With all eyes focused on the Super Bowl, the Philadelphia Flyers’ 4-game home-stand concludes today with another matinee affair, this time against the Seattle Kraken. The Flyers lost in overtime to Nashville yesterday by a score of 2-1, their 9th loss in 10 3-on-3 opportunities.
The Flyers will host a Seattle Kraken team that has surprised the entire league with their 29-18-5 record through their first 52 games. They finished their inaugural season dead last in the Western Conference and Pacific Division with a paltry 27-49-6 finish. However this season, led by a very balanced attack that includes 6 players with 30+ points and 5 players with 35+ points, the Kraken have a foot in the playoff race but are eyeing the division crown in the process. They have lost their last 3 games, losing stranglehold of their division lead in the process, and have gone 3-6-1 in their last 10.
With a game in hand on both the Vegas Golden Knights and Edmonton Oilers, the third place Kraken are only 3 points behind first place Vegas and 2 back of second place Edmonton but have the Los Angeles Kings and Calgary Flames breathing down their necks. Leading scorer, Andre Burakovsky, will be sidelined with an upper body injury, but they still have Vince Dunn (39 points), Jordan Eberle (38), Matthew Beniers (36), Jared McCann (36), and Yanni Gourde (32) keeping pace. Former Flyer, Martin Jones has a sparkling record with 23 wins in 34 starts (37 games played) but still has rather pedestrian peripherals – an .891 SV% and a 2.92 GAA.
Philadelphia on the other hand has been teetering in purgatory over the last month and a bit with a 4-3-3 record in their last 10, which includes 4 overtime games in their last 6, of which they’ve lost 3. They won a shootout for the first time this season against the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday but then lost another 3-on-3 game to Nashville. The Flyers still sit 7th in the Metropolitan Division and are 8 points back of the Washington Capitals for the final wild card spot.
Philadelphia will also need some help in the goal scoring category. Travis Konecny hasn’t scored a goal since the 11th of January which spans 12 games, Joel Farabee hasn’t scored a goal since the 9th of January which spans 13 games, Morgan Frost hasn’t scored a goal in 8 games, Scott Laughton hasn’t scored in 7 games, and James van Riemsdyk hasn’t scored a goal in 5 games and has 3 goals in his last 22. Kevin Hayes was held off the scoresheet for 4 consecutive games before scoring goals in the last 2. The Flyers need their top players to shoot the puck more often instead of looking for the fancy pass, especially with Jones in net and his lowly save percentage.
PHI Record: 22-22-10, 54 pts, 7th in Metropolitan
SEA Record: 29-18-5, 63 pts, 3rd in Pacific
Last Game PHI: 2/11/23, 2-1 OTL vs Nashville
Last Game SEA: 2/10/23, 6-3 L @ NY Rangers
When: 1:00pm ET
Where: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, PA
PHI Goalie: Felix Sandström (1-7-1, .886 SV%, 3.45 GAA, 0 SO)
SEA Goalie: Martin Jones (23-9-3, .891 SV%, 2.92 GAA, 3 SO)
PHI Projected Lineup
#25 James van Riemsdyk – #49 Noah Cates – #11 Travis Konecny
#13 Kevin Hayes – #21 Scott Laughton – #74 Owen Tippett
#86 Joel Farabee – #48 Morgan Frost – #57 Wade Allison
#44 Nicolas Deslauriers – #38 Patrick Brown – #62 Olle Lycksell
#9 Ivan Provorov – #45 Cam York
#6 Travis Sanheim – #55 Rasmus Ristolainen
#24 Nick Seeler – #77 Tony DeAngelo
#32 Felix Sandström
#79 Carter Hart
SEA Projected Lineup
#19 Jared McCann – #10 Matty Beniers – #7 Jordan Eberle
#17 Jaden Schwartz – #21 Alexander Wennberg – #9 Ryan Donato
#20 Eeli Tolvanen – #37 Yanni Gourde – #22 Oliver Bjorkstrand
#13 Brandon Tanev – #67 Morgan Geekie – #91 Daniel Sprong
#29 Vince Dunn – #6 Adam Larsson
#24 Jamie Oleksiak – #3 Will Borgen
#4 Justin Schultz – #28 Carson Soucy
#30 Martin Jones
#31 Philipp Grubauer
PHI Injuries: Sean Couturier (back), Ryan Ellis (hip), Tanner Laczynski (upper-body), Zack MacEwen (jaw), Cam Atkinson (neck)
Scratched: Justin Braun
EDM Injuries: Chris Driedger (knee), Andre Burakovsky (lower body), Joonas Donskoi (concussion)
News and Notes
– The Flyers are 11-13-3 on home ice compared to the Kraken who are 16-8-2 on the road. The Kraken are 6th in the NHL in goals compared to the Flyers who are 27th. The Flyers own the league’s worst power play but the Kraken have the second worst penalty kill. Both teams are bottom-4 in face-offs but Seattle is 3rd in the league in shots against compared to the Flyers who are 20th.
– This is only the 3rd meeting between the Flyers and Kraken since Seattle joined the league ahead of the 2021-22 season. The Flyers lead the all-time series 2-0-0.
– The Flyers swept the season series last year with Philadelphia first winning 6-1 on home ice on October 18th, 2021 and then took the second game in Seattle by a score of 3-2 in a game that finished in overtime on the 29th of December, 2021.
Broadcast Info: TV – NBC Sports Philadelphia, Radio – 97.5 The Fanatic
