John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (19-11-5) are in Alberta on New Year's Eve to take on Ryan Huska's Calgary Flames (14-16-5). Game time at Scotiabank Saddledome is 8:00 p.m. ET.
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 first of two meetings this season between the inter-conference clubs, and the lone match in Calgary. The Flyers and Flames will rematch at Wells Fargo Center on the afternoon of January 6. Last season, the teams split their two-game season series, with the road team winning each of the games.
The Flyers enter this game coming off a 2-1 overtime loss to the Seattle Kraken on Friday evening. A first period shorthanded goal by Travis Konecny (17th goal of the season) stood as the Flyers' only goal. Carter Hart turned aside 27 of 29 shots.
Philly has earned at least one one point in 12 of their last 13 games (8-1-4). Over the last 10 games, the Flyers are 6-1-3. The Flames are 4-4-2 over their last 10 games and have lost back-to-back games in regulation heading into Sunday's match.
Here are five things to watch in the final game of the 2023 calendar year.
1. Energy management
This is a "fatigue factor" game for the Flyers, where they are a potentially tired team going up against a significantly more rested opponent. It's Philadelphia's third game in four nights whereas Calgary has only played once (2-1 home loss to Seattle this past Wednesday) since the NHL's leaguewide holiday break from Christmas Eve to Boxing Day.
In addition to the wear-and-tear of game action, there's also the travel aspect. Over the last five days, the Flyers have traveled across time zones (Eastern to Pacific to Mountain) and crossed back-and-forth twice over the Canadian border twice for their games in Vancouver and Calgary. Meanwhile, the Flames have had no travel since the holiday break.
Overcoming a fatigue factor disadvantage to emerge with a win requires smart energy management by a team. To conserve a little extra energy, the Flyers will not hold a morning skate on Friday. In the bigger picture, it's important to avoid overstaying shifts, getting hemmed in the defensive zone and spending too much time in "bend but don't break" mode, and falling into an early deficit that forces a team to chase the game.
Tortorella has often said that he doesn't subscribe to the "fatigue factor" as a significant reason why a team wins or loses -- "I think you can talk yourself into being tired," he's said on many occasions --nor is it a built-in excuse for a poor performance. Nonetheless, to minimize getting worn down over the course of the game, the Flyers need to generate productive, short shifts from multiple lines and keep unforced errors to a minimum.
2. Important game for Flyers 4th line
The Flyers fourth line trio of Scott Laughton centering Nic Deslauriers and Garnet Hathway, both collectively and individually, provided valuable contributions to Thursday's impressive 4-1 road win over the Western Conference leading Vancouver Canucks.
Hathaway's third period shorthanded goal short-circuited an attempted comeback by the Canucks. Laughton won four of six faceoffs. Deslauriers landed two thumping hits. As a trio, although the analytics didn't jump off the page, the shift-to-shift flow saw the line generate several positive shifts that enabled the next Flyers line on the ice to start in position to attack.
Their positive momentum was not carried into the Seattle game. The analytics were unfavorable in terms of shot quantity and quality differences. The Deslauriers-Laughton-Hathaway line was hemmed in for too many of their shifts together. The work ethic was there but too few battles went their way.
Laughton made a big play in setting up Konecny for the shorthanded goal in the first period but he struggled on draws (2-for-10) and his line with Hathaway and Deslauriers had a rough time together at 5-on-5.
On the positive side, the fourth line was not scored against by Seattle. Even so, in the second game of a back-to-back (as was the case on Friday) and especially in the third game of a 3-in-4, it's important for the fourth line to be energy creators as they were against the Canucks. To do that, the line needs to forecheck and win 50-50 puck battles.
As often as possible, each Flyers line needs to avoid putting the next line into a disadvantageous position: a defensive zone start or the opponent being set up to go right back on the attack after an on-the-fly change.That applies to everyone.
3. TK, Sanheim and scoring depth
The last time the Flyers were in Calgary (Feb. 20, 2023), Konecny was THE driving force in a 4-3 Flyers victory. He scored one goal and assisted on another. He got under Calgary's collective skin with two hits and constant chirping. Unfortunately, he had to leave the game early with an injury that kept him out until April.
Many things have changed positively for the Flyers over the course of the 2023 calendar year. Philly now has a more unified locker room than they did a season ago. It's a deeper team. The healthy return of Sean Couturier after missing a season-and-a-half with two separate back surgeries has been of vital importance.
One thing that has not changed: More than any other player, Konecny is the single most important player for the Flyers offensively. He leads the team with 29 points, and is a threat to score not only at 5-on-5 but on either end of special teams.
Right now, though, Konecny is playing at decidedly less than 100 percent health. He's just getting over an illness that forced him to leave Friday's game in Vancouver. He played on Saturday and scored the game's first goal. However, he also painfully blocked a shot off his right foot and was in a lot of discomfort afterwards.
