The Philadelphia Flyers are coming off their tenth loss in a row and tonight they are facing a Stanley Cup contender in the Vegas Golden Knights. Vegas is coming off of a 5-4 comeback victory against the Dallas Stars on Wednesday. Vegas was down 4-2 with 10 minutes left in the 3rd and scored three goals in the next 6 minutes to win in regulation. This is the Flyers’ second game in three nights, and the first of a back-to-back with Vegas and Arizona. The Flyers are coming off another abysmal effort against division rival New Jersey. The Flyers look lost in all three zones. They just need to get out of this funk that has seemingly lasted all of known time.
The Vegas player to watch for is Mark Stone. He has 15 points in 13 games after being injured for part of the early season. He had two goals and an assist against the Stars on Wednesday. Stone is one of the premier defensive forwards in the league while being able to affect the game positively offensively. He was acquired from Ottawa in 2019 for Erik Brannstrom, Oscar Lindberg and a 2nd round pick in 2019. Highway robbery from Vegas getting a top 20 forward for 3 assets that have not amounted to anything and may never. Stone should make the Canadian Olympic Team. A shutdown line of Mark Stone, Sean Couturier, and Patrice Bergeron would be a sight to see.
The Golden Knights are led in scoring by Chandler Stephenson with 22 points in 25 games. Stephenson was a bottom-six center for the Washington Capitals and was acquired by Vegas a couple years ago, and he has morphed into a top-six center who has provided great depth to a top-heavy team. Stephenson also provides great possession numbers for a top-rate team. Vegas started the year slow but have been climbing the standings, winning four of their last six games. They already acquired Jack Eichel from Buffalo to add to Stone, Stephenson, Jonathan Marchessault, Reilly Smith, Max Pacioretty, and William Karlsson to make an enviable forward group, plus the defense of Alex Pietrangelo and personal favorite Shea Theodore. Goalie Robin Lehner is having a down year but there is time to bounce back for him.
This is a very fragile Flyers team. They need a unifying moment for themselves. Nothing is clicking and this is largely a team that added and subtracted a lot of pieces in the off-season. One of the best pieces they added, Ryan Ellis, has played only four games. Although he has outscored the two players he has traded for, Ellis was meant to play high minutes and stabilize Ivan Provorov and bring out the best in him. The first step is playing together and just trying to get to the dirty areas to get goals plus working hard defensively. They cannot keep losing games and if they do, Chuck Fletcher needs to blow it up. No one should be untouchable, but it would be hard to move Carter Hart or Joel Farabee.
KEYS TO VICTORY
Play Hard
During this losing streak, most fans would agree that the Flyers have not played hard and have not been hard to play against. The Flyers are fighting for their season with 70% of the season left to play. Alexander Appleyard of The Athletic said that the Flyers would have go 34-17-7, which is about a 65% winning percentage, to have a chance to make the playoffs. That is a bleak outlook. The least the Flyers could do is play hard and with pride for the logo on the jersey and the city for which they play in. With an interim head coach and a general manager who is probably looking to make a move, these Flyers players need to show they want it.
Challenge Lehner
Lehner has had a down statistically year. His save percentage stands at .906 and he is allowing over three goals per game at a 3.10 GAA. The Flyers need to get in his lanes of vision and make it miserable for him. Lehner is a very emotional goalie, even comparable to other goalies. Get in his head early. It is a shame that the Flyers fired Alain Vigneault before having a Lehner/Vigneault showdown from Lehner’s off-season comments about Vigneault. It would’ve been good television, but the Flyers need to use everything in their toolbox to try to pull out a win. If getting in the opposing goaltender’s head is something that will help break this losing streak, then leave no stone unturned.
Win on Special Teams
The Vegas power play is at 13.6% which is worse than the Flyers’ power play somehow. The Flyers are coming off a game where the power play and special teams overall were lackluster to be kind, and hot garbage to be realistic. Vegas is slightly above average on the penalty kill which does not fare well for this Flyers power play unit. This should be a close game and if the Flyers can score one power play goal without giving up any, that could be the deciding factor.
PROJECTED LINEUPS
Philadelphia Flyers
Scott Laughton – Sean Couturier – Travis Konecny
Morgan Frost – Claude Giroux – Cam Atkinson
Max Willman – Kevin Hayes – James van Riemsdyk
Oskar Lindblom – Patrick Brown – Zack MacEwen
Ivan Provorov – Justin Braun
Travis Sanheim – Rasmus Ristolainen
Keith Yandle – Kevin Connauton
Carter Hart
Vegas Golden Knights
Max Pacioretty – Nicolas Roy – Mark Stone
Jonathan Marchessault – William Karlsson – Reilly Smith
Mattias Janmark – Adam Brooks- Evgenii Dadonov
William Carrier – Keegan Kolesar – Michael Amadio
Nic Hague – Alex Pietrangelo
Ben Hutton – Shea Theodore
Brayden McNabb – Zach Whitecloud
Robin Lehner
