After another crushing loss on Thursday against Tampa Bay, the Philadelphia Flyers will look to rebound tonight against the New Jersey Devils in the third leg of their five-game homestand.
The Flyers have lost 11 of their last 12 games which included a ten-game losing streak, and if it didn’t seem like it already, it looks to be a pretty long rest of the season at this point.
Head coach John Tortorella said on Thursday, “This isn’t a one-year type of thing. We’ve got some work to do, and it’s going to take some time. No matter what people want to hear out here, it’s going to take some time to get this right. If we want to get it right, it’s going to take some time.”
“I love the opportunity that we have here to build something from really the ground up. We’re going to feel more pain, we’re going to go through a lot of pain. But when you start feeling that pain, do you change your thinking and panic and readjust how you’re going to go about it?”
The pain has definitely been felt by all sides, but Tortorella has remained adamant in staying the course and trying to build this group together. Tonight will be a great test to see where they are against the league’s top team and how far they’ve come.
The Devils enter tonight with an astonishing 19-4-1 record, and a large bulk of that is thanks to a franchise record-tying 13-game winning streak that took place from October 25th to November 23rd.
New Jersey is led by franchise centerpiece Jack Hughes, as the first overall pick of the 2019 NHL Draft has racked up 12 goals and 16 assists for 28 points in 24 games for the Devils, and Jesper Bratt is right behind him with 27 points. The Devils also have been very fortunate in goal with Vítek Vaněček’s resurgence. The former Washington Capital was traded to New Jersey in the offseason and has been nothing short of spectacular, registering an 11-2-1 record, .918 save percentage, 2.24 goals against average, and one shutout this season.
New Jersey just bleeds depth all over the lineup, with Hughes, Bratt, Nico Hischier, Yegor Sharangovich, Tomáš Tatar, Dougie Hamilton, Miles Wood, Ryan Graves, Erik Haula, Jonas Siegenthaler, Dawson Mercer, and Fabian Zetterlund among others leading the skaters, while Vaněček has been backed up by the upstart 4-0-0 Akira Schmid since Mackenzie Blackwood went down with an injury in early November. They’re a talented team from top to bottom, and Philadelphia will have their hands full in tonight’s edition of The Battle of the Turnpike.
PHI Record: 8-11-5, 21 pts, 7th in Metropolitan
NJD Record: 19-4-1, 39 pts, 1st in Metropolitan
Last Game PHI: 12/1/22, 4-1 L vs. Tampa Bay
Last Game NJD: 12/1/22, 4-3 OTL vs. Nashville
When: 7:00pm ET
Where: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, PA
PHI Goalie: Carter Hart (7-6-4, .914 SV%, 2.81 GAA, 0 SO)
NJD Goalie: Akira Schmid (4-0-0, .953 SV%, 1.24 GAA, 0 SO)
PHI Projected Lineup
#13 Kevin Hayes – #49 Noah Cates – #11 Travis Konecny
#71 Max Willman – #23 Lukáš Sedlák – #74 Owen Tippett
#21 Scott Laughton – #48 Morgan Frost – #86 Joel Farabee
#44 Nicolas Deslauriers – #38 Patrick Brown – #17 Zack MacEwen
#9 Ivan Provorov – #55 Rasmus Ristolainen
#6 Travis Sanheim – #61 Justin Braun
#24 Nick Seeler – #77 Tony DeAngelo
#79 Carter Hart
#32 Felix Sandström
NJD Projected Lineup
#90 Tomáš Tatar – #13 Nico Hischier – #63 Jesper Bratt
#56 Erik Haula – #86 Jack Hughes – #20 Dawson Mercer
#44 Miles Wood – #20 Michael McLeod – #49 Fabian Zetterlund
#17 Yegor Sharangovich – #70 Jesper Boqvist – #10 Alexander Holtz
#71 Jonas Siegenthaler – #7 Dougie Hamilton
#33 Ryan Graves – #6 John Marino
#2 Brendan Smith – #28 Damon Severson
#40 Akira Schmid
#41 Vítek Vaněček
PHI Injuries: Sean Couturier (back), Bobby Brink (hip), Ryan Ellis (hip), James van Riemsdyk (finger), Wade Allison (hip)
Scratched: Cam Atkinson, Egor Zamula, Tanner Laczynski
NJD Injuries: Jonathan Bernier (hip), Mackenzie Blackwood (knee), Ondřej Palát (lower-body), Nathan Bastian (shoulder)
Scratched: Kevin Bahl, Andreas Johnsson
News and Notes
– The Flyers won the first meeting between these teams on October 13th at their season opener at Wells Fargo Center. Morgan Frost scored twice in the Flyers’ 5-2 victory.
– Kieffer Bellows was assigned to AHL Lehigh Valley after clearing waivers for Philadelphia.
– James van Riemsdyk skated today but was wearing a non-contact jersey as he is still recovering from his broken finger.
Broadcast Info: TV – NBC Sports Philadelphia, Radio – 97.5 The Fanatic
