After a strong performance that still resulted in a 3-2 loss on Saturday night to New Jersey, the Philadelphia Flyers will look to keep their heads high and avoid a three-game losing streak tonight when they host the Colorado Avalanche.
The Flyers, losers of 12 of their last 13, came awfully close to beating the league-leading Devils but made two costly errors early in the third period that ultimately sunk them despite a late charge to try and tie the game.
Carter Hart will get the start again, his fourth in a row. Hart has cooled off quite a bit since his scorching start to the season, but he still maintains a respectable .911 save percentage in 18 contests this season.
The Avalanche, of course the defending Stanley Cup champions, have had an okay first quarter of the season but have not been as great as we’re accustomed to seeing. They currently sit surprisingly just fourth in the Central Division behind the Dallas Stars, the upstart Winnipeg Jets, and the Minnesota Wild.
Colorado has lost two of three games so far on their current road trip, as they fell 5-0 to Winnipeg last Tuesday and 3-1 to Boston on Saturday. They’ll try to end their trip with four out of a possible eight points against a Flyers team that has struggled to score goals more than any other club in the league (2.36 GFPG, 32nd in NHL), which bodes well for an Avalanche squad that only allows 2.77 goals per game.
PHI Record: 8-12-5, 21 pts, 7th in Metropolitan
COL Record: 13-8-1, 27 pts, 4th in Central
Last Game PHI: 12/3/22, 3-2 L vs. New Jersey
Last Game COL: 12/3/22, 3-1 L at Boston
When: 7:00pm ET
Where: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, PA
PHI Goalie: Carter Hart (7-7-4, .911 SV%, 2.81 GAA, 0 SO)
COL Goalie: Alexandar Georgiev (11-3-1, .922 SV%, 2.58 GAA, 1 SO)
PHI Projected Lineup
#13 Kevin Hayes – #49 Noah Cates – #11 Travis Konecny
#21 Scott Laughton – #23 Lukáš Sedlák – #74 Owen Tippett
#86 Joel Farabee – #48 Morgan Frost – #17 Zack MacEwen
#44 Nicolas Deslauriers – #38 Patrick Brown – #58 Tanner Laczynski
#9 Ivan Provorov – #55 Rasmus Ristolainen
#6 Travis Sanheim – #61 Justin Braun
#24 Nick Seeler – #77 Tony DeAngelo
#79 Carter Hart
#32 Felix Sandström
COL Projected Lineup
#47 Alex Galchenyuk – #29 Nathan MacKinnon – #61 Martin Kaut
#54 Charles Hudon – #18 Alex Newhook – #96 Mikko Rantanen
#11 Andrew Cogliano – #37 J.T. Computer – #25 Logan O’Connor
#22 Dryden Hunt – #12 Jayson Megna – #36 Anton Blidh
#7 Devon Toews – #8 Cale Makar
#49 Samuel Girard – #6 Erik Johnson
#26 Jacob MacDonald – #88 Andreas Englund
#40 Alexandar Georgiev
#39 Pavel Francouz
PHI Injuries: Sean Couturier (back), Bobby Brink (hip), Ryan Ellis (hip), James van Riemsdyk (finger), Wade Allison (hip)
Scratched: Cam Atkinson, Egor Zamula, Max Willman
COL Injuries: Artturi Lehkonen (upper-body), Jean-Luc Foudy (lower-body), Josh Manson (lower-body), Gabriel Landeskog (knee), Bowen Byram (lower-body), Valeri Nichushkin (ankle), Evan Rodrigues (lower-body), Kurtis MacDermid (lower-body), Darren Helm (hip), Shane Bowers (upper-body)
Scratched: None
News and Notes
– This is the 93rd all-time meeting between the two teams since Colorado originally entered the league as the Quebec Nordiques in 1979. Philadelphia maintains a 42-30-14-6 advantage in the series. This will also be the 40th meeting between them since the Nordiques relocated to Denver.
– Travis Konecny has recorded goals in back-to-back outings since returning from injury. The only other Flyers to do so are Kevin Hayes and Owen Tippett, and Konecny is now the only player on the team to record multiple goal-scoring streaks this season with three now.
– Konecny also has goals in four of his last five games (one each) and 12 points in his last 10 games.
– Today marks exactly one year since Alain Vigneault coached his final game behind the Flyers’ bench in a 7-1 loss to Tampa Bay on December 5th, 2021, and Vigneault would be fired the next day. Including Vigneault’s final game, the Flyers have recorded a 25-49-12 record since that day.
Broadcast Info: TV – NBC Sports Philadelphia, Radio – 97.5 The Fanatic
