the last 5 minutes of the game. The Flyers have dropped 4 of their last 5 games going 1-3-1, arguably 3 of the 5 games were against playoff caliber teams – Tampa Bay, Carolina, and New York Rangers. Even then the Flyers need to find a way to win games and they’re struggling to do so.
Now the Flyers (24-31-11) will play a Vegas team that defeated the Hurricanes 4-0 and the Blues 5-3 this past weekend. They have won 3 straight games, are on a 12-2-2 run, 1st in the Pacific with 88 points, and have a 41-20-6 record. The last meeting between these 2 teams was on December 9, 2022, the Flyers lost the game 2-1 in Overtime.
On Sunday, Flyers Interim General Manager Danny Briere made his first official transaction. Elliot Desnoyers and Tyson Foerster have been loaned back to Lehigh. As I suspected and spoke about in my last article. This will shack up the Flyers lines a bit as Tony DeAngelo is also set to return, after serving a 2 game suspension for spearing Lightning player Corey Perry.
Wade Allison is still not cleared to play so Tyson Foerster was called up again this morning and will take Allison’s spot. Both Foerster and Desnoyers were a joy to watch during there 2 game stay in the NHL, and it will be exciting to watch them both improve their games and earn a starting spot in the Flyers lineup. As it already looks like Tyson is, getting another chance up with the team.
Key Players:
“We don’t make enough plays, we haven’t made enough plays, and we probably won’t the rest of the year.”
John Tortorella on the Flyers recent struggles.
Philadelphia Flyers – ??? Right now it is really hard to narrow down players to watch for on this Flyers team, and not necessarily in a good way. Point wise this team has struggled and it shows when you look at individual players stats. Like John Tortorella said the team just isn’t making enough plays. Especially with Travis Konecny still out there is no one player producing more than others. There are some who have stuck out and have shown their fundamentals, growth, and locker room presence for example. Laughton, Tippett, and York. Laughton has stepped up big time recently being that veteran presence and really helping the younger guys like York, with the management changes. Making York’s game better and improving his overall chemistry with the team, and most importantly his linemates. But for some reason it’s not correlating into games, and for someone who doesn’t watch every single Flyers game there isn’t much to get excited about. No matter what this team does it seems like they can’t create offence or keep momentum on their side during a game.
Vegas Golden Knights – If you like revenge stories then look no further. Jonathan Quick long time Los Angeles King, who was traded away like nothing to the Blue Jackets. Leaving Quick and media stunted. Columbus understandably let Quick go back closer to home and traded him to Vegas. In 3 games with his new team Quick’s game has turned around after a poor year, which resulted in the Kings giving him away. Which is ridiculous by the way, one bad season for a franchise goalie and you throw him out. Either way he is out for blood currently rocking a perfect 3-0-0 record with 1.97 GAA, .939 SV%, a 33 save shutout against the Hurricanes and only 6 goals against. The veteran goaltender may be past his prime years, but he is still one of the best goaltenders in the league with a solid Vegas team in front of him. That solid team has a lot of players to keep an eye on, especially Jack Eichel and Jonathan Marchessault who has 11 points combined in 5 games. The two of them can be deadly on the first line if they get hot, Flyers need to find a way to shut them down and keep them off the board.
Projected Goalie Matchup and Lineups:
Carter Hart is out sick. Felix Sandström will start, Samuel Ersson will be called up as backup. Felix Sandstrom has struggled this year in 12 games he has a 1-9-1 record, 3.30 GAA and .888 SV%. All though he did have a good bounce back game against Carolina, now he looks to do more of the same today and hopefully earn a win.
Jonathan Quick is set to start in Philadelphia. As I mentioned earlier he has a 3-0-0 record with 1.97 GAA, .939 SV%, and a shutout with his new Vegas team. Against the Flyers it is more of the same, a record of 11-4-2 in 18 games with a remarkable 1.98 GAA and .945 SV%.
Projected Lineup – Philadelphia Flyers
Farabee – Frost – Tippett
Laughton – Hayes – Foerster
JVR – Cates – Lemieux
Deslauriers – Laczynski – Bellows
Provorov – York
Sanheim – Ristolainen
Seeler – DeAngelo
Sandström Ersson
Projected Lineup – Vegas Golden Knights
Barbashev – Eichel – Marchessault Smith – Karlsson – Amadio Cotter – Stephenson – Kessel Howden – Blueger – Kolesar
Martinez – Pieter Angelo McNabb – Theodore Hague – Whitecloud
Quick Patera
How to watch, listen:
TV: USA – NBC Sports Philadelphia, ABC and ESPN+. CAN – ESPN+ and Sportsnet at 7:00PM EST. Radio: 97.5 The Fanatic.
By: Dylan H. Robillard (@dyl2pac) 17 year old Graphic Designer & Writer Instagram: @dyl2creative
Photo Credit: nhl.com
brotherlypuck.com 