The Philadelphia Flyers have gotten themselves back on the winning track after the All-Star break came to a close, and they’ll look to continue that trend tonight at home against the Seattle Kraken.
The Flyers scored early and often on Thursday to lift themselves to a 4-1 victory over the Winnipeg Jets. Tyson Foerster scored just 3:37 into the contest before Travis Konecny, Morgan Frost, and Ryan Poehling tacked on a goal each. Samuel Ersson made 28 saves for his 14th victory of the season.
However, the Flyers looked lackadaisical after jumping out to a 4-0 lead. They were outshot 25-8 in the final two periods by the Jets and John Tortorella showed his frustration postgame, only giving short answers to questions as he was clearly irked by how his team was outplayed in the final 40 minutes.
Flyers alternate captain Scott Laughton echoed his coach’s frustration a bit more vocally.
“[We] kind of fell back there in the second and third and let them make plays through us,” said Laughton after the game. “Erssy was great for us tonight again, but the first period, you set yourself up and sometimes that happens with the score, but we’ve got to find a way to close out games better. Be better in front of him where we’re not giving up that many opportunities.
”I thought our spacing was a little off, and then those chances happen where it’s 2-on-1, breakaways, and things like that, so we’ve got to dial it in when we’re up and figure it out.”
The Flyers had a polar opposite showing on Tuesday against Florida, struggling in the first period but got better as the game went on en route to nabbing a 2-1 comeback victory, and then they fell asleep after the opening frame against the Jets. The bottom line is they need to play a full sixty minutes and not back down at any point. The Flyers have shown poise and determination and competitiveness all season long, and despite their recent results, they need to show that effort for an entire game.
Their opponent tonight is one they shouldn’t take lightly, either.
The Seattle Kraken have won 13 of their last 21 games dating back to December 12th and are 13-5-3 in that stretch. They are jostling for a Wild Card berth in a crowded Western Conference and after being off for 10 days, they will be well rested and ready to try and sweep the season series over Philadelphia.
Seattle has already defeated the Flyers once this season and they have won the last three meetings, so tonight will be a major battle against Dave Hakstol’s club.
The Flyers will rely on Cal Petersen to backstop them tonight. Petersen’s last start with the Flyers came on November 11th in a 4-2 away victory over his former Los Angeles Kings teammates, and his last game action was in relief of Ersson on January 27th against the Boston Bruins in a 6-2 loss at home.
PHI Record: 27-19-6, 60 pts, 3rd in Metropolitan
SEA Record: 21-19-10, 52 pts, 6th in Pacific
When: 7:00pm ET
Where: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, PA
Broadcast Info: ESPN+, Hulu, 93.3 WMMR
Last Game PHI: 2/8/24, 4-1 W vs. Winnipeg
Last Game SEA: 1/30/24, 2-0 L at San Jose
PHI Goalie: Cal Petersen (1-1-0, .889 SV%, 3.38 GAA, 0 SO)
SEA Goalie: Joey Daccord (15-9-9, .921 SV%, 2.32 GAA, 2 SO)
PHI Projected Lineup
#74 Owen Tippett – #14 Sean Couturier – #89 Cam Atkinson
#86 Joel Farabee – #48 Morgan Frost – #11 Travis Konecny
#71 Tyson Foerster – #25 Ryan Poehling – #27 Noah Cates
#44 Nicolas Deslauriers – #21 Scott Laughton – #19 Garnet Hathaway
#6 Travis Sanheim – #55 Rasmus Ristolainen
#8 Cam York – #9 Jamie Drysdale
#24 Nick Seeler – #26 Sean Walker
#40 Cal Petersen
#33 Samuel Ersson
Scratches: #5 Egor Zamula, #18 Marc Staal
Injuries: #62 Olle Lycksell
SEA Projected Lineup
#90 Tomáš Tatar – #10 Matty Beniers – #7 Jordan Eberle
#17 Jaden Schwartz – #21 Alex Wennberg – #19 Jared McCann
#20 Eeli Tolvanen – #37 Yanni Gourde – #22 Oliver Bjorkstrand
#13 Brandon Tanev – #56 Kailer Yamamoto – #95 André Burakovsky
#29 Vince Dunn – #6 Adam Larsson
#24 Jamie Oleksiak – #3 Will Borgen
#39 Ryker Evans – #8 Brian Dumoulin
#35 Joey Daccord
#31 Philipp Grubauer
Scratches: #4 Justin Schultz, #52 Tye Kartye
Injuries: #41 Pierre-Édouard Bellemare
News and Notes
– The Flyers are 2-2-1 all-time against the Kraken and have lost their last three meetings against Seattle.
– The Kraken defeated the Flyers in their first matchup of the season back on December 29th at Climate Pledge Arena in overtime, 2-1.
– Travis Konecny leads all active Flyers in goals (4) and points (6) against the Kraken, while Travis Sanheim and Rasmus Ristolainen share the team lead against Seattle in assists (3).
– In five career matchups, Cal Petersen is 2-1-2 with an .873 SV% and 3.44 GAA against the Kraken.
– Morgan Frost will appear in his 200th career NHL contest tonight. The 2017 first-round draft pick of the Flyers has recorded 34 goals and 59 assists for 93 points in his first 199 contests.
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