The Philadelphia Flyers are coming off a heartbreaking overtime loss to the Hurricanes on Saturday. The Hurricanes scored with 0.3 seconds left in the game to force Overtime, Sebastian Aho scored 28 seconds in Overtime to win 5-4. The Flyers now turn to the Florida Panthers who now hold the 2nd wild card spot in the Eastern conference. Flyers are 27th in the league standings, and have a 2-4-2 record in the month of March.
“It sucks…great learning experience though. For me it gives an opportunity to teach. It sucks, it took me a day to get over. So many good things happened, with the young kids.”
John Tortorella on the loss to Carolina | Per Jamey Baskow
The Florida Panthers beat the Red Wings 5-2 last night, yet they only managed 25 shots. This is the Panthers 8th back-to-back of the season, they carry a record of 5-5-4. The Panthers are 16th in the league currently with 79 points and a 36-27-7 record. In the Flyers and Panthers 2 meetings this season both teams have won a game each, tonight will be the last meeting of the season.
The Flyers recalled Egor Zamula from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Tuesday morning, using their 2nd last recall. John Tortorella confirmed that Egor will play tonight against the Panthers, so the lineup might be shaken around a bit. Zamula likely will play on left defence tonight, may play right defence later this week. In 42 games with the Phantoms this year Egor has 1 goal and 15 assists. This season with the Flyers he earned his first point in the NHL, but unfortunately he has yet to find the back of the net and get his first goal.
Key Players:
Philadelphia Flyers – The young core of the Flyers has been a real strong suit this season, shown as of late. Owen Tippett, Morgan Frost and Noah Cates have really stepped up. Especially Cates and Tippett together on the first line, putting up 68 points combined this season – note they have not played on the same line together all year. So it makes you think how well they could be together in a full season and a permanent 3rd guy, instead of bouncing between Laughton and Farabee. All though Farabee finally ended his 26 game goal drought, scoring in back-to-back games. Joel looked very promising and was a fan favourite at the start of the season, staying pretty consistent but lost his touch in the new calendar year. Owen Tippett has also become a fan favourite and as of late has Flyers Twitter buzzing, after scoring a hat trick against Buffalo. Owen is 3rd in points on the Flyers with 39 and 2nd in goals, just recently passing Kevin Hayes with 21. Flyers fans are hoping for more of the same as Tippett is 1 goal away from 40 in his career, 1 point away from 40 on the season, and 1 point away from 80 career points.
Florida Panthers – Matthew Tkachuk started right where he left off last season with 95 points on the year, Tkachuk is on pace to break his career high of 104 points. With 14 points in his last 5 games; 33 goals, 62 assists, and a total of 95 points on the season, Tkachuk is very deadly anywhere on the ice. In the 2 meetings with the Flyers this year Tkachuk has 0 goals and 3 assists, the Flyers have been able to keep him of the scoresheet. Let’s see if Zamula and Philadelphia can keep it that way.
Projected Goalie Matchup and Lineups:
Carter Hart: 18-21-10, 2.94 GAA, .907 SV%.
Alex Lyon: 3-2-1, 3.89 GAA, .892 SV%.
Projected Lineup: Philadelphia Flyers
Farabee – Cates – Tippett
Lemieux – Frost – Foerster
JVR – Hayes – Allison
Deslauriers – Laughton
Provorov – York
Sanheim – Ristolainen
Seeler – DeAngelo – Zamula
Hart
Scratched: Justin Braun, Kieffer Bellows, Tanner Laczynski
Injured: Cam Atkinson (out for season), Sean Couturier (back), Ryan Ellis (out long term), Travis Konecny (long term)
Projected Lineup – Florida Panthers
Luostarinen – Barkov – Reinhart Verhaeghe – Bennett – Tkachuk Lomberg – Lundell – Duclair Cousins – E. Staal – White
Forsling – Ekblad M. Staal – Montour Mahura – Gudas
Lyon
Scratched: Casey Fitzgerald
Injured: Patric Hornqvist (IR), Givani Smith (IR)
How To Watch:
TV: USA – NBC Sports Philadelphia, ET/ESPN+, Hulu. 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 