The Philadelphia Flyers have lost 4 straight games as they fell to the Golden Knights 5-3 on Tuesday. Flyers have now to dropped to 28th in the league standings, with a 1-4-1 record this month. I don’t like to talk about the Flyers losing and seeing it as a good thing but now that they’re in the bottom 5, Flyers fans are praying for the hockey gods to learn our way and land Connor Bedard. This can really kick start their “rebuild” stage, Danny Briere is talking about.
Now the Flyers (24-32-11) go up against a Buffalo Sabres team that is 33-28-6 and battling for a playoff spot. The Sabres earned a point against the Capitals in a close 5-4 shootout lose. In the month of March they are 2-3-2, putting them 5 points out of the 2nd wild card spot just behind the Capitals and Panthers. The Flyers on the other hand are at the bottom of the barrel, 5th worst in the league. In the last meeting between these 2 teams was at the start of the year, January 9th. The Flyers took the game 4-0 – Samuel Ersson made 28 saves to earn his first NHL career shutout.
Samuel Ersson has been sent back down to Lehigh, he was brought up to back up Sandström after Hart was out sick. Tyson Foerster who has been all over the ice in his 3 games with the team, is staying up with the team even though it looks like Wade Allison is back and skated with the team on Thursday.
Nick Seeler, How Do You Do?
The best takeaway from the Flyers game on Tuesday has to be Nick Seeler, who had a highlight reel goal. Just undresses the Vegas defence Shea Theodore and Brayden McNabb, definitely the lead candidate for Flyers goal of the year. A very exciting and unexpected goal from the Flyers 29 year old defenceman. John Tortorella will look for more of the same from his defence, in terms of offence against this Sabres team.
Key Players:
Buffalo Sabres – Who have a young group with players like Tage Thompson, Owen Power, Rasmus Dahlin, Alex Tuch, the list goes on. The team is the 4th youngest in the league with an average age of 26.27, making them a strong dark horse for a Stanley Cup run. Alex Tuch returned to the Sabres lineup on Monday from a lower body injury, the 26 year old is having a nice campaign playing close to home with 64 points in 58 games. He put up 2 goals on Monday against the Leafs, helping his team come from behind and win 4-3. All though he was pointless against the Capitals on Wednesday. Tage Thompson was also left pointless in Washington but the kid is having a statement year nonetheless. Putting up a career high 87 points destroying his previous 68 point season the year before, putting him just 10 points away from 200 points in his year career. Tage hasn’t found the back of the net since March 4 against Tampa Bay, but he has been racking up assists with 4 in his last 5 games.
Projected Goalie Matchup and Lineups:
Carter Hart is returning from being sick and will start for the Flyers. In a tough year where his stats don’t tell the whole story, Hart has done all he can with the team that is in front of him. Posting a 17-21-10 record with a 2.96 GAA and .906 SV%. In 7 games against the Sabres, Hart is 3-2-0 with a 2.73 GAA and .906 SV%.
Projected Lineup – Philadelphia Flyers
Laughton – Cates – Tippett
Farabee – Hayes – Foerster
Lemieux – Frost – JVR
Deslauriers – Laczynski – Allison
Sanheim – Ristolainen
Provorov – York
Seeler – DeAngelo
Hart
Scratched/Injured: Konecny*, Atkinson*, Couturier*, Ellis*, Braun
* = Injured
Projected Lineup – Buffalo Sabres
Skinner – Thompson – Tuch Peterka – Cozens – Quinn Mittelstadt – Krebs – Greenway Girgensons- Jost – Okposo
Dahlin – Bryson Power – Jokiharju Stillman – Lybushkin
Anderson
Scratches: Samuelsson, Clauge, Hinostroza, Olofsson, Comrie
How To Watch:
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
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