The Philadelphia Flyers start their three game Western Canada road trip tonight at 10:00pm ET in Edmonton against the undefeated Oilers. The Oilers are 5-0-0 while scoring 23 goals and only allowing 13 goals in those games. Edmonton has scored 15 even strength goals. Connor McDavid leads the Oilers and the entire league with 13 points in 5 games.
The Oilers have not played in five days since defeating the Vegas Golden Knights on the road by a score of 5-3. The Oilers are well rested and are only missing goalie Mike Smith from their lineup. Mikko Koskinen has been fantastic in his place as the starting netminder, and the Oilers haven’t missed a beat in the early going of the season.
This will be a big test for the Flyers, who are without Ryan Ellis, Kevin Hayes, Patrick Brown, and Wade Allison. Ellis is expected to return soon and is listed as day-to-day, and Brown will rejoin the Flyers on this trip and is expected to play at some point before they fly home. The Flyers are in last place in the Metropolitan Division and while it is early, they need to have a successful road trip and grab at least 4 out of 6 points from Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver.
Philadelphia has not played since Saturday when they fell 4-2 at home to the also unbeaten Florida Panthers. Carter Hart will start in net for the Flyers after playing in goal on Saturday. This team will only go as far as Hart’s goaltending will take them, and so far he’s been good. But he’ll have to be great tonight against a high-octane Edmonton offense.
Philadelphia Flyers Projected Lineup
#28 Claude Giroux – #14 Sean Couturier – #11 Travis Konecny
#86 Joel Farabee – #19 Derick Brassard – #89 Cam Atkinson
#23 Oskar Lindblöm – #21 Scott Laughton – #25 James van Riemsdyk
#62 Nicolas Aubé-Kubel – #44 Nate Thompson – #17 Zack MacEwen
#9 Ivan Provorov – #61 Justin Braun
#6 Travis Sanheim – #70 Rasmus Ristolainen
#3 Keith Yandle – #24 Nick Seeler
#79 Carter Hart
#35 Martin Jones
Edmonton Oilers Projected Lineup
#18 Zach Hyman – #97 Connor McDavid – #13 Jesse Puljujärvi
#93 Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – #29 Leon Draisaitl – #56 Kailer Yamamoto
#37 Warren Foegele – #10 Derek Ryan – #44 Zack Kassian
#42 Brendan Perlini – #14 Devin Shore – #8 Kyle Turris
#25 Darnell Nurse – #75 Evan Bouchard
#2 Duncan Keith – #5 Cody Ceci
#20 Slater Koekkoek – #22 Tyson Barrie
#19 Mikko Koskinen
#74 Stuart Skinner
Keys to Victory
- Limiting McDavid and Draisaitl – They are human cheat codes. The key to this game is limiting scoring chances of these two players. Edmonton has last change and I assume Edmonton coach Dave Tippett will try to matchup them up against the Ristolainen-Sanheim pairing. This will be a very large task with Ellis out of the lineup. McDavid and Draisaitl are as a dynamic of a duo that there is in the NHL. Taking the body early on them and not giving them space or time to make plays is the number one task of the Flyers’ defense tonight.
- Shoot the puck – I would like to congratulate Cam Atkinson as the first Flyer of my lifetime to actually listen to the Wells Fargo Center faithful and shoot the puck. While Mikko Koskinen (.943 SV%, 2.03 GAA) is off to a great start to the season for Edmonton, he is a below average goalie for his career. They need to test him early and often.
- Stay out of the box – McDavid, Draisaitl and company are 8 for 17 on the power play for the season, tops in the league right now clicking at a 47.1% rate. It is a small sample size but let’s not poke the bear. The Flyers penalty kill is at 81.3% (13 for 16 penalty kill) which is slightly above average in the NHL from last season and this season.
