The Philadelphia Flyers (1-4-1) continued their struggles at home versus the Washington Capitals (4-1-0). Tonight, they visit the Capital One Arena to finish a home-and-home back-to-back.
Most of the Flyers’ struggles come at the expense of complicating the offense. Instead of making the simple play, the pressure on the attack causes turnovers. The Capitals smothered and covered Philadelphia in the offensive zone and on the forecheck. It did not matter if the numbers favored the lineup for John Tortorella, as Andrew Mangiapane scored the game-winning goal in the first period while shorthanded.
“The biggest thing with our structure is our tracking; our backchecking. It may seem a little weird to talk about that part of the game through the lack of our offense. That’s our identity; tracking back so our defense can jam the neutral zone. That’s where the transition comes off of. In viewing the tape last night, and showing it to them this morning, we are void. We’re three-flat in the offensive zone. We have zero depth within the offensive structure, and our backchecking and tracking is just not there.” – John Tortorella; 10/23/2024
One of the youngest teams in the NHL expects to experience growing pains. Something that cannot happen is the continuation of frustrated play, leading to overthinking with the puck and missed opportunities against quality teams. The Flyers have two back-to-backs on their schedule this week, and at this rate, they are digging themselves into an early hole in a competitive NHL Metropolitan Division.
A sour start to the home-and-home needs to begin with a bang for Philadelphia, soul searching for an identity early in 2024-2025.
When: 7:30pm ET
Where: Capital One Arena; Washington, DC
Broadcast Info: TNT; 97.5 The Fanatic
Last Game PHI: 10/22; 4-1 L vs. Washington
Last Game WSH: 10/22; 4-1 W at Philadelphia
Philadelphia Flyers
No one should be surprised, but Ivan Fedotov will occupy the crease in the second game of the home-and-home back-to-back. When speaking on the goaltending situation, Tortorella has been short on Fedotov in his press availability. Fedotov is 0-2-0 with an 81.8%SV and a 6.09GAA. While Fedotov does have two starts under his belt, he only completed one entire game against the Calgary Flames. In five periods this season, Fedotov allowed ten goals (7EV, 3PP).
Tyson Foerster will return to the lineup but at the expense of Bobby Brink. Tortorella sat Foerster last night because he was struggling lately. Brink earned the same treatment after Tortorella moved him off of the powerplay. In the 4-1 loss to Washington, Brink only totaled 8:57 of ice time.
“Offensively, he’s [Brink] done some good things, but there are other things in his game that he simply has to get better at.” – John Tortorella; 10/23/2024
However, there is room for surprise regarding Jett Luchanko. He is not in the lineup. Ryan Poehling remains in the lineup.
Egor Zamula had a terrible evening at home versus the Capitals, but it looks like he will get a chance to redeem those efforts. Erik Johnson remains a healthy scratch.
Flyers Projected Lineup
#74 Owen Tippett – #25 Ryan Poehling – #11 Travis Konecny
#21 Scott Laughton – #14 Sean Couturier – #39 Matvei Michkov
#86 Joel Farabee – #48 Morgan Frost – #71 Tyson Foerster
#44 Nicolas Deslauriers – #27 Noah Cates – #19 Garnet Hathaway
#8 Cam York – #6 Travis Sanheim
#24 Nick Seeler – #9 Jamie Drysdale
#5 Egor Zamula – #55 Rasmus Ristolainen
#82 Ivan Fedotov
(#33 Sam Ersson)
Capitals Projected Lineup (per Tom Gulitti)
#21 Aliaksei Protas – #17 Dylan Strome – #8 Alex Ovechkin
#24 Connor McMichael – #80 Pierre-Luc Dubois – #43 Tom Wilson
#13 Jakub Vrána – #29 Hendrix Lapierre – #88 Andrew Mangiapane
#22 Brandon Duhaime – #26 Nic Dowd – #16 Taylor Raddysh
#6 Jakob Chychrun – #74 John Carlson
#42 Martin Fehérváry – #52 Dylan McIlrath
#38 Rasmus Sandin – #57 Trevor van Riemsdyk
#48 Logan Thompson
(#79 Charlie Lindgren)
