1. CLASSIC HOME & HOME
The Flyers are coming off their last three-day break until the end of the regular season with their ninth back-to-back series beginning today... From here on out, they will play their final 25 games in a 50-day span, which includes five back-to-back series... The Flyers enter a home-and-home series against the Red Wings, which will be played over the weekend and finishing the season series in Detroit on Sunday night... It's the second home-and-home series this season for the Flyers - they swept the first vs. Arizona (Nov. 5-8).
2. ONE GOAL WONDERS
It's the second of three meetings against the Red Wings with the Flyers earning a 3-2 win on Dec. 18 in goaltender Carter Hart's NHL debut... The Flyers are also unbeaten in regulation against Detroit in their last seven games, going 5-0-2 with all seven meetings decided by one goal, including five of those going past regulation... They also own an impressive 15-game point streak against the Red Wings on home ice by posting a 14-0-1 record with their last regulation loss coming over 22 years ago (Jan. 25, 1997).
3. LATELY...
The Flyers look for their second straight win today and avoid a second straight loss at home, but have earned points in 12 of their last 14 (11-2-1) and eight of their last nine (7-1-1) at home... The Red Wings are winners of two straight and five of their last eight games with five of the eight being decided by one goal... The Flyers will wear their third jerseys for the 10th time today - they own a 6-2-1 record and have outscored their opponent 32-17 in their previous nine... Jakub Voracek has an eight-game point streak with 10 points (3g-7a) - it's the longest point streak by a Flyer this season... Andreas Athanasiou has three goals in his last two games and nine points (3g-6a) in his last eight games for the Red Wings.
4. SPECIAL DELIVERY
The Flyers have recorded goals on the power play in each of the last three games and six of their last seven outings - Nearly 50 percent of the Flyers goals (11 of 24) in the last seven games have come on the man advantage, and they are operating at 42.3% on the power-play in that seven-game span (11-for-26)... The Red Wings have a significantly better power play and penalty kill on the road than on home ice - on the power play, they rank 13th on the road (19.8%) compared to 28th at home (13.0%); on the penalty kill, they rank 11th on the road (81.4%), compared to 28th at home (74.2%).
5. PLAYERS TO WATCH:
FLYERS (LW: #25 - James van Riemsdyk)
Since Jan. 10, van Riemsdyk is tied for the team lead in goals (9) and second in overall scoring with 14 points in 14 games... Against the Red Wings, he posted a goal and an assist in the first meeting of the season, and has averaged a point per-game in his last nine meetings with Detroit with nine points (5g-4a) in nine games.
RED WINGS (C: #71 - Dylan Larkin)
Already has a career high in goals (24), which leads the team, and also leads the team in overall scoring with 54 points... Larkin also leads the team in ice time per-game (21:50), which makes him the only forward in the NHL who leads his team in TOI per-game... He plays his 300th game in the NHL today and has missed just five career games since coming into the NHL as an 18-year-old rookie in 2015-16.
