The Flyers are red hot despite flopping to a 4-1 defeat against the Chicago Blackhawks Thursday night. Effort was the unanimous reason they believe they lost, and tonight they look to bounce back to Torts’ style of hockey that has earned them a 7-3 record in their last 10.
Meanwhile, Detroit scored a well needed 3-2 victory against the impervious Golden Knights in their last game. Ville Husso made 33 saves, and Detroit led by a 3-1 score in the 2nd period, and only allowed 1 goal to a team ranked 14th in goals for, which was impressive for a team who ranks 20th in goals against. This was an important game to win for the Wings after dropping 3 straight to Columbus, Colorado, and Arizona. 2 of the three losses were decided by 1 goal, aside from the Colorado game (6-3). Their latest win brought them to a 4-5-1 record over their last 10 games.
Let’s take a look at each club’s team stats so far:
Flyers Team Stats, per NHL.com
Power Play – 16.1% (29th)
Penalty Kill – 75.8 (21st)
Faceoffs – 46.0% (28th)
GF/GP – 2.78 (26th)
GA/GP – 3.22 (18th)
Detroit Team Stats, per NHL.com
Power Play – 20.8% (19th)
Penalty Kill – 75.4 (22nd)
Faceoffs – 48.3% (23rd)
GF/GP – 3.09 (21st)
GA/GP – 3.36 (21th)
Not much of a difference across the board besides the power plays. Even though Detroit’s rank is higher, I think the Flyers recent play gives them an opportunity to be the team that takes advantage of the special teams. Carter Hart’s and Ville Husso’s profiles aren’t too different either, but the Flyers netminder has the slight edge.
GAA
Hart – 3.00
Husso – 3.06
SV%
Hart – .907
Husso – .900
The two players to watch tonight are Flyers center Scott Laughton and Detroit’s center Dylan Larkin. Laughton has 7 points in his last 5 games, and Larkin has 6 over his last 5 games.
PHI Record: 19-20-7, 45 pts, 7th in Metropolitan
DET Record: 19-17-8, 46pts, 6th in Atlantic
Last Game PHI: 1/19/23, 4-1 L vs Chicago
Last Game DET: 1/19/23, 3-2 W vs Las Vegas
When: 7:00pm ET
Where: Little Caesars Arena, Detroit, MI
PHI Goalie: Carter Hart (13-14-6, .907 SV%, 3.00 GAA, 0 SO)
DET Goalie: Ville Husso (15-10-6, .900 SV%, 3.06 GAA, 3 SO)
PHI Projected Lineup
#25 James van Riemsdyk – #48 Morgan Frost – #74 Owen Tippett
#86 Joel Farabee – #49 Noah Cates – #11 Travis Konecny
#13 Kevin Hayes – #21 Scott Laughton – #57 Wade Allison
#44 Nicolas Deslauriers – #38 Patrick Brown – #17 Zack MacEwen
#9 Ivan Provorov – #45 Cam York
#6 Travis Sanheim – #77 Tony DeAngelo
#24 Nick Seeler – #55 Rasmus Ristolainen
#79 Carter Hart
#32 Felix Sandström
DET Projected Lineup
#81 Dominik Kubalik – #71 Dylan Larkin – #23 Lucas Raymond
#27 Michael Rasmussen – #18 Andrew Copp – #57 David Perron
#73 Adam Erne – #24 Pius Suter – #14 Robby Fabbri
#59 Jonatan Berggren – #90 Joe Veleno – #70 Oskar Sundqvist
#96 Jake Walman – #53 Moritz Seider
#8 Ben Chiarot – #17 Filip Hronek
#2 Olli Määttä – #82 Jordan Oesterle
#35 Ville Husso
#45 Magnus Hellburg
PHI Injuries: Sean Couturier (back), Tanner Laczynski (upper-body), Cam Atkinson (neck), Ryan Ellis (hip)
Scratched: Kieffer Bellows, Justin Braun
DET Injuries: Filip Zadina (leg), Matt Luff (upper-body), Mark Pysyk (Achilles), Tyler Bertuzzi (lower-body)
Scratched: Gustav Lindström, Robert Hägg
News and Notes:
– Konecny’s point streak ended Monday in Boston, finishing with 20 points (12g, 8a) in 10 games.
– Morgan Frost has 16 points over his last 18 games after scoring this goal against the Blackhawks. Watch how he has the opposing defensemen in complete control via nifty stick and foot work. Frost recognizes the space that was going to open and rifled this one bardown. He has a lot of skill, but he’s also not a bad scorer either.
– The Tortorella effect is ever real with their 7-3 record over 10 games. They are now clearly a step above the bottom teams, but not close at all to real playoff contention.
– Always remember, Hockey Is For Everyone.
