The Philadelphia Flyers, fresh off a 1-0 shootout victory on Saturday night, will look to keep things going on Tuesday evening against the Carolina Hurricanes.
The Flyers had previously lost two in a row to the New York Islanders and New York Rangers before getting their revenge on Long Island behind Samuel Ersson’s best showing of the year in goal.
“I thought Ers was really good,” said head coach John Tortorella after Saturday’s win. “We were much better away from the puck though.
“It was a good reset game for us not to be so wide open as we were against the Rangers, so I thought we did some really good things away from the puck without stopping us trying to make offensive plays.”
The Philadelphia defense will have to step up again against a high-octane Hurricanes offense that is begging to explode at any given moment.
Carolina enters tonight 13th in the NHL in goals (66) and goals per game (3.30), respectively. Their power play also ranks 13th at 21.6%, and with the amount of offensive talent they have, they’re bound to improve and start racking up more goals – especially against the Flyers.
In the last nine meetings, Carolina had won eight in a row before the Flyers defeated them 3-1 on November 15th in Raleigh. But the Hurricanes have averaged 3.67 goals against the Flyers in that nine-game stretch and eclipsed the 4-goal mark on five occasions.
Philadelphia will need another strong effort defensively, but they’ll have to do it without two-way stalwart Noah Cates. The forward was announced to miss the next 6-8 weeks with a lower-body injury by the Flyers earlier on Tuesday. Morgan Frost will reenter the lineup against Carolina.
Cates, while leaving a lot more to be desired offensively this year, has been fantastic as usual defensively and is a big reason why the Flyers have been as good as they have in that department.
Hopefully the Flyers can battle their way to another victory in the fifth game of this eight-game Metropolitan Division gauntlet, in which a victory would move them ahead of Carolina and into second place.
PHI Record: 11-9-1, 23 pts, 3rd in Metropolitan
CAR Record: 12-8-0, 24 pts, 2nd in Metropolitan
When: 7:30pm ET
Where: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, PA
Broadcast Info: ESPN+, Hulu, 97.5 The Fanatic
Last Game PHI: 11/25/23, 1-0 SOW at NY Islanders
Last Game CAR: 11/26/23, 3-2 W vs. Columbus
PHI Goalie: Carter Hart (6-5-0, .911 SV%, 2.53 GAA, 1 SO)
CAR Goalie: Pyotr Kochetkov (2-4-0, .881 SV%, 2.91 GAA, 1 SO)
PHI Projected Lineup
#71 Tyson Foerster – #14 Sean Couturier – #11 Travis Konecny
#74 Owen Tippett – #48 Morgan Frost – #89 Cam Atkinson
#86 Joel Farabee – #25 Ryan Poehling – #10 Bobby Brink
#44 Nicolas Deslauriers – #21 Scott Laughton – #19 Garnet Hathaway
#8 Cam York – #6 Travis Sanheim
#24 Nick Seeler – #26 Sean Walker
#18 Marc Staal – #55 Rasmus Ristolainen
#79 Carter Hart
#33 Samuel Ersson
Scratches: #5 Egor Zamula, #37 Louie Belpedio
Injuries: #27 Noah Cates
CAR Projected Lineup
#86 Teuvo Teräväinen – #20 Sebastian Aho – #24 Seth Jarvis
#37 Andrei Svechnikov – #82 Jesperi Kotkaniemi – #88 Martin Nečas
#48 Jordan Martinook – #11 Jordan Staal – #71 Jesper Fast
#58 Michael Bunting – #18 Jack Drury – #23 Stefan Noesen
#74 Jaccob Slavin – #8 Brent Burns
#76 Brady Skjei – #22 Brett Pesce
#7 Dmitry Orlov – #5 Jalen Chatfield
#52 Pyotr Kochetkov
#32 Antti Raanta
Scratches: #15 Dylan Coghlan, #28 Brendan Lemieux, #77 Tony DeAngelo
Injures: #31 Frederik Andersen
News and Notes
– The Flyers are 89-43-14-12 against the Hurricanes all-time since the franchise entered the league as the Hartford Whalers in 1979. Since the team moved to Carolina in 1997, the Flyers are 54-26-7-12 against them.
– Sean Couturier leads all active Flyers in assists (18) and points (28) against the Hurricanes. Cam Atkinson is the Flyers’ active leader in goals against Carolina with 11.
– Philadelphia has not won consecutive games against the Hurricanes since March 5th, 2020 and November 12th, 2021.
– The last time the Flyers defeated the Hurricanes at home was also on March 5th, 2020. Philadelphia won that game by a 4-1 score.
– Tonight is Hockey Fights Cancer Night at Wells Fargo Center. Fans will be handed lavender colored Hockey Fights Cancer rally towels when they enter the arena, and the Flyers also made a special transaction for tonight. The team signed 9-year-old Owen Micciche, who is battling cancer. Micciche plays for the Genesis Hockey Club. He will receive his own locker, read the starting lineup, and will skate with the Flyers in warmups tonight before the game.
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