5 THINGS: Flyers vs. Blue Jackets

Looking to avoid the season's second 10-game winless streak, interim head coach Mike Yeo's Philadelphia Flyers (13-18-8) will host Brad Larsen's Columbus Blue Jackets at the Wells Fargo Center on Thursday evening.

This is the first of three meetings this season between the teams, and the first of two in Philadelphia. The clubs will rematch at the Wells Fargo Center on April 5 before the season series concludes in Columbus on April 7.
The Flyers have won their last four games against the Blue Jackets. However, the last time the teams played each other was Feb. 20, 2020; a 4-3 overtime road win for the Flyers in which Kevin Hayes scored the winning goal and memorably celebrated with a "championship belt" gesture to teammates. Much has changed for both clubs -- including their respective head coaches -- since that time.
Philadelphia enters this game having gone 0-6-3 in their last nine games. In the most recent game, the Flyers outplayed the New York Islanders for most of regulation but were unable to protect or add to a 3-2 lead in the third period. The Islanders prevailed in a marathon shootout, 1-0, when Oliver Wahlstrom ended the proceedings in the bottom of the ninth round. The Flyers are 0-for-16 on shootout attempts this season and 0-4 in games decided in the skills competition.
The Blue Jackets are 2-3-0 in their last five games and 3-7-0 over their last 10. On Saturday, the visiting Blue Jackets were on the wrong end of a 9-2 blowout at the hands of the Florida Panthers. One game earlier, however, Columbus scored a 6-0 upset shutout win on the road against the Carolina Hurricanes.
Here are five things to watch in this game:
1. Atkinson vs. Voracek
A fan favorite in Columbus across a 627-game stint, Cam Atkinson enjoyed two seasons with 35-plus goals (topping out at 41 goals and 69 point in 2018-19) and six seasons with 20-plus goals during his years with the Blue Jackets. A stalwart penalty killer, Atkinson also ranked near the top of the NHL in shorthanded goals over the same span.
This game will mark the first time Atkinson plays against his old club since being traded, one-for-one in exchange for Jakub Voracek on July 24, 2021.
The primary reasoning for the trade on the Flyers' side was to add a shoot-first player to the wings, whereas Columbus wanted an accomplished playmaking winger. This season, Atkinson leads the Flyers with 15 goals among his 29 points. Voracek by far leads the Blue Jackets in assists with his 24 helpers. Voracek, a six-time 20 to 23 goal scorer during his 10 seasons with the Flyers, has scored one goal this season.
Voracek exited COVID-19 protocol late on Wednesday night. He is a late addition to the Blue Jackets lineup for this game.
The Flyers' projected lineup for this game is the same as in Tuesday's contest against the Islanders.
86 Joel Farabee - 28 Claude Giroux - 89 Cam Atkinson
23 Oskar Lindblom - 21 Scott Laughton - 11 Travis Konecny
25 James van Riemsdyk - 48 Morgan Frost - 20 Gerry Mayhew
71 Max Willman - 82 Connor Bunnaman - 17 Zack MacEwen
9 Ivan Provorov -61 Justin Braun
45 Cam York - 6 Travis Sanheim
3 Keith Yandle - 70 Rasmus Ristolainen
79 Carter Hart
35 Martin Jones
2. Can Flyers Avoid the "Big Mistake"?
There are no "moral victories" in the NHL. The fact that the Flyers have recently played competitive games against Boston, the New York Rangers and New York Islanders that could have gone either way is meaningless in light of Philadelphia going 0-3-1 across the four games. There were key Flyers power plays that were not capitalized upon at crucial junctures, breakaways and 2-on-1s that were not converted into goals, two-to-five-minute lapses where one goal against turned into two goals allowed. Ultimately, it's the management of these situations -- on top of the overall process across 60 minutes -- that separates NHL teams that win consistently from clubs that find themselves out of the playoff race.
