Flyers look to get back in the win column in Tampa Bay
By Nick Butler
The Flyers are headed south for the next few days to soak up the Florida sun. While they are in Florida, they will head to Tampa Bay tonight for a rematch against the Lightning and will head to Sunrise right after this match to take on the Florida Panthers. This will be a tough road trip as Philadelphia is looking to snap that two-game losing streak and not let it get any worse.
The Flyers lost to both teams in both matchups this season so with the Flyers being shorthanded and not having Kevin Hayes, Ryan Ellis and Patrick Brown, the depth is going to be tested.
The Flyers and Lightning typically have good games and rarely one team blows out the other. In their last matchup, each team scored goals in the last two minutes and four seconds, with Giroux tying the game in the last 10 seconds. The Lightning went on to win the game in the shootout. They were just that much better for most of that game and the Flyers were on their heels after scoring the first two goals.
Carter Hart and Andrei Vasilevskiy will most likely get the nod in their respective nets and will once again make this a goalie battle as it was the last game. Hart has been playing very well as of late and will most likely need to carry the Flyers once again if they are unable to find their offensive spark which has gone dark over the last five to six games.
Philadelphia Flyers
8-5-3 (19 points, 6th in the Metro)
The Flyers losing their last two games against Eastern Conference teams did not help their playoff chances. They dropped from fourth to sixth place since their last matchup against the Lightning. To no fault to the goalies, the defense and goal scoring have been their weakness and have been exposed in these last couple games. The Flyers defensive pairings are also some of the worst in the NHL currently per 75 minutes on ice. The loss of Ryan Ellis is really beginning to show.
The Flyers are coming off a bad loss to the Boston Bruins. They lost 5-2 and were heavily outshot. In the first period alone as the Bruins had 20 SOG. The only bright side and positive thinking the Flyers could come up with out of that game was Derick Brassard scoring twice and the powerplay clicked a little bit.
Outside of Claude Giroux and Travis Konecny, the offense has been stagnant as of late. They have not been able to put the puck in the back of the net more than two times since October 27th. They have also been shut out a few times in that time period.
In the 11 games since the Flyers played the Oilers and scored five goals, they have scored 20 goals and have a GF average of 1.81. They have given up 28 goals in those 11 games with a GAA of 2.54. Even if the Flyers couldn’t score goals, as long as they are competitive in games and could help Hart or Jones more, then the goal scoring issue could be hidden by spectacular defensive work.
Carter Hart will likely be looking for revenge tonight. Coming into tonight, He is 5-3-3 and has a GAA of 2.25 and SV% of 93.2%. In the back of his mind, he must know that shootout loss was a little on him for that tough third goal he gave up. That led to Giroux putting the team on his back once again and scoring the game tying goal.
Hart gave up two goals in the shootout to the Lightning but Sean Couturier and Claude Giroux did not help Hart with some weak shootout attempts but the Flyers did walk away with a point.
If they want to win this game, they need to get some depth scoring and have to get the power play going. A meager 15.4% isn’t helping win games currently. The Flyers have been struggling with not having a great powerplay quarter back on the back end. The best adjustment they could currently make is putting five forwards on the ice with Giroux at the point, Konecny and Atkinson at the wings and Couturier and van Riemsdyk in front of the net and to play an umbrella. Shots from the point and wings would be blasts and you have to guys who can clean up in front of the net. We will see what sort of adjustments are made, but their having been many good ones.
Projected Lineup
Farabee – Couturier – Konecny
Giroux – Brassard – Atkinson
Willman – Laughton – van Riemsdyk
Lindblom – Thompson – MacEwen
Provorov – Braun
Sanheim – Ristolainen
Yandle – Seeler
Hart
Tampa Bay Lightning
10-4-3 (23 Points, 3rd in the Atlantic)
It’s been five days since the Lightning last saw the Flyers. In that time, they lost to the Devils, who snapped a three-game losing streak, and beat the Wild in the shootout. This will also be the third game of their four game home stand. The Lightning are 5-2-2 at home. As always, Amalie Arena is a tough place to play and the Flyers will have their work cut out for them.
The high octane offense of this Lightning team will be an issue if Philadelphia’s defense doesn’t have their good blades on their skates tonight. The Lightning have scored eight goals in the last two games and in the last three games they have 12 goals. They are averaging four goals a game for those games and that will be a big factor.
While Carter Hart has been good, he can only be as good as the team in front of him and highly expect the Lightning to take full advantage of the scoring drought of the Flyers.
The Lightning have some good special team units. Their penalty kill has a kill rate of 85.7% which is 5% better than the league average. Their power play is sitting at a 20.8% which is almost a full percentage better than league average. These two stats are big for not only winning games but help separates an average team from a good team and the Lightning are clearly a good team.
Steven Stamkos has 19 points currently on the season with nine goals and 10 assists. Alex Kilorn and Victor Hedman also have 17 points each. This makes both players a ppg player currently. When you have a team with three players at either a ppg or higher, you know that team is playing really good hockey. This team is still missing Nikita Kucherov as well and the league better be on notice when he comes back.
Andrei Vasilevskiy comes into tonight’s game with a record of 8-3-3. He has a SV% of 91.7 and a GAA of 2.38. He has had only eight quality starts this season though. Those eight quality starts mark only 57.1% of all of his starts for the season. He has been good but has given up goals this year that he would not have in the past. Him and Carter Hart will once again be battling for two points and a W. Andrei Vasilevskiy stands at 6’3″ and 225 Lbs. He is a big goalie with good movement between the pipes. The Flyers will have their hands full tonight.
Projected Lineup
Killorn – Cirelli – Joseph
Palat – Stamkos – Barre-Boulet
Maroon – Bellemare – Perry
Katchouk – Colton – Raddysh
Hedman – Rutta
McDonagh – Bogosian
Sergachev – Foote
Vasilevskiy
When, Where, and How to Watch
Time: 7:00 PM
Where: Amalie Arena
TV Broadcast: NBC Sports Philadelphia
Radio Broadcast: 97.5 the Fanatic
Live Stream: Fubo TV
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