It’s Pride Night in Philadelphia as the Ducks come to visit the Wells Fargo Center. Both teams come off a Monday night game, the Flyers from Boston and the Ducks from Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh managed to beat Anaheim last night, but not easily. The Ducks actually held the lead until the last 25 seconds of the third period when Bryan Rust tied the equalizer. Jake Guentzel then buried one in overtime, handing the Ducks their 4th straight loss. Boy oh boy, are they bad. They have the third-worst penalty kill in the league (71.8%) and their power play sits at a 16.3% success rate. The Flyers are actually one of two teams that have a worse powerplay than Anaheim. The Ducks also manage to give up the most shots on net, with their goaltenders facing an average of 39 shots a game. Columbus is the next closest with an average of 35 a game. Somehow they have weaseled their way out of last place in the league by 1.5 games.
The Flyers have a lot of work to do tonight. What should be an easy game might not come across that way if they play half as bad as they did last night. They went 0-6 on the powerplay, just reminding us exactly why they have the second worst PP unit in the league. Carter Hart had another disappointing game, getting pulled after he gave up his 4th goal. James van Riemsdyk and Patrick Brown were the only two guys who managed to not be on the ice for an even strength goal against. It was all around a bad game for the Flyers.
In brighter news, the Flyers will be wearing pride inspired warmup jerseys for the first time in team history. Normally, a couple guys will put some rainbow tape on their sticks and call it a day. Tonight, the warm up jerseys will have pride colors on the numbers and name plate. While it’s not nearly as fun or impressive as other teams’ pride jerseys, it’s a step in the right direction. The jerseys and sticks will be auctioned off later tonight, giving Flyers fans a chance to own a piece of Philly history.
PHI Record: 18-19-7, 43 pts, 7th in Metropolitan
ANA Record: 12-27-5, 29 pts, 8th in Pacific
Last Game PHI: 1/16/23, 6-0 L vs Boston
Last Game ANA: 1/16/23, 4-3 OT L vs Pittsburgh
When: 7:00pm ET
Where: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, PA
PHI Goalie: Samuel Errson (4-0-0, .917 SV%, 2.44 GAA, 1 SO)
ANA Goalie: Anthony Stolarz (3-5-0, .893 SV%, 3.88 GAA, 0 SO)
PHI Projected Lineup
#86 Joel Farabee – #49 Noah Cates – #11 Travis Konecny
#25 James van Riemsdyk – #48 Morgan Frost – #74 Owen Tippett
#13 Kevin Hayes – #21 Scott Laughton – #57 Wade Allison
#44 Nicolas Deslauriers – #38 Patrick Brown – #17 Zack MacEwen
#61 Justin Braun – #45 Cam York
#6 Travis Sanheim – #77 Tony DeAngelo
#24 Nick Seeler – #55 Rasmus Ristolainen
#33 Samuel Ersson
#79 Carter Hart
ANA Projected Lineup
#14 Adam Henrique – #37 Mason McTavish – #19 Troy Terry
#44 Maxime Comtois – #22 Trevor Zegras – #16 Ryan Strome
#77 Frank Vatrano – #39 Sam Carrick – #33 Jakob Silfverberg
#49 Max Jones – #7 Jayson Megna – #20 Brett Leason
#4 Cam Fowler – #29 Dmitry Kulikov
#13 Simon Benoit – #3 John Klingberg
#5 Urho Vaakanainen – #22 Kevin Shattenkirk
#41 Anthony Stolarz
#36 John Gibson
PHI Injuries: Sean Couturier (back), Tanner Laczynski (upper-body), Cam Atkinson (neck), Ryan Ellis (hip), Ivan Provorov (undisclosed)
Scratched: Kieffer Bellows
ANA Injuries: Jamie Drysdale (shoulder), Isac Lundestrom (finger), Derek Grant (lower-body), Justin Kirkland (undisclosed)
Scratched: Colton White, Nathan Beaulieu
News and Notes:
– Samuel Ersson will look to continue his hot streak after having a shutout in his last start back in Buffalo.
– Tonight will be the second and final meeting between these two teams. The Flyers won in their last outing in California, with the Ducks falling victim to their west coast sweep.
– The Flyers have won 7 of their last 9 games, pushing them out of the bottom dwelling teams for now.
– Always remember, Hockey Is For Everyone.
Broadcast Info: TV- NBCSP, Radio- 93.3 WMMR
