We’ve officially reached the halfway point of the Philadelphia Flyers’ 2023-24 season, and tonight the Flyers will kick off their second half tonight against the Minnesota Wild in St. Paul.
The Flyers are coming off a resilient victory on Wednesday over the Montréal Canadiens. After trailing by two, Owen Tippett and Morgan Frost got on the scoreboard, Sean Couturier tallied the lone goal in the shootout, and Samuel Ersson stopped 17 shots and 3 more in the shootout.
“I think that’s what we talked about, just sticking to it,” said Ersson after the win. “We were doing all the right things. We were just maybe not getting the bounces. Just keep working, have patience, and good things are gonna come our way.”
Wednesday’s victory also marked the Flyers debut of defenseman Jamie Drysdale, who was acquired along with a 2025 second-round pick for prospect Cutter Gauthier.
“It’s a pretty unbelievable environment and a really fun spot to play,” said Drysdale. “It was a hell of a first game to be a part of.”
After a crushing loss on Monday to Pittsburgh, the Flyers rebounded in a big way against the Canadiens and now they’ll look to keep things rolling against a reeling Wild club.
Minnesota is coming off a devastating 7-2 loss to Dallas on Wednesday and they have lost 6 of their last 7 contests.
Much of their struggles have to do with their injuries. Superstar forward Kirill Kaprizov left December 30th’s 4-2 loss to Winnipeg with an upper-body injury that was reported to be broken ribs. The Wild are also missing starting goaltender Filip Gustavsson as well as defensemen Jared Spurgeon and Jonas Brodin. Kaprizov, Brodin, and Gustavsson were on the ice at morning skate for Minnesota but the former two did not participate in line rushes.
Philadelphia is still clinging to the first Wild Card berth in the Eastern Conference entering Friday, and a victory against a slumping Wild team would propel them back into third in the Metropolitan Division and push themselves even deeper into playoff position.
PHI Record: 21-14-6, 48 pts, 4th in Metropolitan
MIN Record: 17-19-4, 38 pts, 7th in Central
When: 8:00pm ET
Where: Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, MN
Broadcast Info: NBC Sports Philadelphia+, 93.3 WMMR
Last Game PHI: 1/10/24, 3-2 SOW vs. Montréal
Last Game MIN: 1/10/24, 7-2 L at Dallas
PHI Goalie: Carter Hart (10-8-3, .911 SV%, 2.69 GAA, 1 SO)
MIN Goalie: Marc-André Fleury (7-9-2, .892 SV%, 3.12 GAA, 0 SO)
PHI Projected Lineup
#86 Joel Farabee – #14 Sean Couturier – #11 Travis Konecny
#74 Owen Tippett – #21 Scott Laughton – #89 Cam Atkinson
#71 Tyson Foerster – #48 Morgan Frost – #19 Garnet Hathaway
#44 Nicolas Deslauriers – #25 Ryan Poehling
#6 Travis Sanheim – #9 Jamie Drysdale
#8 Cam York – #26 Sean Walker
#24 Nick Seeler – #55 Rasmus Ristolainen
#5 Egor Zamula
#79 Carter Hart
#33 Samuel Ersson
Scratches: #10 Bobby Brink, #18 Marc Staal,
Injuries: #27 Noah Cates
MIN Projected Lineup
#12 Matt Boldy – #38 Ryan Hartman – #36 Mats Zuccarello
#90 Marcus Johansson – #14 Joel Eriksson Ek – #17 Marcus Foligno
#20 Pat Maroon – #23 Marco Rossi – #89 Frederick Gaudreau
#21 Brandon Duhaime – #26 Connor Dewar – #51 Adam Raska
#5 Jacob Middleton – #7 Brock Faber
#33 Alex Goligoski – #24 Zach Bogosian
#4 Jon Merrill – #6 Dakota Mermis
#29 Marc-André Fleury
#30 Jesper Wallstedt
Scratches: #19 Nic Petan, #48 Daemon Hunt
Injuries: #10 Vinni Lettieri, #25 Jonas Brodin, #32 Filip Gustavsson, #46 Jared Spurgeon, #97 Kirill Kaprizov
News and Notes
– The Flyers are 18-10-1-2 against the Wild all-time and are 6-6-1-1 on the road against Minnesota.
– The last time these teams met, the Flyers dominated the Wild from start to finish en route to a 6-2 victory at Wells Fargo Center on October 26th, 2023.
– Cam Atkinson leads all active Flyers in points against the Wild with 11 while he shares the team lead in goals with Sean Couturier with 6. Travis Sanheim leads the Flyers in assists against Minnesota with 6.
– Atkinson has gone 25 games (November 11th) without a goal, the longest drought of his career. It hasn’t been for a lack of effort, however. The forward has 72 shots on goal in those 25 games, good for 2.88 per game.
– Samu Tuomaala was named as the Phantoms’ representative for the 2024 AHL All-Star Classic on Wednesday.
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