The Flyers are looking for back-to-back wins to start off their Western road trip after taking down the mighty Kraken last night in Seattle with a 3-2 overtime win. The San Jose Sharks are always a worthy opponent with some of the biggest names in hockey manning their blue-line and dangerous scoring up front.
With games on back-to-back nights, the Flyers must look to get ahead early and continue to play a well-disciplined, assertive style of hockey. Likely feeling fatigued after last night’s overtime thriller, the Flyers can’t expect to have an easy game tonight. They need to apply pressure and gain an early lead to ensure success.
I’m expecting a big game from Giroux again tonight as he is on fire, leading the team with 27 points (11G and 18A), seven more points than 2nd place Cam Atkinson.
PHI Record: 13-12-5, 31 pts, 6th in Metropolitan
SJS Record: 16-14-1, 33 pts, 5th in Pacific
When: 10:30pm ET
Where: SAP Center at San Jose, San Jose, CA
PHI Goalie: Martin Jones (6-4-1, 3.20 GAA, .911 SV%)
SJS Goalie: James Reimer (10-5-1, 2.29 GAA, .928 SV%)
PHI Projected Lineup
86 Joel Farabee – 13 Kevin Hayes – 11 Travis Konecny
23 Oskar Lindblom – 28 Claude Giroux – 89 Cam Atkinson
25 James van Riemsdyk – 48 Morgan Frost – 20 Gerry Mayhew
71 Max Willman – 38 Patrick Brown – 17 Zack MacEwen
9 Ivan Provorov – 61 Justin Braun
6 Travis Sanheim – 70 Rasmus Ristolainen
3 Keith Yandle – 8 Kevin Connauton
35 Martin Jones
32 Felix Sandström
SJS Projected Lineup
28 Timo Meier – 39 Logan Couture – 94 Alexander Barabanov
73 Noah Gregor – 48 Tomas Hertl – 89 Jayden Halbgewachs
11 Andrew Cogliano – 13 Nick Bonino – 83 Matt Nieto
42 Jonah Gadjovich – 18 Lane Pederson – 63 Jeffrey Viel
88 Brent Burns – 38 Mario Ferraro
65 Erik Karlsson – 21 Jacob Middleton
44 Marc-Edouard Vlasic – 51 Radim Simek
47 James Reimer
36 Zachary Sawchenko
Last Game PHI: 3-2 OT W at Seattle Kraken (12/29/21)
Last Game SJS: 8-7 SO W vs Arizona Coyotes (12/28/21)
News and Notes
– Claude Giroux captured 2nd place in points all-time by a Flyers player last night with an assist on James van Riemsdyk’s opening goal in the first period. Giroux surpassed Flyers legend Bill Barber for sole possesion of 2nd most points in franchise history with 884. Giroux also reached another milestone on that same play, collecting his 600th career assist, becoming the 10th active NHL player with 600+ assists.
– Martin Jones is expected to start on back-to-back nights versus his former team, the first time since he joined the Flyers in the summer. While with the Sharks, Jones was a critical part of their run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2015-2016 where they ultimately lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins, and their run to the Western Conference Final in 2018-2019. In 6 seasons with the Sharks, Jones posted an average of a .905 SV% and 2.74 GAA in 327 starts.
– James van Riemsdyk is beginning to heat up, with five goals in his last six games and two last night. JVR will look to continue his hot streak tonight against the Sharks.
– The Flyers have only won both games of a back-to-back twice this year (10/27 vs EDM and 10/28 vs VAN, 12/10 vs VGK and 12/11 vs ARI). In their other back-to-back series they won and lost one and then lost both.
Broadcast Info: Stream: NBCSP, Radio: 93.3 WMMR
Injuries
PHI: Ryan Ellis (lower-body, COVID protocols), Derick Brassard (hip, COVID protocols), Sean Couturier (COVID protocols), Carter Hart (COVID protocols), Scott Laughton (COVID protocols)
SJS: Jonathan Dahlen (COVID protocols), Adin Hill (COVID protocols), Kevin Labanc (upper-body), Nikolai Knyzhov (lower-body), Rudolfs Balcers (lower-body)
