5 THINGS: Flyers @ Blue Jackets
Looking to win their third straight game, John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (7-3-2) are in Ohio on Thursday to take on Brad Larsen's Columbus Blue Jackets (3-9-0)
By
Bill Meltzer
philadelphiaflyers.com
GAME NOTES
The game will be televised on NBCSP. The radio broadcast is on 93.3 WMMR with an online simulcast on
Flyers Radio 24/7.
This is the first of four meetings this season between the Metro Division clubs. The Flyers and Blue Jackets will rematch in Columbus next Tuesday (Nov. 15) before the scene shifts to the Wells Fargo Center for games on Dev. 20 and April 11.
The Flyers enter this game coming off a 5-1 home victory against the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday. The Blue Jackets sustained a 5-1 "home" loss against the Colorado Avalanche last Saturday in the second of back-to-back NHL Global Series Games in Finland.
This will be Tortorella's first game back in Columbus after a six-season head coaching stint with the Blue Jackets. He took last season off from coaching and spent it working in broadcasting before being hired by the Flyers this past summer.
For his part, Tortorella has no interest in discussing that particular storyline.
"I have a tremendous amount of friends there. Great spot. But I'm going back there to coach the Flyers and try to win," Tortorella said.
Here are five things to watch in Thursday's game.
1. Hart back in goal.
Carter Hart was the scheduled starter in the game against St. Louis. However, due to illness, he was unavailable to play. The Flyers recalled Samuel Ersson from the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms to back up Felix Sandström in the game. Sandström recorded his first career NHL win, stopping 28 of 29 shots.
By Wednesday, Hart was feeling much better. He practiced with the team at the Flyers Training Center and told the media afterwards that he was good to go for the game in Columbus. The Flyers returned Ersson to the Phantoms.
For the season, Hart has a 6-0-2 record with a 1.97 goals against average and a sparkling .946 save percentage.
Goaltender play has been an issue for the Blue Jackets early this season Elvis Merzlikins has appeared in eight of the Blue Jackets' 12 games so far this season. To date, Merzlikins is 2-5-0 with a 4.82 GAA and .863 save percentage. Joonas Korpisalo, who underwent hip surgery back in March, made his 2022-23 season debut in the Colorado game. Peppered with 40 shots, the Finn stopped 35.
2. Getting off to a quick start.
Going into Tuesday's game against the Blues, the Flyers placed a pregame emphasis on setting a strong early tone. The Blues entered the game having lost seven in a row (after starting the season with three straight wins). There was also a fatigue factor at play with the Flyers being well-rested and the Blues (with one of the NHL's oldest rosters) being in the second game of a back to back.
The Flyers delivered, immediately establishing their forecheck and dominating the territorial play for most of the first period. They did not score for the first time until midway through regulation but it put Philly on the right track against what is currently a rather fragile opponent.
The pregame scenario against Columbus is not identical but there are some similarities. The Blue Jackets have lost five games in a row including back-to-back losses to Colorado in NHL Global Series games in Finland on Nov. 4 and 5.
There have been four nights off on the game schedule for the Blue Jackets since returning from Finland. However, the return game from overseas trips can be a tricky one. The Flyers will try to replicate a similar approach to playing Columbus as they did in the previous game against the Blues.
3. By the numbers: Situational play
The Blue Jackets, through a combination of team defense breakdowns and below-average goaltending early this season enter Thursday's game having allowed 42 opposition goals (against 24 goals of their own) at 5-on-5. The Flyers haven't scored many 5-on-5 goals (21) but a combination of stellar goaltending and improved defensive zone structure have enabled them to limit opponents to just 19 goals to date at full strength.
In terms of special teams play, the Blue Jackets are off to a horrid start to the season. Columbus has scored just two power play goals in 33 opportunities and are mired at the bottom of the NHL rankings (32nd). The team has allowed as many shorthanded goals (two) as they've scored power play goals, making their net power play percentage 0.0% after 12 games.
The Flyers' power play, at least the first unit, has shown major improvement from last season's debacle. The team's 19.5 percent success rate (8-for-41) is nothing spectacular, ranking 22nd. However, it's a way better pace than last season's 12.6 percent catastrophe.
Last season, the Flyers' penalty kill was a bright spot until the Christmas break and then went into a free fall thereafter. This season, the Flyers are off to an 82.9 percent start on the PK (34-for-41) to rank eighth overall. However, on the road, the Flyers are a more modest 17-for-22 on the PK whereas Philly is off to a 17-for-19 start on the PK at home. Scott Laughton's shorthanded breakaway goal against Vancouver in the season's second game stands as the Flyers' lone SHG to date.
The Blue Jackets have done a good job for the most part at staying out of the penalty box, ranking so far as the NHL's fifth least-penalized team. The PK itself ranks slightly above the middle of the NHL pack at 14th (30-for-38, 78.9 percent). Jack Roslovic scored a shorthanded breakaway goal against Pittsburgh for the Blue Jackets' only SHG so far in 2022-23.
