Flyers look to dethrone Kings in final home game before off-week

After coming up close but no cigar on Sunday night in their comeback effort against the Winnipeg Jets, the Philadelphia Flyers will have to regather themselves as the Los Angeles Kings roll into town tonight.

The Flyers were defeated in consecutive home games for the first time in over a month, but it wasn’t for a lack of effort. Despite trailing 3-0 in the first period, Philadelphia clawed their way back and tied the game early in the third, only to see the Jets regroup and score the go-ahead goal with 11:16 to play.

Things are still trending in the right direction for the Flyers however, as they’ve won 9 of their last 13 and still carry a 7-4-0 record in the month of January entering tonight’s contest, and three of those losses have come to Boston, Toronto, and aforementioned Winnipeg – all top 6 teams in the league standings.

The Kings have been on a bit of a bumpy ride as of late, going 7-5-0 in their last 12 and recently snapped a three-game losing streak with a narrow 2-1 victory of Chicago on Sunday. Since the Flyers defeated Los Angeles at Crypto.com Arena back on New Year’s Eve, the Kings are just 5-4-0 and have struggled to find consistency, which doesn’t bode for them while being in a very heated Pacific Division playoff battle. First to fourth place are all separated by just one point while the fifth-place Flames are just two points back of their provincial rivals in the Oilers, and all of Vegas, Seattle, Los Angeles, Edmonton, and Calgary are in playoff position at the moment.

Speaking of playoff position, the Flyers sit just seven points shy of the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference. Philadelphia sits at 47 points while Pittsburgh maintains the final Eastern playoff position at 54 – not to mention that the Penguins have two games in hand on the Flyers as well. If the Flyers can rebound from Sunday and get back in the win column – and get a little help from the Panthers tonight – they could inch closer to a spot with just 33 games remaining after tonight’s contest.

PHI Record: 20-21-7, 47 pts, 7th in Metropolitan

LAK Record: 26-17-6, 58 pts, 3rd in Pacific

Last Game PHI: 1/22/23, 5-3 L vs. Winnipeg

Last Game LAK: 1/22/23, 2-1 W @ Chicago

PHI Injuries: Cam Atkinson (neck), Sean Couturier (back), Ryan Ellis (hip), Tanner Laczynski (lower-body)

Scratches: Justin Braun, Kieffer Bellows

LAK Injuries: Trevor Moore (upper-body), Arthur Kaliyev (lower-body), Carl Grundström (lower-body), Gabe Vilardi (upper-body)

Scratches: Tobias Björnfot, Brendan Lemieux

News and Notes

– Carter Hart will start tonight and is looking for his 77th victory as a Flyer. Should he do it tonight, he will tie Doug Favell for 9th in franchise history in wins.

– This is the Flyers’ final home game before their week-long break next week. They will have two more road games this week in Minnesota and Winnipeg before not returning to the ice until February 6th in Philadelphia against the New York Islanders.

– Tonight is the 155th all-time meeting between the Flyers and Kings dating back to both teams’ inceptions in 1967. Philadelphia owns a 90-42-15-6 advantage in the series.

– The Flyers will be looking for their first three-game winning streak over the Kings since 2010 (2/25/09 – 2-0, 11/18/09 – 3-2, 12/30/10 – 7-4).

Broadcast Info: TV – NBC Sports Philadelphia, Radio – 97.5 The Fanatic