After losing in overtime due to a questionable no call versus the Kings on Tuesday, the Philadelphia Flyers look to put an end to their 2-game losing streak.
The Flyers are currently on a 3-game home losing streak for the first time since November. Luckily for them, they are closing out the week with a 2-game road trip before the All-Star break. Tuesday night’s game was a heartbreak as the Flyers were in it until their very last second. Tony DeAngelo got tripped up next to the Kings’ net in OT, the refs turned a blind eye, and LA took the puck to the other end to immediately score.
Regardless of their 3 losses in the past 4 games, the Flyers still manage to have a 7-4-1 record in 2023, keeping them out of the playoffs but also out of the Connor Bedard race. Over the course of their decent January, the power play unit still seems to be their Achilles heel, going 8 for 42 over 14 games.
On the other hand, the Minnesota Wild are sitting just one point out of a Wild Card spot. They have a struggling 4–4-2 record so far in 2023. Their power play seems to be the best thing about this team, sitting just narrowly out of top 10 in the league. Unfortunately, Marc-André Fleury has not been the starting goalie the team has hoped for. Across 27 starts, he barely holds on to a .900 SV%. Their young back up, Filip Gustavsson, has been holding it down between the pipes and probably deserves more starts than the team is giving him.
During morning practice today, Tony DeAngelo and Travis Sanheim skated as the 3rd defensive pair. Rasmus Ristolainen and Nick Seeler were given the 2nd pair spot. Currently, it is expected that DeAngelo and Sanheim will still play as a second pair, but we all know that Torts has no issue demoting players mid game. Over the past 5 games, Sanheim and TDA have an accumulative -17 rating, and Sanheim has not even seen a plus game in over 2 weeks. On the contrary, Cam York has really been solidifying his position on the top line with a crazy +10 over 22 games, putting him only second to Wade Allison who is +11. These young guys are really the silver outline on this team.
PHI Record: 20-21-8, 48pts, 7th in Metropolitan
MIN Record: 25-17-4, 54pts, 4th in Central
Last Game PHI: 1/24/23, 3-4 OTL vs Los Angeles
Last Game MIN: 1/24/23, 2-4 L vs Tampa Bay
When: 8:00pm ET
Where: Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, Minnesota
PHI Goalie: Carter Hart (14-14-7, .908 SV%, 2.97 GAA, 0 SO)
MIN Goalie: Marc-André Fleury (14-10-3, .903 SV%, 2.95 GAA, 1 SO)
PHI Projected Lineup
#86 Joel Farabee – #49 Noah Cates – #11 Travis Konecny
#25 James van Riemsdyk – #48 Morgan Frost – #74 Owen Tippett
#13 Kevin Hayes – #21 Scott Laughton – #57 Wade Allison
#44 Nicolas Deslauriers – #38 Patrick Brown – #17 Zack MacEwen
#9 Ivan Provorov – #45 Cam York
#6 Travis Sanheim – #77 Tony DeAngelo
#24 Nick Seeler – #55 Rasmus Ristolainen
#79 Carter Hart
#32 Felix Sandström
MIN Projected Lineup
#97 Kirill Kaprizov – #13 Sam Steel – #36 Mats Zuccarello
#21 Brandon Duhaime – #89 Frederick Gaudreau – #12 Matt Boldy
#17 Marcus Foligno – #14 Joel Eriksson Ek – #18 Jordan Greenway
#15 Mason Shaw – #26 Connor Dewar – #75 Ryan Reaves
#5 Jacob Middleton – #46 Jared Spurgeon
#25 Jonas Brodin – #24 Matt Dumba
#4 Jon Merrill – #2 Calen Addison
#29 Marc-André Fleury
#32 Filip Gustavsson
PHI Injuries: Sean Couturier (back), Tanner Laczynski (upper-body), Cam Atkinson (neck), Ryan Ellis (hip)
Scratches: Justin Braun, Kieffer Bellows
MIN Injuries: none
Scratches: Alex Goligoski, Ryan Hartman
News and Notes
– Carter Hart is making his 9th start in 12 games. He is one win away from moving up to 9th place in franchise history for wins.
– Ryan Hartman will be a healthy scratch for the first time this season as the Wild face his old team.
– Last season, the Flyers finished 6th overall for faceoff wins. Currently, they sit in 30th place. You can credit this massive drop to the loss of Claude Giroux, who is 3rd in the league for faceoffs.
Broadcast Info: TV- ESPN+, Hulu, SN Now, Radio – 97.5 The Fanatic
