*Cues Something in the Way by Nirvana*
The Philadelphia Flyers seek vengeance against their former head coach, Dave Hakstol, and the Seattle Kraken after dropping another game last Sunday by a 4-3 score.
They opened well, but were particularly asinine that not in terms of defense re: two Nick Seeler turnovers and a James van Riemsdyk turnover that led to a goal. Scott Laughton and Kevin Hayes keeping their backs turned to Jaden Schwartz who had taken his time into the slot, and Laughton again missing him later in the game for a snipe from the left circle. When 5 guys are all facing the puck carrier who’s behind the net, not only are they completely braindead, but it’s just flat out lazy.
Regardless, John Tortorella surely said some things to get this club motivated in the right direction tonight, and it needs to formulate into tangible offense. Travis Konecny has struggled to score since his hat trick in January, and really needs to step up. Joel Farabee has allegedly been playing hockey for the Flyers this season, but I have yet to see a thing from him on ice whether it’s playmaking, scoring, or defense.
The player to watch on the Flyers tonight per NHL.com is…Rasmus Ristolainen? Yup, that’s right. 4 points in his last 5 games, all in the form of an apple. Not only have his statistics been resurrected from the ashes, but he’s now beginning to chip back in on defense, after going scoreless for 30+ games.
On the other side of the ice is a confident Vince Dunn, also netting himself 4 points in his last 5 games. Jaden Schwartz will likely look forward to playing against this club after scoring 2 goals against them to secure their win. Martin Jones, who was on the goalie carousel for the Flyers last year, sure has found his game again with a remarkable 23-9-3 record. We’ll see how the 5th best GF/GP club will stack up against John Tortorella’s death by a thousand papercuts strategy will work.
PHI Record: 22-23-10, 54 pts, 7th in Metropolitan
SEA Record: 30-18-6, 66 pts, 3rd in Pacific
Last Game PHI: 2/12/23, 4-3 L vs. Seattle
Last Game SEA: 2/14/23, 3-2 OTL @ Winnipeg
When: 10:00pm ET
Where: Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle, WA
PHI Goalie: Carter Hart (16-15-9, .913 SV%, 2.78 GAA, 1 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
#79 Carter Hart
#33 Samuel Ersson
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, Felix Sandström
SEA Injuries: Chris Driedger (knee), André Burakovsky (lower body), Joonas Donskoi (concussion)
News and Notes
– The Flyers desperately need Travis Konecny to get going again, as he has not scored a goal since January 11th, and is pointless through his last 8 games
– Philadelphia still leads the all time series against Seattle, going 2-1-0 against the club since they’ve joined the league.
– Joel Farabee has 0 goals and 1 assist through his last 12 games.
– Samuel Ersson is backing up Carter Hart instead of Felix Sandström tonight. Ersson is expected to play at least once on this 4-game road trip while Sandström looks like the odd man out in net.
Broadcast Info: TV – NBC Sports Philadelphia, Radio – 97.5 The Fanatic
