5 THINGS: Flyers @ Devils

In the final game of a four-game road trip, John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (9-14-7) are in Newark on Thursday to take on Lindy Ruff's New Jersey Devils (21-6- 2). Game time at the Prudential Center is 7:00 p.m. ET.

GAME NOTES
The game will be televised on NBCSP. The radio broadcast is on 97.5 The Fanatic with an online simulcast on Flyers Radio 24/7.
This is the third meeting of the four-game season series between the Metro Division clubs, and the first of two games at the Prudential Center. After this game, the clubs will meet for the final time this season on the evening of Feb. 25. On opening night of the 2021-regular season, Oct. 13, the Flyers skated to a 5-2 win despite largely being outplayed. Carter Hart made 35 saves, while the Flyers got two goals apiece from Travis Konecny (even strength and power play) and Morgan Frost (even strength and empty net). Wade Allison opened the scoring. The tables were turned on Dec. 3. In this game, the Flyers outplayed the Devils for most of the game (including 33-18 shot advantage) but a bad five-minute stretch early in the third period sent the Flyers down to a 3-2 defeat.
The Flyers reached the 30-game mark on the season on Tuesday. One bad period -- the second, in this case -- proved to be their undoing in a 3-2 road loss to the Colorado Avalanche. Cam York (1st goal of the season) and James van Riemsyk (6-on-5, 4th goal of the season) scored in a losing cause. Felix Sandstrom got his first start in net over a 17-day period. He played well overall but took the loss. The Flyers have won just two of their last 18 games (2-11-5) and they are winless in their last four games (0-2-2).
The Devils are in first place in the Metropolitan Division, and bring a 10-5-1 home record into this game. However, the team has cooled off a bit so far in December. The team is 2-2-2 through its first six games of the month and is winless in its last three games.
Even New Jersey's aforementioned win in Philadelphia on Dec. 3 was a game in which the Devils were thoroughly outplayed for most of the night. Ruff's club benefited from the Flyers' ongoing struggles to score and two early third period goals. The game had gone to the third period tied at 1-1 despite a 24-12 shot on goal and an 8-2 high danger scoring chance edge for the Flyers.
Here are five things to watch in this game:
1. Flyers power play execution
There were signs of hope in the Flyers' long-suffering power play as they embarked on their current road trip. They'd scored power play goals in three straight games, going 4-for-9 dating back to the Dec. 3 game against the Devils. Even in most of the power plays in which Philly did not score, they generated much-improved entries and puck movement.
The current road trip has been a different story. The power plays that the Flyers have had on the trip have either created no momentum or ended up being costly.
Flyers did not receive a power play in their 2-1 overtime loss to the Vegas Golden Knights. Philly generated four goals in a 5-4 overtime loss in Arizona -- courtesy of a monster game from the trio of van Riemsdyk (1g, 3a), Morgan Frost (1g, 3a) and Owen Tippett (1g, 1a) plus a 6-on-5 game-tying goal by Konecny -- but struggled on the power play in going 0-for-2. In Colorado, the Flyers were again 0-for-2 and looked bad in the process.
A shorthanded goal yielded to Colorado's Artturi Lehkonen in the latter stages of the second period proved fatal in an eventual 3-2 loss. There was some bad luck involved in the play -- a carom off the dasher board that bounced just the right way for Colorado -- but the root cause was poor execution all the way around by the Flyers on a botched entry attempt.
Over the course of the fateful sequence, there were multiple errors of commission and omission by Philadelphia. Bringing the puck up the ice, Kevin Hayes was indecisive in looking for a slingshot pass and indecisive on Plan B. Konecny had an opportunity for a cross-corner dump-in to move the puck to the weak side rather than right into the teeth of the defense, where Frost got swarmed just over the blueline. Frost, meanwhile, had a momentary opportunity to get the puck in deep but instead had it taken away by veteran defenseman Erik Johnson.
