The Philadelphia Flyers continue their trek through the Pacific Northwest on Friday night against the Seattle Kraken.
The Flyers are coming off an impressive 4-1 victory on Thursday over the Vancouver Canucks, the top team in the Western Conference and one of three teams tied at the top of the NHL standings. Philadelphia racked up three goals in 126 seconds at the end of the second period courtesy of Egor Zamula, Sean Walker, and Joel Farabee before Garnet Hathaway added a shorthanded marker in the third period. Samuel Ersson stopped 18 of 19 shots before departing the game with dehydration issues early in the third. Carter Hart stopped all 8 shots he faced in relief and will start tonight in Seattle.
In beating Vancouver, Flyers head coach John Tortorella moved into tenth on the NHL’s all-time coaching wins list with 723, but that won’t be the only milestone he reaches on this road trip. Tortorella will coach the 1,500th NHL contest of his illustrious career tonight at Climate Pledge Arena, making him the first American-born coach to reach that number and is the eighth coach to do so in league history.
“The only thing I’m thankful that people have entrusted me, to let me work with athletes. It’s been my life,” said Tortorella when asked about the milestone earlier this week. “I appreciate people having a little faith in allowing me to work with them, that’s all.
“I don’t give a s— about the number. I just like coaching, I like being around the players, and I really appreciate and am humbled by the opportunities I’ve been given.”
723 wins, 5 teams, 2 Jack Adams Awards, and 1 Stanley Cup later, and Tortorella is leading the Flyers through the most impressive “rebuild” we’ve ever seen. The Flyers are playing hard for him and for one another, and tonight they’ll look to get their licks in against a familiar face behind the opposing bench.
Dave Hakstol’s Kraken have struggled this season, winning just 13 of 36 games so far and they currently find themselves three points of a playoff spot.
However, they are beginning to heat up at the right time. Seattle has won three straight games, and the team has embarked on a seven-game point streak (4-0-3) dating back to December 12th in the process.
The Kraken have never defeated the Flyers in three consecutive meetings before, and after sweeping last season’s two-game series, Philadelphia will be hungry to stick it to their former coach’s team on their current coach’s milestone evening.
PHI Record: 19-11-4, 42 pts, 2nd in Metropolitan
SEA Record: 13-14-9, 35 pts, 4th in Pacific
When: 10:00pm ET
Where: Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle, WA
Broadcast Info: NBC Sports Philadelphia+, 93.3 WMMR
Last Game PHI: 12/28/23, 4-1 W at Vancouver
Last Game SEA: 12/27/23, 2-1 W at Calgary
PHI Goalie: Carter Hart (9-6-2, .914 SV%, 2.57 GAA, 1 SO)
SEA Goalie: Joey Daccord (7-5-8, .912 SV%, 2.53 GAA, 1 SO)
PHI Projected Lineup
#74 Owen Tippett – #14 Sean Couturier – #11 Travis Konecny
#71 Tyson Foerster– #48 Morgan Frost – #89 Cam Atkinson
#86 Joel Farabee – #25 Ryan Poehling – #10 Bobby Brink
#44 Nicolas Deslauriers – #21 Scott Laughton – #19 Garnet Hathaway
#8 Cam York – #6 Travis Sanheim
#24 Nick Seeler – #26 Sean Walker
#5 Egor Zamula – #55 Rasmus Ristolainen
#79 Carter Hart
#33 Samuel Ersson
Scratches: #18 Marc Staal, #49 Rhett Gardner
Injuries: #27 Noah Cates
SEA Projected Lineup
#90 Tomáš Tatar – #10 Matty Beniers – #7 Jordan Eberle
#19 Jared McCann – #21 Alex Wennberg – #95 Andre Burakovsky
#20 Eeli Tolvanen – #37 Yanni Gourde – #22 Oliver Bjorkstrand
#56 Kailer Yamamoto – #52 Tye Kartye – #13 Brandon Tanev
#29 Vince Dunn – #6 Adam Larsson
#24 Jamie Oleksiak – #3 Will Borgen
#4 Justin Schultz – #8 Brian Dumoulin
#35 Joey Daccord
#60 Chris Dreidger
Scratches: #39 Ryker Evans, #44 Jaycob Megna, #94 Devin Shore
Injuries: #17 Jaden Schwartz, #31 Philipp Grubauer, #41 Pierre-Édouard Bellemare
News and Notes
– Philadelphia is 2-2-0 all time against Seattle and 1-1-0 at Climate Pledge Arena. The Kraken won both matchups last season, 4-3 in Philadelphia on February 12th and 6-2 in Seattle on February 16th.
– Travis Konecny is the franchise leader in goals (3) and points (5) against Seattle. Rasmus Ristolainen leads all active Flyers in assists (3) against the Kraken.
– Konecny left Thursday’s game early but was not injured, as John Tortorella said that a bug was still going around the locker room and that he would be fine. Konecny is projected to play tonight.
– Owen Tippett is currently riding a four-game point streak (2g, 2a) and Joel Farabee has four points (2g, 2a) in his last two games to highlight the hottest Flyers of late.
– Carter Hart is 1-1-0 lifetime against Seattle with an .884 SV% and 3.28 GAA in two career starts.
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