The Philadelphia Flyers (17-19-5) begin the second half of the NHL season versus the Dallas Stars (25-13-1).
Wrapping up a home-and-home versus the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Flyers finished 0-1-1. Each time, Philadelphia dropped the result to the Maple Leafs by a final score of 3-2.
Despite the winless home-and-home versus Toronto, the Flyers took necessary steps in their progression. John Tortorella discovered a forward line that remained sturdy against elite opponents. Defensively, Philadelphia regained structure in their return to the Wells Fargo Center. Also, the goaltending scenario is updated.
“Minutes help, confidence wise. Being put into situations and succeeding helps confidence wise. It’s just grown. It’s helped him [Cates] defensively. He’s so confident in his positioning. We have stressed tracking back and reloading. With the situation we’ve had with our goaltending, we have stressed that tremendously [in] the past month. It feeds into him. He does it anyway. It just feeds into him, and then the way he’s broken up plays and has just put [his] stick on pucks to get going the other way has grown. Tyson’s [Foerster] game has been better by himself and playing with Catesy. Bobby Brink, who goes very unnoticed because he hasn’t scored; we need to get him to score a goal, but his battle level, his positioning defensively, and understanding the other side of the puck has helped that, also. I was doing some other lines, and that was thrown together, and that’s our line that we rely on. If a coach tells you they know exactly, ‘This guy’s going to play well with that guy,’ they’re full of shit. That happened by accident because I was doing stuff with other lines.” – John Tortorella; 1/9/2025
Tonight, the Stars (-155) are the favorites against the Flyers (+130) at the Wells Fargo Center, per DraftKings Sportsbook. Dallas is superior on special teams, faceoff percentages, average goals scored per game, and average goals against per game. Philadelphia must maintain the pace they’ve played with as of late, and if they get a lead, they cannot afford to get suckered into a poor penalty. Tortorella isn’t shy about the goals surrendered on defensive zone faceoffs. That is an even strength and penalty kill issue.
When: 7:00pm/ET
Where: Wells Fargo Center; Philadelphia, PA
Broadcast Info: NBC Sports Philadelphia; Flyers Radio 24/7
Last Game PHI: 1/7/25; 3-2 L; vs. Toronto Maple Leafs
Last Game DAL: 1/7/25; 5-4 OTW; at New York Rangers
Philadelphia Flyers
Sam Ersson returns to the lineup. He will start, and Ivan Fedotov will back him up. On the road trip, Tortorella allowed Fedotov to occupy the crease in Toronto. After two consecutive games versus the Maple Leafs, Fedotov seemingly jumped Alexei Kolosov in the goaltending depth chart.
“We have Ers [Ersson] who hasn’t played in a bit. We have to play better in front of him. I’m just hoping some results come out of it so they see that this works. They know it works. We started scoring goals, and now, the past couple of games, we just haven’t found our way.” – John Tortorella; 1/9/2025
Two days ago, Ersson was working out before the Flyers hosted Toronto. Tortorella wants to get his starting goaltender playing again. Ersson was bothered by a lower-body injury a couple of times this season. During his last two starts (at ANA, at SJS), Ersson looked sharp, but the Stars are a top-ten team in the NHL. In his recent five starts, Ersson is 3-2-0 with an 86.4%SV and a 3.46GAA.
Cam York (3G, 7A, +1, 47.6%FF, 50BLK, 14HIT, 15TK:33GV) looked confident on Tuesday. He drove the play to give Philadelphia the opening lead. Chasing his shot behind the net opened the scoring sequence for Sean Couturier to notch the primary assist on the first Travis Konecny goal. In 19:57TOI, York notched an assist and blocked two shots. He also served a high-sticking penalty, which the Flyers paid for, resulting in a powerplay goal by John Tavares.
Matvei Michkov (12G, 17A) didn’t appear on the stat sheet with a point but remained very noticeable on Tuesday. In 14:27TOI, he had eight shots on goal, drew a penalty, recorded a hit, and won his only faceoff. Michkov created two high-danger scoring chances, including a pass to Owen Tippett at six-on-five in the third period. Tippett missed the open net, which would’ve tied the game.
“He [Michkov] probably played one of his better games in over a month and gets nothing the other night. I thought it was one of our better games in quite a while. The special teams; we needed something on a powerplay. Just some sort of momentum. We needed one more kill; we take too many penalties. The eight shots; three missed the net. He was involved, his legs were there. It was the first time I’ve seen his legs in a while. That’s going to happen. The second half of the year, it’s going to happen. We certainly are cognizant of how we can help him in that way.” – John Tortorella; 1/9/2025
Michkov missed time in the third period after colliding with Scott Laughton. At the rate Michkov created offense, there’s an argument that Philadelphia could have forced another overtime and secured another point in the standings. He will need to be more explosive to give the Flyers a chance versus Dallas.
Projected Lineup: Philadelphia Flyers
#74 Owen Tippett – #25 Ryan Poehling – #11 Travis Konecny
#21 Scott Laughton – #48 Morgan Frost – #39 Matvei Michkov
#71 Tyson Foerster – #27 Noah Cates – #10 Bobby Brink
#86 Joel Farabee – #14 Sean Couturier – #19 Garnet Hathaway
#8 Cam York – #6 Travis Sanheim
#5 Egor Zamula – #55 Rasmus Ristolainen
#24 Nick Seeler – #9 Jamie Drysdale
#33 Sam Ersson
(#82 Ivan Fedotov)
Projected Lineup: Dallas Stars
#21 Jason Robertson – #24 Roope Hintz – #63 Evgenii Dadonov
#14 Jamie Benn – #95 Matt Duchene – #53 Wyatt Johnson
#18 Sam Steel – #22 Mavrik Bourque – #11 Logan Stankoven
#10 Oskar Bäck – #12 Arttu Hyry – #15 Colin Blackwell
#4 Miro Heiskanen – #46 Ilya Lyubushkin
#23 Esa Lindell – #5 Nils Lundkvist
#55 Thomas Harley – #3 Matt Dumba
#1 Casey DeSmith
(#29 Jake Oettinger)
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