A lost puck battle here. A failed clear there. Accidentally screening your own goalie and turning a routine shot into one that's very tough to track. A defensive sequence where there was a missed chance to kill the play before it ever turned dangerous. A promising rush that fizzles out because of an errant pass. one pass too many when there's a shooting lane or a mistimed shot off an accurate feed. The Flyers have come up short far too often in these sorts of moments. Add them all up and they are a big reason why the Flyers are buried deep in the Eastern Conference standings.
The Flyers' overall process has clearly improved over the last week. They are getting more chances in transition. They're playing with a little more structure and puck support as five-man units. There are more periods where Philly has a shots/puck possession edge. But goals are still hard to come by on most nights, the "big mistake" still happens and tends to snowball for a few minutes afterwards, and the end results are still losses. Close losses are still losses.
As with the Flyers, the Blue Jackets are a team that has game-to-game and period-to-period consistency and has been prone to killer lapses that end up in the net. They are no longer the team of the John Tortorella years that lived off shot blocking, Vezina-caliber goaltending, a couple of star-level forwards (especially during Artemi Panarin's stint with the team) and methodically grinding out victories.
The current-day Blue Jackets have a solid enough attack (3.14 goals per game, 12th in the NHL) but they give up a lot of goals via turnovers and defensive miscues that come back to bite them. Only the Montreal Canadiens (3.66 GAA) have a higher team goals against average than the Blue Jacket (3.61 GAA). The Blue Jackets are in a dubious three-way tie with the Arizona Coyotes and Seattle Kraken -- all three teams being at a 3.61 GAA -- for the runner-up spot to Montreal as the NHL's most scored-upon team.
3. Inside the Numbers
Over the first 15 games of the season (8-4-3 record), the Flyers had a tendency to struggle mightily in second periods but to play decent first periods and to hold their own in the third period. Philadelphia was in the black in its first-period and third-period goal differentials but significantly in the red in second periods.
The Flyers have gotten somewhat better in second periods but their first periods and third periods have dipped over the last 24 games, For the season on the whole, the Flyers are now under water for the season across all three periods: a combined deficit of three goals in the first period (32 GF/ 35 GA), 18 goals in the second period (29 GF/ 47 GA), and nine goals in the third period (34 GF/ 43 GA).
The Flyers have shown improved bounce-back ability of late when trailing early. They battled back from a 2-0 deficit against Boston to briefly tie the game at 2-2. Philly pulled even with the Rangers after trailing 1-0 early and then took a very short-lived 2-1 lead in the third period. In the front end of the home-and-home with the Islanders, the game was scoreless midway through regulation before New York scored two closely spaced goals. Philly got one back on a fluky Travis Konecny to enter the third period down by only a goal, However, the Islanders pulled away in the third period of a 4-1 final. In the rematch, the Flyers trailed by scores of 1-0 and 2-1 but recovered quickly and controlled most of the play. The Flyers went ahead on a Claude Giroux goal in the third period but a single breakdown resulted in a tie game and eventual shootout loss.
The bottom line remains the same, however: A close loss is still a loss. When giving up the first goal in a game, the Flyers are 2-16-3. When scoring first, the Flyers are 11-2-5.
This season, the Blue Jackets have been a "deficit isn't fatal but a lead isn't safe" club: above-average in collecting points from games when they trail first (8-11-0) but below-average (9-7-1) when scoring first. That's a bit of an outlier from typical leaguewide record splits when leading/trailing first. As a matter of fact, the Blue Jackets have even won five games of the 17 when they've entered the third period trailing. In the meantime, Columbus has wound up losing in regulation in three of the 10 games they've led at the second intermission.

Columbus' single biggest problem is that they hemorrhage goals at 5-on-5 at an even faster rate than they score them. The team has scored a very respectable 80 goals at 5-on-5 (11th in the NHL, three behind Toronto). Unfortunately for Larsen's team, they've given up 95 (ranking 31st in the NHL, with only Seattle's 99 GA at 5-on-5 being worse). The Flyers are minus-17 as a team at 5-on-5, struggling both to score (67 GA. ranked in a tie for 23rd) and to prevent opponents from scoring (84 GA, ranked 24th).