To continue their winning ways, the Flyers will need offensive contributions from other forwards beyond Konecny, Joel Farabee (12 goals, 12 assists, team-leading 23 points at 5-on-5) and Couturier (nine goals 23 points).
Owen Tippett (12 goals, 22 points) leads all Flyers players with 124 shots on goal and is second to Konecny in all-situations scoring chances (101). In terms of point production, he's been streaky. Tippett has four points (2g, 2a) in his last four games and eight points (5g, 3a) over 12 games in December.
Entering the final game of December, the Flyers have gotten 12 points this month from Konecny (5g, 7a), nine from Farabee (4g, 5a), eight from Tippett and Couturier (4g, 4a), seven from Tyson Foerster (2g, 5a), six from Bobby Brink (2g, 4a), and five apiece from Morgan Frost (2g, 3a), Laughton (2g, 3a) and defenseman Cam York (2g, 3a).
Among the latter group of forwards, Foerster has points (3a) in three of his last four games but is now 11 games removed from his last goal (Dec. 4 at home against Pittsburgh). Brink has three points (1g, 2a) over the last four games but was critiqued for his checking game by Tortorella. Frost scored goals in back-to-back games heading into the Christmas break but his play across the month has been inconsistent. Laughton scored a goal in the third period of the final pre-break game and has points in two of the last three games.
Veteran Flyers winger Cam Atkinson is seventh on the team in scoring with 17 points (8g, 9a). However, points have been hard to come by for a while. He has just three points in 12 games in December (0g, 3a) and five points in his last 20 games (0g, 5a),
despite skating the fourth-most ice time (16:34 per game) among Flyers forwards in that span. He's 21 games removed from his last goal.
Atkinson has not lacked for scoring chances. For the season, he's third on the Flyers with 92 individual scoring chances (and second with 47 high-danger chances). For December, he's fourth on the team with 26 scoring chances (14 high-danger) but has nothing to show for it. Tortorella recently said about both Atkinson and Frost that it's gotten past the point of focusing on getting/creating chances. The Flyers need both to produce more points.
Defenseman Travis Sanheim is second on the Flyers in total points both for the season as a whole (4g, team-high 21a, minus-7, team-high 24:59 of average ice time) and within the month of December (2g, 7a, 9 points, +5).
Sanheim enters Sunday's game in Calgary a much more confident player than he was the last time the Flyers were in Calgary. The lone game that Sanheim -- a former Calgary Hitmen standout who played his junior home games at the Saddledome -- missed last season was the Feb. 20 match. He was a healthy scratch that afternoon. The turnaround since that time has been dramatic.
4. Flyers special teams vs. Flames special teams
The Flyers and Flames share the NHL lead in shorthanded goals with nine for each team. Philly has gotten four shorthanded tallies from Konecny, two from defenseman Sean Walker and one apiece from Laughton, Ryan Poehling, and Hathaway. The Flames have gotten four shorthanded goals from Blake Coleman, two from Yegor Sharangovich, and one apiece from Mikael Backlund, Elias Lindholm, and Rasmus Andersson.
For the season, the Flyers rank last in the NHL on the power play (12-for-110, 10.9 percent) with two shorthanded goals yielded. The Calgary penalty kill ranks ninth in the NHL at 82.6 percent (opposing power plays are 18-for-110).
The Flyers penalty kill ranks fourth in the NHL at 85.5 percent (opponents are 16-for-110) but the club has given up an opposing PPG in three of the last four games. The Calgary power play checks in at 12.3 percent (14-for-114, ranked 29th) for the season. The Flames have given up four shorthanded goals.
5. Behind Enemy Lines: Calgary Flames
For the season, veteran center Nazem Kadri leads the Flames with 25 points (9g, 16a). He's third on the team in December with 10 points (4g, 6a).
Over the month of December, Sharangovich leads the Flames with 12 points (6g, 6a). He's fourth overall for the season with 22 points (11g, 11a) in 35 games. Coleman ls second for the season with 24 points (12g, 12a) and second in December with 11 points (6g. 5a).
Lindholm is third on the Flames offensively this season with 23 points (8g, 15a). For December he's fourth on the team with eight points (3g, 5a). Meanwhile, veteran forward Jonathan Huberdeau, a 100-point scorer for the Florida Panthers two seasons ago, is having a rough year in his second season with Calgary: 11th in the team with 15 points (4g, 11a) in 35 games and a team-worst traditional minus-14.
In goal, Jacob Markström has made 20 starts, posting a record of 8-10-2 with a 2.71 goals against average, .904 save percentage and one shutout. Dan Vladar has started 11 games (5-4-2 record, 3.40 GAA, .886 save percentage).
As a team, the Flames are tied for the Flyers for 24th offensively with an average 2.94 goals scored per game. While Philly ranks ranks in a tie for 8th defensively at 2.69 goals against per game, the Flames rank tied for 18th at a 3.23 GAA.
The Flames are 8-7-1 on home ice this season. The Flyers are 11-4-4 on the road.
