The Philadelphia Flyers are coming off their 9th loss in a row and are facing a divisional opponent tonight in the New Jersey Devils. New Jersey is coming off of a 3-2 overtime loss to the Ottawa Senators. This is an immensely important game for the Flyers. The Devils are three points above the Flyers in the standings and the Flyers can make up points with a regulation win.
This is the first game of a three-game road trip for the Flyers. Amazingly, the Flyers are only nine points out of a playoff spot with a couple games in hand. This will also be the Flyers’ first of two meetings in the next week with the Devils.
Familiarity breeds hate and the Flyers need to get some emotion going. Several of the Flyers’ key players play better when they play with emotion. Travis Konecny played with an edge against the Avalanche and had two assists. Captain Claude Giroux came out like a house was on fire and added two goals. Scott Laughton was effective with a shorthanded goal and he had his best game forechecking and hit everything that moved. The Flyers showed some life finally, even if they allowed 50-plus shots on goal and looked like lost puppies in their own zone.
The Devils player to watch for is rookie Dawson Mercer. He has 14 points in 23 games and is a fantastic skater. Mercer had an assist in the Flyers matchup on November 28th. He just turned 20 and is having a great start to the season. He was one of the players that the Flyers should’ve targeted with their first-round pick in 2020, but Mercer was gone before the Flyers picked. A lot of scouts compared Mercer’s game to that of a young Claude Giroux.
The Devils are lead in scoring by Jesper Bratt with 20 points in 23 games. He has been subject to trade rumors in the off-season but has been extremely productive. He has been injured a lot in his early career but has 150 points in 250 games and is only 23 years old. This is a foundational top six forward to pair with Jack Hughes (who is just got back in the lineup) and Nico Hischier (who is coming off an injury riddled season) plus the dearth of young players and prospects the Devils have accumulated throughout the last couple years.
This is the first of three games in four days in three different cities for the Flyers. The Flyers will have to have their skating legs under them early, and they must get points any way they can, and most get points against their divisional opponents. The season is slipping away with each loss.
KEYS TO VICTORY
Tighten Up Defensively
Interim head coach Mike Yeo said that the game against Colorado would be more about attitude than X’s and O’s. Well, maybe they could tighten up on the X’s and O’s for the game against New Jersey. The Flyers have let up 14 goals in the last two games. Hard to win those games.
Carter Hart and Martin Jones were the lone bright spots early in the season, but now their save percentages are falling to earth quicker than a lead balloon. The Flyers need to be tightening up in front of them while playing as a five-man unit and not flying the zone too early. The gap between the forwards and defensemen needs to be closer. That gap is the primary tactic that needs to be fixed.
Attack Hamilton
No not the historical figure, the musical did enough of that. Dougie Hamilton is one of the best defensemen in the NHL. He leads the Devils in ice time with about 22 minutes per game. The Flyers need to hit him and take away space when he has the puck in all zones.
Laughton, MacEwen, Brown, etc. need to punish him and make him hesitate as much as possible. Hamilton is the straw that stirs the drink for New Jersey, and upsetting his rhythm from the back end to the offensive zone will help curb the team speed of New Jersey.
Win on Special Teams
The Devils power play is at 13%, which is worse than the Flyers’ power play somehow. The Flyers are coming off of a game where they finally scored on the power play and scored shorthanded but allowed three power play goals and a shorthanded goal as well. New Jersey isn’t Colorado offensively, but the Flyers cannot tempt fate. This should be a close game and if the Flyers can score one power play goal without giving up any, that could be the deciding factor.
PROJECTED LINEUPS
Philadelphia Flyers
Oskar Lindblom – Sean Couturier – Travis Konecny
Scott Laughton – Kevin Hayes – Cam Atkinson
Morgan Frost – Claude Giroux – James van Riemsdyk
Derick Brassard – Patrick Brown – Zack MacEwen
Ivan Provorov – Justin Braun
Travis Sanheim – Rasmus Ristolainen
Keith Yandle – Nick Seeler
Carter Hart
New Jersey Devils
Pavel Zacha – Nico Hischier – Jesper Bratt
Andreas Johnsson – Jack Hughes – Yegor Sharangovich
Tomas Tatar – Jimmy Vesey – Dawson Mercer
Janne Kuokkanen – Michael McLeod – Nathan Bastian
Ryan Graves – Dougie Hamilton
Jonas Siegenthaler – Damon Severson
Ty Smith – P.K. Subban
MacKenzie Blackwood