Although the Blue Jackets have had little problem scoring at 5-on-5, their power play has struggled. The team ranks 27th league wide at a 16.1 conversion rate, one spot behind the Flyers at 16.2. The teams are also similar in their PK rates, with the Flyers ranking 19th at 78.8 percent (the numbers have dropped precipitously in January after being a bright spot earlier). The Blue Jackets' penalty kill ranks 23rd at 78.0 percent.
It is worth noting however, that the Blue Jackets normally do a good job at staying out of the box. They enter this game as the NHL's second least-penalized team.
4. Behind Enemy Lines: Columbus Blue Jackets
The Blue Jackets have decent offensive depth even though they don't have any players contending for the Art Ross Trophy. Danish veteran forward Oliver Bjorkstrand leads the team with 18 goals and 26 points. He is a minus-15 this season while averaging 18:37 of ice time per game.
The Blue Jackets are missing Voracek's ability to generate offensive zone entries and to distribute the puck. He should be back in the lineup soon once his COVID protocol stint ends. An oblique muscle strain has limited Finnish sniper Patrik Laine to 17 games played this season (5g, 8a) but he's been back in the lineup since Dec. 30. Over the eight games since his return, Laine has scored two goals and posted one assist.
Scott Laughton's old friend and former Oshawa Generals teammate, Boone Jenner, has been a Flyers nemesis over his career to date. For the season, Jenner has posted a team-high 15 goals among his 24 points.
Defenseman Zach Werenski, an All-Star Game selection, has logged a team-high 26:17 of ice time per game this season. He leads the blueline corps with 21 points (6g, 15a_. Fellow blueliner Jake Bean -- a former Calgary Hitmen teammate and occasional partner of Flyers' defenseman Travis Sanheim -- has chipped in four goals and 15 points.
The Blue Jackets have three players who've scored double-digit goals in the first half of the 2021-22 season: Jenner, Bjorkstrand, and Alexandre Tessier (11). Tessier is also one of six Blue Jackets with 20 or more points. Tessier and Gutav Nyquist (9g, 11a) each have 20 points apiece. Three of Nyquist's goals have been shorthanded tallies.
Agitating and speedy forward Maxi Domi (8g, 9a) has become something of an NHL journeyman by age 26. The former Arizona and Montreal forward is in his second season with Columbus. For his career, Domi has posted nine points (2g, 7a) in nine games against the Flyers.
A native son of Columbus,Ohio, Jack Roslovic's arrival to his hometown team was celebrated in 2020-21. This season, he's been inconsistent and has seen his role decrease under Larsen. Overall, the former Jets first-round pick has posted six goals and 16 points.
In goal, Elvis Merzlikins has appeared in 23 games this season (13-9-1 record, 3.20 GAA, .907 save percentage, two shutouts). Joonas Korpisalo has had 14 outings (4-7-0, 3,95 GAA, .882 SV%). Young Russian goalie Daniil Tarasov, a second-year pro in North America and an NHL rookie, has appeared in four NHL games (0-2-0, 2.40 GAA, .937 SV%) in addition to 11 games with the AHL's Cleveland Monsters.
5. Players to Watch; Atkinson and Jenner
All eyes will be on Atkinson in his first-ever outing against his old club. He was beloved by teammates as well as fans in Columbus and has been similarly popular in Philadelphia.
From a production standpoint, the Flyers need Atkinson to deliver against his old club. He's had just one point in the three games -- an assist last game against the Islanders -- after he'd been on an offensive hot streak.
In the meantime, Travis Konecny has scored in each of the last two games after enduring a 20-game goal drought.
Boone Jenner has posted 14 points (8g, 6a) in 18 road games this season. He's at virtually a point-per-game when the Blue Jackets win (9g, 7a for 16 points in 17 Blue Jackets wins) but has only eight points (6g, 2a) and is minus-14 in the 18 games he's played in which the Blue Jackets have lost.
Jenner has been a thorn in the Flyers' side over the years with nine goals and a plus-six rating in 27 career games. The only NHL team against whom Jenner has scored more times than against the Flyers is the Detroit Red Wings (11 goals in 27 GP).