After a crushing 7-4 loss to Colorado on Saturday, the Philadelphia Flyers are back in action on Sunday against the Ottawa Senators.
The Flyers trailed by three goals entering the third period of Saturday’s loss and stormed back to get within a goal before the Avalanche finally laid them to rest with a power play goal from Mikko Rantanen midway through the final frame before a Logan O’Connor empty-netter sealed the deal.
“I thought we stayed resilient all night,” said Carter Hart, who allowed 5 goals on 15 shots in the contest before being pulled. “Kept battling, not the end result [we wanted]. It’s a good thing we come back and play again tomorrow and get right back at it and put it behind us, but I think the team battled right to the end and just stuck with it.”
The Flyers have shown that resiliency all season, and despite a hard-fought loss against a very talented Avalanche club, they usually bounce back fairly well after losses. Philadelphia is 10-7-3 in games following a loss this season.
And in bouncing back after defeat, they could not have asked for a more appetizing opponent than the Ottawa Senators.
The Senators are mired in another miserable season that so far has seen Shane Pinto earn a 41-game suspension for violating the league’s sports betting policy, D.J. Smith be relieved of his head coaching duties, and the team currently sits dead last in the Eastern Conference with a measly 33 points after having playoff aspirations to begin the season.
Ottawa is coming off a heartbreaking 2-1 loss in overtime at home to Winnipeg on Saturday and has lost 8 of their last 11 contests. The Senators allow the third-most goals per game (3.68) and boast the fifth-worst penalty kill (73.3%) and ninth-worst power play (15.9%) in the NHL. This is a team that struggles defensively and can’t buy a big save from their goaltenders, and the Flyers should be ready to take full advantage of that this afternoon.
PHI Record: 25-15-6, 56 pts, 2nd in Metropolitan
OTT Record: 16-24-1, 33 pts, 8th in Atlantic
When: 1:00pm ET
Where: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, PA
Broadcast Info: NBC Sports Philadelphia, NHL Network, 97.5 The Fanatic
Last Game PHI: 1/20/24, 7-4 L vs. Colorado
Last Game OTT: 1/20/24, 2-1 OTL vs. Winnipeg
PHI Goalie: Samuel Ersson (12-5-3, .911 SV%, 2.28 GAA, 3 SO)
OTT Goalie: Mads Søgaard (0-1-0, .818 SV%, 6.09 GAA, 0 SO)
PHI Projected Lineup
#71 Tyson Foerster – #14 Sean Couturier – #11 Travis Konecny
#86 Joel Farabee – #21 Scott Laughton – #19 Garnet Hathaway
#25 Ryan Poehling – #48 Morgan Frost – #89 Cam Atkinson
#44 Nicolas Deslauriers – #27 Noah Cates
#6 Travis Sanheim – #9 Jamie Drysdale
#24 Nick Seeler – #26 Sean Walker
#8 Cam York – #55 Rasmus Ristolainen
#5 Egor Zamula
#33 Samuel Ersson
#79 Carter Hart
Scratches: #10 Bobby Brink, #18 Marc Staal
Injuries: #74 Owen Tippett
OTT Projected Lineup
#7 Brady Tkachuk – #71 Ridly Greig – #28 Claude Giroux
#21 Mathieu Joseph – #18 Tim Stützle – #19 Drake Batherson
#9 Josh Norris – #57 Shane Pinto – #91 Vladimir Tarasenko
#27 Parker Kelly – #49 Rourke Chartier – #81 Dominik Kubalík
#72 Thomas Chabot – #6 Jakob Chychrun
#85 Jake Sanderson – #2 Artem Zub
#26 Erik Brännström – #24 Jacob Bernard-Docker
#40 Mads Søgaard
#70 Joonas Korpisalo
Scratches: #12 Mark Kastelic, #17 Zack MacEwen, #23 Travis Hamonic
Injuries: #31 Anton Forsberg
News and Notes
– The Senators defeated the Flyers in their first meeting back on October 14th, 2023 at Canadian Tire Centre, 5-2.
– Owen Tippett left Saturday’s game with a lower-body injury after taking an awkward tumble into the boards. The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz reported on Sunday morning that Tippett was walking fine and the hope is that he suffered only a mild ankle sprain. Tippett also skated with trainer Tommy Alva watching him on Sunday morning, a positive sign moving forward.
– Philadelphia is 51-38-8-9 all-time against the Senators and 30-16-2-4 at home against them.
– Cam Atkinson leads all active Flyers in goals (12) and points (20) against Ottawa, while Rasmus Ristolainen leads in assists (13).
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