The Philadelphia Flyers play the Tampa Bay Lightning tonight at 7:00pm at Amalie Arena, which starts a two-game Florida road trip. The Flyers will play the Panthers tomorrow night for a very tough back-to-back.
The Flyers are coming off consecutive losses for the first time this season and face a tough road matchup against the defending back-to-back Stanley Cup champions. This stretch of games is extremely difficult for the Flyers and they need to win games to stay in contention in the toughest division in all of sports.
There should be plenty of familiarity in this game since the two teams played last week. Claude Giroux lead the team with 2 goals, including a goal to tie the game with 8.1 seconds remaining. He needs to continue to set the pace for this team. He is the straw that stirs the drink for the Flyers, and the offense will only go as far as Giroux takes them.
The goaltending duel for tonight could be that of the gold medal game in the Olympics with Andrei Vasilevskiy and Carter Hart for Russia and Canada, respectively. Hart is having a comeback year and Vasilevskiy is the best goaltender in the league. Getting pucks to the net is key, but the Flyers need to take Vasilevskiy’s eyes away and deflect pucks on the way to the net. It is hard to beat Vasilevskiy when he can see the puck.
The Flyers will be without key contributors Kevin Hayes and Ryan Ellis for a while, as both are week-to-week. They need Oskar Lindblom and James van Riemsdyk to start producing offensively. That is 10 million dollars of cap space not producing and playing at a very slow and meandering pace.
The Flyers need new blood to shake it up. I am glad that Max Willman had a good camp and Patrick Brown played college hockey with Kevin Hayes but these guys do not move the needle. Call up Morgan Frost and Cam York or Egor Zamula. Let them play, or don’t. Trade them for pieces that can help you now. The time is now. This is one of the oldest teams in the league and their goaltending is hot. Go get Tomas Hertl. Go get someone who has speed and can disrupt the other team’s best players.
KEYS TO VICTORY
Win On Special Teams
The Flyers’ power play has been abysmal, but they are due for some positive regression. If they do not turn it around in the next couple games, Michel Therrien’s job has to be on the chopping block. Stay out of the penalty box as well because Tampa has a lethal power play. The Flyers gave up two goals on the penalty kill last week to Tampa.
Play Heavy
Get pucks on net. Start quick. Get traffic in front of Andrei Vasilevskiy and get him off his game early. Tampa Bay is one of the most skilled teams in the league. They are fast and play a great system game.
Get the puck below the goal line and play Flyers hockey. Cycle the puck, block the vision of the goalie, and mix it up physically. The Flyers are a better team when they play physically.
Do Not Let The Lightning Gain The Blueline With Speed
The Flyers are one of the best teams in the league at allowing uncontrolled entries defensively, meaning they don’t let the other team enter their defensive zone with control of the puck. Tampa has elite speed and skill. Grind them down and punish them at every turn.
PROJECTED LINEUPS
Philadelphia Flyers
Claude Giroux – Sean Couturier – Travis Konecny
Joel Farabee – Derick Brassard – Cam Atkinson
Max Willman – Scott Laughton – James van Riemsdyk
Oskar Lindblom – Nate Thompson – Zack MacEwen
Ivan Provorov – Justin Braun
Travis Sanheim – Rasmus Ristolainen
Keith Yandle – Nick Seeler
Carter Hart
Tampa Bay Lightning
Ondrej Palat – Steven Stamkos – Alex Barre-Boulet
Alex Killorn – Anthony Cirelli – Mathieu Joseph
Pat Maroon – Pierre-Edouard Bellemare – Corey Perry
Boris Katchouk – Ross Colton – Taylor Raddysh
Victor Hedman – Jan Rutta
Ryan McDonagh – Zach Bogosian
Mikhail Sergachev – Cal Foote
Andrei Vasilevskiy
