It’s a rivalry as heated as they come. The Philadelphia Flyers and the New Jersey Devils will square off for the first time this season tonight at Wells Fargo Center.
The Flyers have played their fair share of divisional matchups lately, with the last five contests coming against teams in the Metropolitan, but tonight may be the most important so far.
Philadelphia is currently battling for a playoff spot, sitting one point shy of Washington for third place in the division. They are also two points behind Tampa Bay, who maintains the final Wild Card spot in the East, and a win tonight could potentially propel the Flyers back into playoff position.
The Devils aren’t a team to be taken lightly however, and the Flyers know they’ll need a strong start to control the early momentum and snag that all-important first goal. Philadelphia is 11-1-0 when scoring first, but they are also 0-8-1 when allowing the first goal and have not recorded a comeback win of any kind this season.
”Throughout the league, that first goal, it’s amazing, percentages,” said head coach John Tortorella on Thursday. “Obviously our percentage is upside-down, right?
“It’s not like you say ‘ugh’…if they score the first goal and we feel that way, why are we playing the game?
”We can’t get caught up in that because we’re not always gonna lead. We went through it last year. We weren’t leading a lot last year and we found a way to win some games. We’re gonna have to try and break that type of situation.”
The Flyers have only scored 4 goals in their last 4 games and were shut out against the Islanders on November 25th, only to score in the shootout thanks to Tyson Foerster, but that won’t fly against a Devils offense that ranks sixth in goals for (72) and fifth in goals per game (3.60) across the league.
One caveat of New Jersey’s play style this season is that they give up a lot of goals as well. The Devils are tied for ninth-worst in the league in goals against (73) and are tied for fourth-worst in goals against per game (3.65), so the Flyers have an opportunity to wake up their sticks tonight and get back to scoring. New Jersey is also tied for fourth-worst in high danger goals against (31) and own the third-worst high danger save percentage (.748) in the league, according to Natural Stat Trick.
The key for the Flyers will be to drive the net and fire the puck early and often at the New Jersey cage to get back into the win column tonight.
PHI Record: 11-10-1, 23 pts, 4th in Metropolitan
NJD Record: 10-9-1, 21 pts, 6th in Metropolitan
When: 7:00pm ET
Where: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, PA
Broadcast Info: NBC Sports Philadelphia, 97.5 The Fanatic
Last Game PHI: 11/28/23, 4-1 L vs. Carolina
Last Game NJD: 11/28/23, 5-4 W vs. NY Islanders
PHI Goalie: Carter Hart (6-6-0, .911 SV%, 2.57 GAA, 1 SO)
NJD Goalie: Akira Schmid (2-4-1, .896 SV%, 3.02 GAA, 0 SO)
PHI Projected Lineup
#71 Tyson Foerster – #14 Sean Couturier – #11 Travis Konecny
#86 Joel Farabee – #21 Scott Laughton – #89 Cam Atkinson
#74 Owen Tippett – #48 Morgan Frost – #10 Bobby Brink
#44 Nicolas Deslauriers – #25 Ryan Poehling – #19 Garnet Hathaway
#8 Cam York – #6 Travis Sanheim
#24 Nick Seeler – #26 Sean Walker
#5 Egor Zamula – #55 Rasmus Ristolainen
#79 Carter Hart
#33 Samuel Ersson
Scratches: #18 Marc Staal, #37 Louie Belpedio
Injuries: #27 Noah Cates
NJD Projected Lineup
#73 Tyler Toffoli – #86 Jack Hughes – #91 Dawson Mercer
#18 Ondřej Palát – #13 Nico Hischier – #63 Jesper Bratt
#42 Curtis Lazar – #20 Michael McLeod – #10 Alexander Holtz
#79 Samuel Laberge – #11 Chris Tierney – #14 Nathan Bastian
#71 Jonas Siegenthaler – #2 Brendan Smith
#88 Kevin Bahl – #6 John Marino
#43 Luke Hughes – #24 Colin Miller
#40 Akira Schmid
#41 Vitek Vaněček
Scratches: None
Injuries: #7 Dougie Hamilton, #28 Timo Meier, #56 Erik Haula, #92 Tomáš Nosek
News and Notes
– The Flyers are 124-109-18-13 all-time against the Devils franchise since they entered the league as the Kansas City Scouts in 1974. Since the Devils moved to New Jersey in 1982, the Flyers are 96-105-15-13 against them.
– Cam Atkinson leads all active Flyers in goals (15) and points (24) against the Devils in 29 career matchups. Atkinson also shares the assists lead (9) against New Jersey with Sean Couturier and Rasmus Ristolainen.
– Atkinson recorded a hat trick to cap off a 4-point night in his most recent outing against the Devils in a 6-1 blowout victory on December 14th, 2021.
– Carter Hart owns a 6-4-0 record to accompany a .933 SV%, 2.02 GAA, and 1 shutout against the Devils in his career.
– Philadelphia has won 3 of their last 5 contests against New Jersey, and both clubs split the season series last year at two wins apiece.
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