The Philadelphia Flyers are in the Windy City tonight as they take on the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center for their second leg of a back-to-back set. Felix Sandström is expected to get the start in tonight’s contest after Martin Jones turned aside 37 Pittsburgh shots in last night’s 4-1 victory over the Penguins in Philadelphia.
Sandström last played on April 17th against the Buffalo Sabres, stopping 35 shots in a 4-3 Flyers loss at home. The 25 year-old Swede has yet to win a game this season since making his NHL debut on December 30th against the Sharks, but he has performed well at the NHL level so far on a struggling Philadelphia club, posting a .915 save percentage and 3.29 goals against average. He’ll get an opportunity to not only earn his first victory in the NHL, but also help the Flyers earn their first three-game winning streak since December.
Chicago enters tonight’s contest looking for a reset after a dreadful end to their West Coast road trip. They’re coming off back-to-back, 4-1 losses each to the Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks, in which they were outshot by a combined total of 55-44 and simply couldn’t keep the puck out of their own net while failing to score.
These teams last met on March 5th in a nationally televised matinee, in which the Flyers won 4-3 at Wells Fargo Center largely behind 26 saves from Martin Jones and two goals from Cam Atkinson, who is out for the remainder of the season.
The Flyers will look for the season sweep tonight in a battle of the fourth-worst and sixth-worst teams in the league.
PHI Record: 25-43-11, 61 pts, 8th in Metropolitan
CHI Record: 26-42-11, 63 pts, 7th in Central
When: 8:00pm ET
Where: United Center, Chicago, IL
PHI Goalie: Felix Sandström (0-2-1, .915 SV%, 3.29 GAA, 0 SO)
CHI Goalie: Kevin Lankinen (6-15-6, .887 SV%, 3.62 GAA, 0 SO)
PHI Projected Lineup
#21 Scott Laughton – #13 Kevin Hayes – #11 Travis Konecny
#25 James van Riemsdyk – #86 Joel Farabee – #46 Bobby Brink
#49 Noah Cates – #48 Morgan Frost – #74 Owen Tippett
#23 Oskar Lindblom – #44 Nate Thompson – #17 Zack MacEwen
#9 Ivan Provorov – #47 Ronnie Attard
#84 Linus Högberg – #6 Travis Sanheim
#3 Keith Yandle – #54 Egor Zamula
#32 Felix Sandström
#35 Martin Jones
CHI Projected Lineup
#12 Alex DeBrincat – #17 Dylan Strome – #88 Patrick Kane
#8 Dominik Kubalik – #19 Jonathan Toews – #90 Tyler Johnson
#11 Taylor Raddysh – #23 Philipp Kurashev – #24 Sam Lafferty
#14 Boris Katchouk – #52 Reese Johnson – #13 Henrik Borgström
#43 Alex Vlasic – #4 Seth Jones
#6 Jake McCabe – #75 Alec Regula
#61 Riley Stillman – #56 Erik Gustafsson
#32 Kevin Lankinen
#60 Collin Delia
Last Game PHI: 4/22/22, 4-1 W vs Pittsburgh
Last Game CHI: 4/21/22, 4-1 L at San Jose
News and Notes:
– The Flyers have won their last six contests against the Blackhawks, with the last Chicago win coming in November 1st, 2017 at United Center.
– Speaking of United Center, this is the Flyers’ first visit to The Madhouse on Madison since October 24th, 2019, where they won 4-1.
– Kevin Hayes was nominated by the Philadelphia chapter of the PHWA for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy earlier today. The trophy is awarded annually to the National Hockey League player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to ice hockey.
Broadcast Info: TV – ESPN+, Hulu, Radio – 97.5 The Fanatic
Injuries:
PHI: Ryan Ellis (lower-body), Sean Couturier (back), Nick Seeler (lower-body), Cam Atkinson (lower-body), Carter Hart (lower-body), Rasmus Ristolainen (upper-body), Cam York (lower-body), Patrick Brown (upper-body), Kevin Connauton (lower-body)
CHI: Jujhar Khaira (back), Connor Murphy (concussion), Kirby Dach (shoulder), MacKenzie Entwistle (shoulder), Calvin de Haan (groin)
