After taking down the hottest team in hockey last night in the Carolina Hurricanes, the Philadelphia Flyers look to keep rolling on back to back nights. The Flyers will be visiting the Dallas Stars, a team they haven’t faced since October of 2019. Funny enough I was at that last game, and it was not a pleasant experience.
Coming into this matchup, the Stars are 4-6-2, having lost 6 of their last 7 games and have not gotten a win in regulation yet. Their only win in that span came in overtime against the Calgary Flames on November 4th, who shut out the Flyers earlier this season.
The Stars are also coming into this game with two full days of rest, while the Flyers flew in to Dallas late last night (or early this morning). Dallas does not look to be a necessarily great hockey team, however they have some stars (pun intended) that can make this a tough night for the Flyers.
The Stars currently sit in the bottom-five for goals per game with an average of 2.17, 25th in goals allowed per game with 3.17, and 26th in penalty kill percentage with a rate of 75%. Despite those bottom feeder statistics in those categories, Dallas has the third-best power play in the league, scoring at a rate of 29%. Miro Heiskanen currently leads the Stars in assists with 9 and points with 12, while Tyler Seguin leads in goals with 4.
Keys To Success:
Discipline – Despite the Stars being in the bottom seven of some important categories, they still own the league’s third best power play. The Flyers currently hold the 12th-best penalty kill and will hope to keep it that way tonight against the Stars.
Managing Energy – The second night of a back-to-back is always tough, even more so if they’re both away games. After playing such a hard game last night, one can only expect the Flyers to have some heavy legs. Guys have to keep their shifts short and play strong positionally to avoid over-skating. We know those third period legs will come, and hopefully the Flyers will be ahead on the scoresheet by that time.
Hot Start – Like previously mentioned, the Flyers need to be ahead of the Stars by the time those third period legs show up. After such a hard fought win last night, the Flyers need to ride the wave of momentum and jump out early on the Stars. With an early lead, the Flyers may be able to manage some energy by rolling four lines, playing a more defensive-minded game, and give Martin Jones a chance to steal another game.
PROJECTED LINEUPS
Philadelphia Flyers
Expecting the Flyers to roll with the same lineup, unless Kevin Hayes and Ryan Ellis both slot in last minute. Both are game-time decisions.
Claude Giroux – Sean Couturier – Travis Konecny
Oskar Lindblom – Derick Brassard – Cam Atkinson
Joel Farabee – Scott Laughton – James van Riemsdyk
Patrick Brown – Nate Thompson – Zack MacEwen
Ivan Provrov – Justin Braun
Travis Sanheim – Rasmus Ristolainen
Keith Yandle – Nick Seeler
Martin Jones
Dallas Stars
Jason Robertson – Roope Hintz – Joe Pavelski
Joel Kiviranta – Tyler Seguin – Alexander Radulov
Michael Raffl – Jamie Benn – Denis Gurianov
Riley Tufte – Radek Faksa – Luke Glendening
Ryan Suter – Miro Heiskanen
Esa Lindell – John Klingberg
Andrej Sekera – Jani Hakanpaa
Anton Khudobin