4. Flyers line play
The Flyers held an optional practice at the FTC on Wednesday; Tortorella was not on the ice during the session, so the assistant coaches ran it. However, every Flyers player on the roster except Ivan Provorov (maintenance day) was on the ice. Provorov, who has only missed two games (due to a positive COVID test) in his NHL career, will play on Thursday in his usual left-defense spot on the Flyers' top pairing.
On Tuesday, the Flyers sent defenseman Egor Zamula to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms (an on-paper transaction) in order to recall Ersson. With Hart feeling better the next day, Ersson was sent back to the Phantoms and Zamula was recalled to the active NHL roster.
Tortorella is an old-school coach in most aspects including not publicly naming a starting goalie or confirming impending lineup changes until the day of a game; never a day ahead. However, with the Flyers having won back-to-back games in solid fashion, chances are that Philadelphia stays with the same lineup as the St. Louis game.
If so, that would make Kieffer Bellows a healthy scratch for the third straight game. Even had Hart not taken ill, Zamula would nevertheless have been scratched in favor of Rasmus Ristolainen (a healthy scratch in the Ottawa game) for the game against St. Louis. Officially, Zamula has dressed in nine of the 11 games for which he's been eligible to play.
Longtime Blue Jackets forward Cam Atkinson, now in his second year with Philadelphia, has been sidelined with an upper-body injury since the third day of training camp. He remains out indefinitely, although Atkinson has been on the active roster all season to date.
James van Riemsdyk (surgery to repair a broken index finger) has about four or five weeks to go until he can be cleared to play. He has already resumed skating but can't grip a stick yet. Sean Couturier (back revision surgery) is out until some time around March.
Projected Flyers lineup (subject to change)
74 Owen Tippett - 13 Kevin Hayes - 11 Travis Konecny
86 Joel Farabee - 21 Scott Laughton - 57 Wade Allison
49 Noah Cates - 23 Lukas Sedlak - 17 Zack MacEwen
44 Nicolas Deslauriers - 48 Morgan Frost - 58 Tanner Laczynski
9 Ivan Provorov - 77 Tony DeAngelo
6 Travis Sanheim - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
24 Nick Seeler - 61 Justin Braun
79 Carter Hart
[32 Felix Sandström]
5. Behind Enemy Lines: Columbus Blue Jackets
Patrik Laine was excited to return to his home country for the Blue Jackets two Global Series games against the defending Stanley Cup champion Avalanche. However, the team's 6-3 and 5-1 losses in Tampere put a major damper on the weekend from his point of view.
"It sucks. Kind of wishing that this trip never happened. After this, I feel like it was a waste of time for us," an openly disappointed Laine said after the second game.
The Blue Jackets have had Sunday through Wednesday to recuperate from the back-to-back games, the intercontinental flight across seven time zones and the mental toll that the rough start to the season took on them. However, the team also knows that it can't afford to keep digging themselves a hole in the standings.
Longtime Flyers right winger Jakub Voracek, now in his second season with Columbus, suffered an upper-body injury in Friday's game in Finland and was unavailable for the second game of the b2b after finishing the first game. Voracek was on the receiving end of a high stick from Colorado's Dryden Hunt. Initially listed as day-to-day, Voracek is now out for an indefinite period of time.
Laine has been under the weather since his return from Finland but is expected to play against the Flyers. Sean Kuraly, who took an elbow to the face from the Avalanche's Josh Manson in Saturday's rematch in Tampere, eventually left that game and did not play in the third period. He is officially day-to-day.
Through the season's first 12 games, Blue Jackets marquee free agent signing Johnny Gaudreau leads the team with nine points (five goals, four assists). The Blue Jackets have six players tied with six points apiece including Voracek (team-high five assists), Boone Jenner (2g, 4a), offensive minded defenseman Zach Werenski (2g, 4a, minus-8), and highly regarded young center Kent Johnson (3g, 3a). Yegor Chinakhov has recorded six points (2g, 4a) in his last nine game
Jenner, a close friend and former junior teammate of Laughton's with the OHL's Oshawa Generals, has been a Flyers-killer in his NHL career to date. Defenseman Jake Bean is a friend and former Calgary Hitmen (WHL) defense partner at times with Philadelphia counterpart Sanheim.
Johnson is dealing with an undisclosed minor injury. He is questionable for this game. The Blue Jackets' potential lineup, subject to change, could look like this per Jackets Insider Jeff Svoboda:
13 Johnny Gaudreau - 38 Boone Jenner - 29 Patrik Laine
14 Gustav Nyquist - 96 Jack Roslovic - 52 Emil Bemström
50 Eric Robinson - 34 Cole Sillinger - 59 Yegor Chinakhov
19 Liam Foudy - 16 Brendan Gaunce - 24 Mathieu Olivier
8 Zach Werenski - 77 Nick Blankenburg
4 Vladislav Gavrikov - 2 Andrew Peeke
22 Jake Bean - 44 Erik Gudbranson
90 Elvis Merzlikins
70 Joonas Korpisalo
