It was upside-down world in the Wells Fargo Center Monday night against the defending Stanley Cup champions. The Philadelphia Flyers found a way to overcome a “scheduled loss” to the tune of a 5-3 final, which included strong finishing and goaltending across all periods against the Colorado Avalanche.
Now it’s time for the Flyers to take their revenge on the Washington Capitals after coming up short in an overtime loss on November 23rd. Still riddled with injuries, the Flyers have another big opportunity to pick up two points in the standings. However, this won’t be easy. The Capitals had a strong game on Monday night as well, peppering the Edmonton Oilers with 50 shots (to 30 shots against) in a close 3-2 finish.
Tonight’s important battle of the game will be the Flyers’ penalty kill that sits 23rd in the league, compared to the Capitals’ fancy spot in 9th. It begins with not taking penalties. Toeing the line of physicality and straight up cheating can be a hard act to balance, and the Flyers need to continue to stay on their toes.
If and when they do enter a penalty kill, it’s going to be really important to take out men in the crease, who have had a lot of good looks getting redirections off without much of a fight – the type of shots that are the hardest for a goalie to predict, and react to in a timely fashion.
PHI Record: 9-12-5, 23 pts, 7th in Metropolitan
WSH Record: 11-12-5, 27 pts, 6th in Metropolitan
Last Game PHI: 12/5/22, 5-3 W vs. Colorado
Last Game WSH: 12/5/22, 3-2 W at Edmonton
When: 7:00pm ET
Where: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, PA
PHI Goalie: Carter Hart (8-7-4, .911 SV%, 2.83 GAA, 0 SO)
WSH Goalie: Charlie Lindgren (3-3-2, .895 SV%, 3.32 GAA, 0 SO)
PHI Projected Lineup
#13 Kevin Hayes – #49 Noah Cates – #11 Travis Konecny
#86 Joel Farabee – #48 Morgan Frost – #74 Owen Tippett
#21 Scott Laughton – #23 Lukáš Sedlák – #25 James van Riemsdyk
#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
WSH Projected Lineup
#8 Alex Ovechkin – #17 Dylan Strome – #73 Conor Sheary
#15 Sonny Milano – #92 Evgeny Kuznetsov – #77 T.J. Oshie
#90 Marcus Johansson – #20 Lars Eller – #39 Anthony Mantha
#59 Aliaksei Protas – #26 Nic Dowd – #21 Garnet Hathaway
#56 Erik Gustafsson – #74 John Carlson
#57 Trevor van Riemsdyk – #3 Nick Jensen
#27 Alexander Alexeyev – #52 Matt Irwin
#79 Charlie Lindgren
#31 Hunter Shepard
PHI Injuries: Sean Couturier (back), Bobby Brink (hip), Ryan Ellis (hip), Wade Allison (hip), Tanner Laczynski (upper-body)
Scratched: Cam Atkinson, Egor Zamula, Max Willman
WSH Injuries: Nicklas Bäckström (hip), Connor Brown (ACL), Carl Hagelin (hip), Tom Wilson (ACL), Beck Malenstyn (upper-body), Dmitry Orlov (lower-body), Martin Fehervary (upper-body), Darcy Kuemper (upper-body)
Scratched: Joe Snively, Nicolas Aubé-Kubel
News and Notes
– Despite being at the top of John Tortorella’s naughty list, Kevin Hayes continues his best offensive season so far with 7 points in his last 5 games.
– Alex Ovechkin has scored 13 goals in 27 games played, pacing on another 40-goal season or at least 35 goals, at the age of 37 years old.
– Travis Konecny has scored a goal in three straight games heading into tonight, the third time in his career he has done so. If he scores tonight, it would mark the second time he’s scored in at least four straight (5-game streak in 2017-18).
– James van Riemsdyk returns to the lineup for the first time in 20 games since breaking his finger against San Jose on October 23rd.
Broadcast Info: TV – NBC Sports Philadelphia, Radio – 97.5 The Fanatic
