The Philadelphia Flyers’ road trip continues in Calgary for a late afternoon affair against the Flames. The Flyers are entering today’s game with a 4-game losing streak, have lost 8 of their last 10 games, and their offense has gone ice cold after a rather surprising run of 21 games between December and January saw them scoring at well over 3 goals a game.
The Calgary Flames had high hopes entering this season, stumbled out of the block, but are hanging in the very tight Pacific Division race. As of today they are on the outside looking in with Minnesota and Edmonton occupying the Wild Card spots but are 2 and 5 points back, respectively. They have a long way to go to catch the Seattle Kraken, Los Angeles Kings, and Vegas Golden Knights, but they have won or registered a point in 7 of their last 10 games and are playing a much better brand of hockey as of late.
The Flames made headlines this summer when they traded Matthew Tkachuk to the Florida Panthers for Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar and then signed free agent, Nazem Kadri, to a long-term deal. The had just lost Johnny Gaudreau to the open market and many were wondering how they were going to approach the situation. Huberdeau has had a rough first season where he has only scored 10 goals and 38 points in 53 games. Kadri has failed to keep up with his career year in Colorado as he sits with 41 points in 56 games, but the Flames’ offense is paced by 6 players with 35+ points.
Elias Lindholm leads the charge with 49 points in 54 games, Tyler Toffoli leads the team in goals with 22 and is second with 48 points, followed by Kadri’s 21 goals and 41 points, then Huberdeau’s 38, Rasmus Andersson’s 36, and Mikael Backlund’s 36. Jacob Markström has also been somewhat of a letdown in net this season after posting a 37-15-9 record with a .922 SV%, a 2.22 GAA, and 9 shutouts last year. His .891 SV% and 2.90 GAA are his worst single-season totals since 2013-14. Daniel Vladar hasn’t been that much better but sports a .899 SV% and a 2.79 GAA with an 11-6-4 record.
The Flyers on the other hand have had issues scoring goals with only 31 to their name in the last 14 games. In that stretch they have gone 4-7-3, allowed 46 goals, have a power play clicking at 13.9%, and a middling penalty kill clicking at 75.75%. Travis Konecny just recently snapped a 13-game goalless drought, Joel Farabee has gone 14 straight without a goal and has only registered an assist in that stretch, James van Riemsdyk has 3 goals and 6 points in his last 18, Morgan Frost just snapped his 10 game goalless drought and has 3 in his last 18, Scott Laughton was credited with a goal last game that snapped his 9 game goalless drought, and Owen Tippett has 2 goals in his last 15 games.
The Flyers top forwards have gone silent and for the most part the defense and goaltending was keeping them under par until the last 2 games where they lost 6-2 to Seattle and Vancouver. Before the last 2 games, where Carter Hart has allowed 8 goals on 40 shots, he sported a .915 SV% and a 2.57 GAA in a 21-game stretch where he went 8-8-5. Samuel Ersson was called up ahead of the trip and was named as the backup for whenever the Flyers make way. Ersson is still a perfect 5-0-0 and should have a better line than .913 SV%, however he was tagged for 2 goals against Seattle in relief of Carter Hart.
PHI Record: 22-25-10, 54 pts, 7th in Metropolitan
CGY Record: 26-19-11 63 pts, 5th in Pacific
Last Game PHI: 2/18/23, 6-2 L at Vancouver
Last Game CGY: 2/18/23, 3-2 OTW vs New York Rangers
When: 4:00 pm ET
Where: Scotiabank Saddledome, Calgary, AB
PHI Goalie: Samuel Ersson (5-0-0, .913 SV%, 2.50 GAA, 1 SO)
CGY Goalie: Jacob Markstrom (15-13-7, 2.90 GAA, .891 SV%, 0 SO)
PHI Projected Lineup
#44 Nicolas Deslauriers – #49 Noah Cates – #11 Travis Konecny
#86 Joel Farabee – #48 Morgan Frost – #25 James van Riemsdyk
#13 Kevin Hayes – #21 Scott Laughton – #74 Owen Tippett
#62 Olle Lycksell – #38 Patrick Brown – #57 Wade Allison
#9 Ivan Provorov – #45 Cam York
#6 Travis Sanheim – #55 Rasmus Ristolainen
#24 Nick Seeler – #77 Tony DeAngelo
#33 Samuel Ersson
#79 Carter Hart
CGY Projected Lineup
#29 Dillon Dube – #28 Elias Lindholm – #73 Tyler Toffoli
#49 Jakob Pelletier – #91 Nazem Kadri – #10 Jonathan Huberdeau
#88 Andrew Mangiapane – #11 Mikael Backlund – #20 Blake Coleman
#17 Milan Lucic – #22 Trevor Lewis – #24 Brett Ritchie
#55 Noah Hanifin – #4 Rasmus Andersson
#52 MacKenzie Weegar – #8 Chris Tanev
#16 Nikita Zadorov – #48 Dennis Gilbert
#25 Jacob Markström
#80 Daniel Vladar
PHI Injuries: Sean Couturier (back), Ryan Ellis (hip), Tanner Laczynski (upper-body), Zack MacEwen (jaw), Cam Atkinson (neck)
Scratched: Felix Sandström, Kieffer Bellows, Justin Braun
CGY Injuries: Michael Stone (undisclosed), Oliver Kylington (personal)
Scratched: Adam Ruzicka, Connor Mackey
News and Notes
– The Flyers are 61-45-12-8 against the Calgary Flames all-time in their 126 head-to-head matchups. The Flames won their most recent matchup on the 21st of November at the Wells Fargo Center by a score of 5-2.
– Jonathan Huberdeau might be struggling this year to rack up points, but he has 12 goals and 22 points in 24 matchups in his career against the Flyers, including the game’s opening goal in their last matchup. He also has 13 points in his last 17 games.
– Kevin Hayes and Tony DeAngelo have been the only consistent performers offensively while the rest of the team has been slumping with Hayes adding 17 points in his last 20 games and DeAngelo tallying 21 in his last 30 – pointless in his most recent 5 games however
– The Flyers’ lack of finishing has been at the forefront of their issues recently and it starts from the top with their top-6 generally stuck in lengthy goal droughts.
Broadcast Info: TV – NBC Sports Philadelphia, Radio – 97.5 The Fanatic
