On the heels of their fifth consecutive loss, the Philadelphia Flyers (23-26-7) will try to go into the 4 Nations Face-Off break on a high note as they host the injury-riddled Pittsburgh Penguins (23-24-9).
This is the second meeting between the two teams this season. The Penguins won the first Battle of Pennsylvania at PPG Paints Arena back on December 23rd by a score of 7-3.
The Flyers are trying to right the ship after losing 4-3 to the Washington Capitals on Thursday. Matvei Michkov scored twice and Tyson Foerster nabbed a power play goal, but the Flyers succumbed to the Capitals’ third period attack. Luckily, they’ll now face a Penguins team that won’t have many reinforcements.
Star center and longtime Philadelphia foe Sidney Crosby will remain sidelined for a second consecutive game. Crosby briefly left Tuesday’s loss to the New Jersey Devils with an upper-body injury but later returned, but he missed Friday’s win over the New York Rangers and is out again tonight despite skating this morning. Pittsburgh will also be missing Bryan Rust and Evgeni Malkin. Rust was placed on IR with a lower-body injury earlier Saturday and Malkin has been designated as week-to-week since January 27th with a lower-body injury.
Of course, the Flyers will be without Owen Tippett, Ryan Poehling, and Rasmus Ristolainen, but with Pittsburgh’s injuries in mind, the Flyers need to capitalize tonight. Philadelphia’s 5-game losing streak has seen them plummet to the bottom of the Metropolitan Division and they are just 3-6-1 over their last 10 games. The Flyers are only 4 points ahead of Buffalo to stay out of last place in the Eastern Conference.
On the brighter side of things, the Flyers will see a new face draw into the lineup as Andrei Kuzmenko will make his team debut after the trade with Calgary last week. The 29-year-old Russian posted 4 goals and 11 assists in 37 games with the Flames before the deal went down. Jakob Pelletier is still having some paperwork issues so his Flyers debut will have to wait, and Jacob Gaucher will draw in after being recalled from AHL Lehigh Valley.
Sam Ersson will start tonight for the Flyers. Ersson’s last appearance saw him stop 39 shots in an overtime loss to the Utah Hockey Club on February 4th. It was one of the best performances of Ersson’s young NHL career and he’ll look to keep building his game. In his last 10 games, the 4 Nations-bound netminder is 6-3-1 with a .912 SV%, 2.50 GAA, and 1 shutout.
When: 7:00pm ET
Where: Wells Fargo Center; Philadelphia, PA
Broadcast Info: NBC Sports Philadelphia; 97.5 The Fanatic
Last Game PHI: 2/6/25; 4-3 L vs. Washington Capitals
Last Game PIT: 2/7/25; 3-2 W at New York Rangers
Projected Lineup: Philadelphia Flyers
#71 Tyson Foerster – #27 Noah Cates – #10 Bobby Brink
#96 Andrei Kuzmenko – #21 Scott Laughton – #11 Travis Konecny
#18 Rodrigo Ābols – #14 Sean Couturier – #39 Matvei Michkov
#44 Nicolas Deslauriers – #78 Jacob Gaucher – #19 Garnet Hathaway
#8 Cam York – #6 Travis Sanheim
#24 Nick Seeler – #9 Jamie Drysdale
#36 Emil Andrae – #77 Erik Johnson
#33 Sam Ersson
(#82 Ivan Fedotov)
Projected Lineup: Pittsburgh Penguins
#72 Anthony Beauvillier – #67 Rickard Rakell – #43 Danton Heinen
#8 Michael Bunting – #19 Cody Glass – #53 Philip Tomasino
#83 Matt Nieto – #13 Kevin Hayes – #55 Noel Acciari
#11 Vasily Ponomarev – #46 Blake Lizotte – #52 Emil Bemström
#73 Pierre-Olivier Joseph – #58 Kris Letang
#24 Matt Grzelcyk – #65 Erik Karlsson
#27 Ryan Graves – #7 Vincent Desharnais
#30 Joel Blomqvist
(#39 Alex Nedeljkovic)
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