After a week with three games, the Philadelphia Flyers managed to win two points out of the possible six. They started the week off with a victory over the Chicago Blackhawks before losing at home to the New York Rangers and then in Pittsburgh to the Penguins. Fortunately, both the Rangers and the Carolina Hurricanes lost their Sunday games as well. The Flyers still sit third (7 points behind 2nd place) in the Metro with a playoff spot.
Starting tonight, the road ahead for the Flyers has them face the Tampa Bay Lightning on home ice before they hit the road to play the Washington Capitals for the 2nd time this season, and then hit home ice again to face the Ottawa Senators. In order to maintain their playoff spot, the Flyers are going to need to claim victories against the lower standing teams like the Capitals and Senators.
Back in January when the Flyers faced the Lightning, they were given a thrashing. The Lightning won the two points with a score of 6-3. Nikita Kucherov scored another hat trick while several Lightning players had a multi point night. Recently, Kucherov was the first to 100 points this season and now leads the league with 102 points. Against the New Jersey Devils, Kucherov picked up his 62nd, 63rd, and 64th assists of the season off of goals scored by Victor Hedman, Brayden Point and Brandon Hagel. All three of which are players the Flyers need to watch if they want to have a shot at shutting down Kucherov. Defending tight around the net will be key to stop the Lightning from capitalizing on rebounding pucks and from rushing the net.
Although the captain of the Lightning, Steven Stamkos, has been struggling as of late with points, Stamkos is still a dangerous player the Flyers will have to watch. Stamkos currently has a 52.9% faceoff win percentage. The Flyers are really going to have to rely on the skill of their captain, Sean Couturier in the faceoff circle when Stamkos is on the ice. Puck possession is going to be key against the Lightning and winning the faceoffs against Stamkos is going to be a step in the right direction for the Flyers to win the game.
The Flyers are going to have to score early and doggedly defend their lead. The Flyers are still without their lead goal scorer, Travis Konecny, which will make getting past the Lightning’s star goalie, Andrei Vasilevskiy, difficult. The Flyers could potentially be without the young forward Tyson Foerster. He is said to be a game time decision for tonight’s game. Foerster played a big role keeping the Flyers competitive against the Penguins on Sunday by scoring a pair of goals and an assist.
Currently, the Lighting control one of the two Wild Card spots in the Eastern Conference with the Capitals, the Devils, and the New York Islanders a few points behind them.
The Flyers are only four points ahead of the Capitals. The Capitals are not having the envisioned season as a team or for Alexander Ovechkin. Ovechkin has struggled this season to get both goals and points, but as of late he has 5 points (2 goals, 3 assists) in his last five games. Their current point leaders are Dylan Strome for goals (21) and John Carlson for assists (29). Right-winger Anthony Mantha has also been playing strong the last five games. Like Ovechkin, he has 5 points (2 goals, 3 assists) in his last five and he currently leads the team in +/- with a +10 rating.
Besides Mantha, and Strome, the Capitals’ recent success is coming from the likes of Max Pacioretty, former Flyer Nicolas Aube-Kubel, Connor McMichael, and Aliaksei Protas. They are getting production across all four of their lines. This will make the Capitals a bit harder to defend against. The Flyers will need to backcheck vigorously against every Capitals’ player because of their communal effort.
The last leg of this week’s games is against the Senators. The Senators came to Philadelphia in January after Carter Hart took his leave of absence from the Flyers. The Flyers blew a two-goal lead and allowed three goals in the 3rd period to record the loss. The Senators have constantly hovered around the bottom of the league this season. The “rebuild” for the Senators was supposed to be over, but the weak goaltending is a constant issue that has held the Senators back. The Flyers will need to take advantage of this while protecting their own net.
To no surprise, Brady Tkachuk, Claude Giroux, and Tim Stutzle are the point leaders for the team. All three of them have 50 or more points this season. These are the three the Flyers need to shutdown and maintain control of the puck in front of. Winning faceoffs against Giroux’s 56.7% is a tall order, but breaking up the passes Giroux makes will limit the scoring potential of the Senators.
The work on the Flyers’ side in order to achieve victory starting tonight against the Lightning will be steady production. Both Owen Tippet and Morgan Frost have been streaky in the last five games. Tippet does have an assist from the Penguins game, but he has been struggling to find the back of the net. Against the Rangers, Tippet had 10 shots on goal and none of them made it in. Against the Penguins, he was held to just one shot as the backchecking Penguins maintained dominance over him as he tried to cut across the ice. Frost on the other hand, was very productive prior to this week, but now only has one point in his last five games. He was increasing the goal percentage for the team to a near Connor McDavid level, but nothing has gone the Flyers’ way lately when he is on the ice. If these two find their rhythm again, they will be instrumental in the games ahead. Frost and Tippet combine for quite a few of the Flyers’ goals this season and last season. The consistency of these two is paramount to achieve victory for the team.
Another instrumental player lately, despite the lack of wins for the team, is alternate captain Scott Laughton. Laughton has been winning faceoffs (49%) and has been picking up in production with 7 points (2 goals, 5 assists) in his last five games. Laughton, like Foerster, had a pair of goals against the Penguins on Sunday afternoon. Without Konecny and possibly Foerster, the Flyers are going to have to depend on Laughton’s hot hand for some more goals to help with a win.
Bobby Brink returns to the lineup tonight for the Flyers. Brink played well for the Flyers early on in the season. He hit a point drought in January causing him to be sent down to the team’s AHL affiliate, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Brink has played 11 games with the Phantoms and has 11 points (6 goals, 5 assists) in those 11 games. Hopefully, Brink brings the same energy to his first game back with the Flyers.
There are several players on the three teams that the Flyers are going to need to be ready to mark and backcheck against. The victories in the games ahead this week are going to have to be communal like the Capitals’ games have been. The Flyers need to create more distance between themselves and the fourth and fifth place teams in the Metro if they want to maintain their playoff position. The loss of Konecny, at least for the game against the Lightning, could prove to be particularly damaging to the Flyers in the point scoring side of the game. When they face a brilliant goalie like Vasilevskiy, the Flyers are going to have to score quickly and defend the lead. Hopefully, the Flyers come out of this week with a few victories, if not all six points.
The Morning Skate 