York initially had a stride on Lehkonen after the clearing carom off the boards but simply got beaten to the puck and came up empty on a desperation sweep check attempt. Finally, Lehkonen snapped a five-hole shot past Sandström from the slot.
As a team that has scored two goals or fewer in 17 of their 30 games to date, the Flyers often find themselves with precious little margin for error. They can ill-afford to have their power play create negative momentum.
2. Getting Farabee (and others) scoring.
There's a host of Flyers players from whom improved consistency -- game-to-game, period-to-period -- is needed. It's a collective issue in which the same things can be said about the team needing a little more from players such as Frost, Tippett, Noah Cates (specific to the offensive side of the puck), Scott Laughton (ditto) as I'm about to say about Joel Farabee.
Unlike Frost or Tippett -- both of whom possess outstanding natural skills but have yet to put it all together for sustained stretches -- Farabee has a track record of getting into a groove at the NHL level for lengthy periods of time. He'd build off a good game or two and make a noticeable impact for weeks at a time. There was some streakiness within his early career seasons but the next good groove was often just around the corner.
Farabee reached the 200-game played milestone for his NHL career on Tuesday in Colorado. He has produced 50 goals and 108 points to date at the NHL level, while showing some two-way upside.
Farabee has yet to achieve a sustained groove so far this season. Whether it's a product of the not-unexpected lengthy rebound period from undergoing major surgery this past offseason, the 22-year-old player putting a lot of pressure on himself and dealing with confidence issues, or a combination of many factors rolled into one, the Flyers need more than sporadic positive two-way impact from Farabee.
It's not just about point production. Farabee, as the most proven of the Flyers' continent of younger forwards, is counted on to be an impact player in a variety of game situations: forecheck, penalty kill, 50-50 puck battles as well as putting the puck in the net.
So far in December, Farabee has one point (0g, 1a) in seven games.His ice time is down a bit so far this month (13:45 TOI per game), which is the surest sign that Tortorella has perceived a drop in a player's overall effectiveness. Actually, last time out against the Devils, Farabee scored a would-be tying goal in the third period but it was disallowed for goaltender interference by Frost on an incidental contact play at the net.
Consequently, Farabee has not scored a goal that counted on the scoreboard in his last eight games. He has one goal and two points over the team's last 10 games (2-6-2 team record in that span, despite eight of the 10 games being winnable heading into the third period). Again, that is not a problem that's specific to Farabee but he's one of the players on whom the Flyers are counting the most heavily to make an impact in the immediate, near-term and long-term time frames alike.
There are many reasons why the Flyers committed a six-year contract extension to Farabee at a $5 million AAV in a deal signed before he entered the final season of his entry-level contract in 2021-22. The 2022-23 season is the first year of the new deal. The contract very well could end up being a bargain for the Flyers in the long-term. The first order of business, however, is to get Farabee back on track after his injury-plagued season last year, off-season surgery and inconsistency through the first 30 games of 2022-23.
3. Hart returns to the net
Carter Hart's season save percentage took a hit in the Arizona game as the Coyotes scored five goals on 29 shots. As a result, he dropped below a .910 save percentage (.909) for the first time all season. In that game, two of the goals he allowed were on breakaways, one was off a terribly unlucky bounce on a broken play and another was seemingly deflected upward when initially on a low-glove trajectory. The reality is that goaltending has rarely been an issue for the Flyers, even over the past 18 games. Of Hart's 22 starts this season, there have easily been 18 or 19 in which his overall body of work -- when given a reasonable chance at saves -- was good enough to give his team an opportunity to win.
However, after starting a career-high seven straight games, Hart seemed to be in much need of a night off as Sandström was in need of some game action after a stretch of 17 days not playing. Sandström (1-6-0, 3.37 GAA, .888 save percentage) played fine in Colorado but Hart could now get the next several games of starting duty until the Flyers reach their next set of back-to-back game nights on Dec. 22 and 23 on the road against Toronto and Carolina.
