After another furious third period charge that fell just a bit short in their previous matchup in Carolina, the Philadelphia Flyers continue their road trip tonight with a matchup against the San Jose Sharks tonight at 10:30 PM. The Flyers also had a third period charge in Toronto on the 22nd but couldn’t complete the comeback after Joel Farabee missed a wide open cage for the potential game-tying goal.
The Flyers lost back-to-back games before the Christmas break and have won 3 of their previous 10 matchups, going 3-5-2 during that stretch. Things maybe aren’t as bleak as one would imagine as they have been able to make games a little more interesting, but they have put themselves in holes they can’t dig out of. Against the Leafs they were down 4-1 in the third period and 6-2 against the Hurricanes entering the the final frame before making things interesting. The idea of potential comebacks are nice but falling short does nothing to entice the fan base.
The big news coming out of the Christmas break was Carter Hart being placed on IR retroactively after Rasmus Ristolainen pushed Seth Jarvis into the young netminder before allowing the eventual game-winning goal. Hart was also tagged with the loss after playing in relief of Samuel Ersson on his NHL debut, but had to leave after the collision at the end of the second period. He returned to practice shortly after being placed on IR and that caused a mass amount of confusion, but the Flyers believe he will be able to return for the final 2 games of their road trip.
Samuel Ersson gets the nod again for his second NHL start after allowing 5 goals on his first 22 shots, before coming back in relief of the injured Hart to make the final 8 saves of the game. Felix Sandström will be returning to the lineup after dealing with an illness and will be serving as the backup. Also worthy of news is John Tortorella placing Cam York on the top pair with Ivan Provorov in another attempt to shake things up on the backend after a deplorable showing against the Hurricanes.
As for the Sharks, they sit in almost a similar predicament as the Flyers, near the bottom of both their division and conference. They have lost 4 of their last 5 games and are also 3-5-2 in their previous 10. They are a top-heavy lineup with not much secondary, tertiary, or depth scoring. Erik Karlsson leads the way in what may seem like a renaissance season for the veteran with 48 points in 36 games. Timo Meier has 20 goals and 36 points, Tomáš Hertl has 32 points in 34 games, and Logan Couture has 29.
Both teams struggle in all facets of their games as evidenced by their record and standing. The Flyers enter tonight 29th in the NHL in goals per game (2.57), while the Sharks are 23rd (3.03). Both teams are bottom-tier in shots on goal and goals allowed as well.
Surprisingly however, the Sharks possess the league’s best penalty kill with a success rate of 84.9% and the 14th-best power play at 22.8%. This will be problematic for the anemic Flyers who are 31st on the power play at an abysmal 15.2% and 24th on the penalty kill with a 74.5% success rate. The Sharks are also in the top-half of the league in penalty minutes (6th), faceoffs (14th), shooting percentage (15th), and shots on goal allowed (14th).
PHI Record: 11-17-7, 29 pts, 7th in Metropolitan
SJS Record: 11-19-6, 28 pts, 7th in Pacific
Last Game PHI: 12/23/22, 6-5 L at Carolina
Last Game SJS: 12/27/22, 6-2 L at Vancouver
When: 10:30 pm ET
Where: SAP Center, San Jose, CA
PHI Goalie: Samuel Ersson (0-0-0, .833 SV%, 6.33 GAA, 0 SO)
SJS Goalie: Kaapo Kähkönen (3-7-2, .872 SV%, 3.82 GAA, 1 SO)
PHI Projected Lineup
#25 James van Riemsdyk – #48 Morgan Frost – #74 Owen Tippett
#86 Joel Farabee – #49 Noah Cates – #11 Travis Konecny
#13 Kevin Hayes – #21 Scott Laughton – #57 Wade Allison
#44 Nicolas Deslauriers – #38 Patrick Brown – #17 Zack MacEwen
#9 Ivan Provorov – #45 Cam York
#6 Travis Sanheim – #77 Tony DeAngelo
#24 Nick Seeler – #70 Rasmus Ristolainen
#33 Samuel Ersson
#32 Felix Sandström
SJS Projected Lineup
#28 Timo Meier – #39 Logan Couture – #94 Alexander Barabanov
#83 Matt Nieto – #48 Tomáš Hertl – #62 Kevin Labanc
#13 Nick Bonino – #7 Nico Sturm – #10 Evgeny Svechnikov
#23 Oskar Lindblom – #16 Steven Lorentz – #42 Jonah Gadjovich
#24 Jaycob Megna – #65 Erik Karlsson
#44 Marc-Édouard Vlasic – #5 Matt Benning
#4 Scott Harrington – #38 Mario Ferraro
#36 Kaapo Kähkönen
#47 James Reimer
PHI Injuries: Cam Atkinson (neck), Sean Couturier (back), Bobby Brink (hip), Ryan Ellis (hip), Carter Hart (mild concussion), Tanner Lacyznski (lower-body)
Scratches: Justin Braun, Olle Lycksell
SJS Injuries: Markus Nutivaara (lower-body), Luke Kunin (knee), Nikolai Knyzhov (Achilles)
Scratches: Jonah Gadjovich, Nick Cicek, C.J. Suess, Radim Simek
News and Notes
– Erik Karlsson is currently on a 10 game point streak (2g, 14a) and is tied for 6th in the NHL in points with 48, and has 8 more points than Josh Morrissey who is second in the NHL for points by defensemen.
– Travis Konecny has registered six points (3g, 3a) in his last three games since being held off the scoresheet on December 17th.
– The Sharks defeated the Flyers in their last matchup, 3-0 in Philadelphia back on October 23rd.
– The Sharks have won 24 of their last 30 games against the Flyers dating back to 2002. Last time the Flyers won in San Jose was on the 4th of October, 2017.
Broadcast Info: TV – NBC Sports Philadelphia, Radio – 97.5 The Fanatic
