The Philadelphia Flyers are now 0-3-0 in their last 3 games after going on a 5-game winning streak.
The good news is that their opponents tonight are not of the caliber of the Tampa Bay Lightning or Colorado Avalanche. With that being said, this Detroit Red Wings team is still a competitive one battling for a Wild Card spot in the East. Despite being 7-2-1 in their last 10 games, they have dropped 2 of their last 3 games. This is a club with some scoring touch, but are still allowing a lot of goals.
Bouncing back after tough week
Philadelphia obviously wants to right the ship, so where did things go awry? Well for starters, it’s really hard to be mad about two of the games. The Avalanche were not at their best, but Nathan MacKinnon has been on fire and is carrying games for them. Sometimes, there just isn’t a formula to stop a player of that caliber.
The same is true for their showing against the Lightning, sometimes a player like Nikita Kucherov is just going to have his way with you. So what this really all boiled down to was the Flyers fumbling a 3-1 lead against the Ottawa Senators, resulting in a dismal 5-3 final. It didn’t help that former Flyers in Zack MacEwen and Claude Giroux scored goals in this defeat as well.
So what are some things we have noticed in this string of losses? The Flyers have definitely taken a small step back from their commitment to structure, as it was fully evident in their pure dominance over the Dallas Stars with a 5-1 final score. There has also been just a few goals that you’d hope your goalie would save. So the goalies were a bit human, forwards were gassed and struggling with pressure on both sides of the ice, and some defensive breakdowns make sense according to the eye test.
Flyers Special Teams OK
As for special teams, the powerplay has remarkably worked in 2 of 3 games, going 3/9. It’s actually been their stellar penalty kill that has taken a small dip, going 5/8. When you consider it was the Avalanche and Tampa Bay who cracked their penalty kill, I do not think that was a poor reflection of their performance.
A lot of this boiled down to the 5v5 effort in last Sunday’s matinee against the Senators. The other thing was that the Senators too were on a back-to-back. The difference? The Flyers played their back-to-backs at home, and the Senators had to travel. Despite that, Ottawa walked all over the Flyers and appeared to have a lot more energy than they did. It’s possible they lose this one too, but it can’t be like that loss at home to the Senators.
Beating Detroit
The Red Wings are good, but they are far from perfect. Despite being 7-2-1 in their last 10, they have lost 2 of their last 3 games; a 4-2 loss at Carolina, 2-1 win vs Tampa Bay, and a 5-4 loss vs Dallas.
Detroit has given up a lot of goals this year, and in two of their losses they allowed 4 or more goals. I have to give it to them though, despite that lineup of teams, their power play and penalty kill have been successful. Their power play went 4/5 and their penalty kill went 4/6.
The Flyers need to be sharp tonight at 5v5 and will have to outwork a hardworking Detroit team. If the Flyers play the game they played against Dallas, this will be a victory. They will have to find a way to stop the Red Wings powerplay if it comes to it, and Samuel Ersson will have to continue to provide his recent stellar play to give the Flyers a chance if they are slipping early.
PHI Record: 25-17-6, 56 pts, 3rd in Metropolitan
DET Record: 24-18-5, 53 pts, 5th in Atlantic
When: 7:00pm ET
Where: Little Caesars Arena, Detroit, MI
Broadcast Info: NBC Sports Philadelphia, 93.3 WMMR
Last Game PHI: 1/23/24, 6-3 L vs. Tampa Bay
Last Game DET: 1/23/24, 5-4 L vs. Dallas
PHI Goalie: Samuel Ersson (12-7-3, .905 SV%, 2.44 GAA, 3 SO)
DET Goalie: Alex Lyon (11-6-1, .919 SV%, 2.67 GAA, 1 SO)
PHI Projected Lineup
#27 Noah Cates – #14 Sean Couturier – #11 Travis Konecny
#86 Joel Farabee – #48 Morgan Frost – #89 Cam Atkinson
#71 Tyson Foerster – #25 Ryan Poehling – #62 Olle Lycksell
#21 Scott Laughton – #19 Garnet Hathaway
#8 Cam York – #6 Travis Sanheim
#24 Nick Seeler – #26 Sean Walker
#9 Jamie Drysdale – #55 Rasmus Ristolainen
#5 Egor Zamula
#33 Samuel Ersson
#40 Cal Petersen
Scratches: #18 Marc Staal, #44 Nicolas Deslauriers
Injuries: #74 Owen Tippett
DET Projected Lineup
#93 Alex DeBrincat– #37 J.T. Compher – #14 Robbi Fabbri
#57 David Perron – #71 Dylan Larkin – #23 Lucas Raymond
#36 Christian Fischer – #18 Andrew Copp – #27 Michael Rasmussen
#24 Klim Kostin – #90 Joe Veleno – #17 Daniel Sprong
#96 Jake Walman – #53 Moritz Seider
#2 Olli Määttä – #46 Jeff Petry
#3 Justin Holl – #41 Shayne Gostisbehere
#34 Alex Lyon
#47 James Reimer
Scratches: #52 Brogan Rafferty
Injuries: #8 Ben Chiarot, #35 Ville Husso, #88 Patrick Kane
News and Notes
– The Flyers are 76-56-21 all-time against the Red Wings and 27-41-10 in their barn.
– Alex Lyon has had a good season for Detroit but has struggled against the Flyers in his career. He is 0-2-0 with an .846 SV% and 4.31 GAA against his former team.
– Tonight is the final meeting between these teams, with the Flyers winning 1-0 on December 16th in Philadelphia before the Red Wings won a 7-6 shootout thriller in Detroit on December 22nd.
– The Flyers have won 4 of their last 5 matchups against Detroit, with their last meeting being the only loss in that stretch.
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