4. Flyers line play and injury updates.
Tony DeAngelo has missed the last three games; one as a semi-healthy scratch in the Vegas game and the last two in Arizona and Colorado while on a personal leave to deal with a family situation. He remains out.
Zack MacEwen is day-to-day with a lower-body injury he sustained in the third period of the Arizona game. MacEwen took part in the optional morning skate in Denver on Tuesday but did not play in the game. Max Willman (nine shifts, 5:45 TOI) dressed for the game instead. MacEwen is a game-time decision against the Devils.
Cam Atkinson (upper-body injury) has been with the team on the road trip. He has been working toward feeling physically ready for his first game action of the 2022-23 season. Atkinson has been on the active roster, not IR, all season but remains unable to play.
Potential starting lineup (subject to change):
13 Kevin Hayes - 49 Noah Cates -11 Travis Konecny
25 James van Riemsdyk - 48 Morgan Frost - 74 Owen Tippett
21 Scott Laughton - 23 Lukas Sedlak - 86 Joel Farabee
44 Nicolas Deslauriers -38 Patrick Brown - 17 Zack MacEwen
9 Ivan Provorov - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
6 Travis Sanheim - 45 Cam York
24 Nick Seeler - 61 Justin Braun
79 Carter Hart
[32 Felix Sandström]
5. Behind Enemy Lines: New Jersey Devils
The Devils built a cushion for themselves atop the Metro Division standings to withstand a mini-slump. Although the club is 5-3-2 over its last 10 games and winless in its last three (0-2-1), the Devils are six points ahead of both the Carolina Hurricanes and Pittsburgh Penguins. Tonight, the Devils will be playing for the third time in four nights. The team had a complete off-day on Wednesday after playing back-to-back games against the New York Rangers (4-3 overtime loss at Madison Square Garden) and Dallas Stars (4-1 home loss).
In the Dallas game, the Stars broke a scoreless deadlock at 6:03 of the second period only for New Jersey's Miles Wood (7th goal of the season) to answer back at 7:55 on a deflection goal moments after a faceoff win back to the point. Kevin Bahl and Yegor Sharagovich earned the assists. A buzzer-beating goal by Dallas' Roope Hintz in the final two-plus seconds of the middle stanza proved to be the game-winner for the Stars. The game remained 2-1 in Dallas' favor until they scored a pair of empty-net goals for a final three-goal margin. Akira Schmid took the loss in net despite 28 saves on 30 shots. Former New Jersey goalie Scott Wedgewood (35 saves on 36 shots) earned the win against his former club.
Entering tonight's game, the Devils rank 6th offensively in NHL, averaging 3.59 goals per game. Defensively and in net, the Devils rank third-best with a team 2.45 goals against average. The power play ranks 24th at 20.2 percent (25 NHL clubs have connected on at least 20 percent of their power plays, while Philly ranks 28th at just 15.9 percent success). The Devils' penalty kill ranks 7th at 81.3 percent. New Jersey is ninth in the NHL on faceoff winning percentage at 52.6 percent while the Flyers rank 30th at 44.7 percent.
Vitek Vanecek (19 games played including 17 starts, 12-2-2 record, 2.39 GAA, .912 save percentage, two shutouts) is the expected starter in goal for the Devils against the Flyers. The Devils have several line combo changes from the combinations that started against the Stars. Potential starting lineup per Devils reporter Amanda Stein:
90 Tomas Tatar - 13 Nico Hischier - 49 Fabian Zetterlund
17 Yegor Sharangovich - 86 Jack Hughes - 63 Jesper Bratt
44 Miles Wood - 56 Erik Haula - 91 Dawson Mercer
70 Jesper Boqvist - 29 Michael McLeod - 10 Alexander Holtz
71 Jonas Siegenthaler - 7 Dougie Hamilton
33 Ryan Graves - 6 John Marino
2 Brendan Smith - 28 Damon Severson
41 Vitek Vanecek
[40 Akira Schmid]