Playing Game 70 of the regular season and looking to strengthen their hold on an automatic playoff spot, John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (35-26-8) are in Raleigh on Thursday to take on Rod Brind'Amour's Carolina Hurricanes (43-20-6). Game time at PNC Arena is 7:00 p.m. EDT.
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.
The Flyers and Hurricanes played each other often in the first two months of season but haven't faced off in a while. This is the fourth and final meeting of the season between the teams, and the second in Raleigh. The Flyers are 1-2-0 this season against Carolina, with the win coming on Nov. 15 at PNC Arena in a 3-1 Philadelphia victory. The Canes beat the Flyers twice at the Wells Fargo Center: 3-2 on October 30 and 4-1 on Nov. 28.
With 78 points, the Flyers enter Thursday's game in third place in the Metropolitan Division. They fully control their own destiny. As long as the Flyers take care of their own business, they needn't worry about what any of their pursuers are doing.
After the Flyers earned a 4-3 win at home over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday, the Maple Leafs turned around and beat the Washington Capitals, 7-3, the next night. Philly leads Washington by three points and the New York Islanders by five points. As long as the Flyers find ways to win, the fact that both the Capitals and Islanders hold one game in hand apiece is irrelevant.
Meanwhile, the Hurricanes (also playing their 70th game of the regular season), are two points behind the New York Rangers for first place in the Metro. New York also holds a slight edge in the regulation wins tiebreaker category (37 to 36). If the regular season ended today, the Hurricanes would play the Flyers in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinal round of the playoffs.
Here are five things to watch in Thursday's game:
1. Faceoffs and Puck Possession
On a nearly annual basis, Brind'Amour's Hurricanes statistically rank as the NHL's best puck possession team and either at or near the top in shot quality. That's the case once again in 2023-24.
The Hurricanes lead the league in shot differential (59.57 percent share) and expected goals for/against (56.63 percent share). Carolina often generates instant puck possession, too, as a top-five faceoff team (52.7 percent).
In Tuesday's game against Toronto, none of the Flyers centers were at break even (50 percent) or better on faceoffs. Noneless, in a "find a way league" (as Tortorella calls the process of winning in the NHL), a season-hgh 36 blocked shots, clutch goaltending by Samuel Ersson and a dose of favorable puck luck enabled the Flyers to close out a 4-3 win.
To beat Carolina, the Flyers may need another game where they block dozens of shots, get saves on every stoppable opportunity and show some opportunistic offense of their own. It's also vital for the Flyers to at least break even on 50-50 puck battles. When there's a chance to clear the puck from the defensive zone, the puck needs to get out. Failed clears are a killer against a club like the Hurricanes.
2. Take defenders to the net
The Flyers' first goal in the Toronto game -- scored by Owen Tippett just 19 seconds after the opening faceoff --is a good example of the types of goals the Flyers will need to generate in their upcoming games.
On that tally, the Flyers moved the puck quickly. Morgan Frost took John Tavares to the net with him, creating a screen on goalie Ilya Samsonov. Tippett then fired off an accurate shot from 48 feet that the opposing netminder was unable to track until it was too late.
Layered screens, deflections from the low-to-mid slot, shooting for rebounds with a teammate driving the net: These are the types of goals that teams who lack overwhelming firepower need to score. In the case of the Flyers, who were very reliant on goals off the rush for much of the season but are now working around reduced ability to generate breakouts/counterattacks, scratching out a few "dirty-but-good" goals could be the means to an end in this game.
3. Young guns: York, Tippet and the F-Troop (Forester, Frost, and Farabee)
The Flyers are still in the midst of arguably their single most difficult segment of the season: seven straight high-stakes games down the stretch against the top contenders of the Eastern Conference. Thus far, the Flyers are 1-2-0 in the current gamut. They split two games with Toronto and fell one goal short in a third-period comeback bid against Boston after 40 evenly played minutes.
So far, one of the brightest spots for the Flyers down the stretch has been the play of the team's core of players age 25 or younger.
On the blueline, Cam York is logging huge minutes and playing extremely well in all three zones: killing plays defensively, moving the puck efficiently and making good plays up ice, too. Along with veteran partner Travis Sanheim, York's performance is critical to the Flyers being able to pick off a few more wins as the final 12 games loom.
Up front, with leading scorer Travis Konecny still trying to get back on top of his game after a six-game injury absence and team captain Sean Couturier navigating one of the toughest stretches of his NHL career, the Flyers have leaned heavily on two things.
For one, they've relied on the Ryan Poehling line to be their tone-setters. Secondly, a number of offensively vital forwards ages 25 or younger have been stepping up down the stretch.
Owen Tippett (three goals, four assists, seven points, plus-seven) and Morgan Frost (three goals, three assists, six points) bring respective four-game point streaks into Thursday's game. Joel Farabee had a two-goal game in Boston, and has tallied three goals over the last four games. Rookie winger Tyson Foerster (shorthanded goal vs. Toronto, two-goal game in a key March 2 win vs. Ottawa) has also made notable contributions this month.
4. Flyers Special Teams vs. Hurricanes Special teams
The Flyers first power play unit is cooking lately, while PP2 is trying to find personnel and an attacking strategy that works for them. For the season, the Flyers still rank 32nd in the NHL on the power play at 12.9 percent.
With the Flyers' penalty kill in its first slump of the season, the Hurricanes have surpassed Philly for the league's second-ranked PK. The Flyers PK for the season, which stayed above 85 percent success for nearly the entire year, is now at 84.5 percent. The Hurricanes' PK checks in at 85.8 percent.
Carolina's power play ranks tied for third in the NHL at 26.4 percent efficiency. They will, however, give up some shorthanded counterattacks, and have yielded eight opposing shorthanded goals this season. This is something the Flyers, who lead the NHL with 15 shorthanded goals scored, could potentially exploit.
5. Behind Enemy Lines: Carolina Hurricanes
We've already spelled out the key factors that make the Hurricanes such a dangerous opponent: NHL's best puck possession team at 5-on-5, and a top-three club on both ends of special teams. The Flyers also need to respect Carolina's team speed.
The Hurricanes are often a chip-and-chase team. They are very good at getting pucks behind the opposing defense and then using their speed to win a quick retrieval. Opponents know Carolina will do it, but neutralizing that tactic can be a different story. Back off too much and the Canes will take advantage instead of the open ice in front of them.
Carolina doesn't have a place near the top of the NHL scoring leaderboard, but they are loaded with talent and depth both up front and on the blueline. Led by Sebastian Aho (27g. 48a. 75 points), Carolina has five players who've already surpassed the 20-goal mark of the season and eight players with 35-plus points.
In this way, the Hurricanes are a very different opponent for the Flyers to prepare to play as opposed to Toronto. The Maple Leafs have a cadre of superstars atop their lineup but then there's a step dropoff. The Hurricanes don't have quite the same caliber of dominance atop the lineup but are deeper throughout the lineup. Pick your poison: both can be lethal.
One thing the Hurricanes do not have: all-world goaltending. There is no Vezina candidate on the roster. However, Pyotr Kochetkov has quietly had a strong campaign overall (19-12-3, 2.36 GAA, .913 save percentage, three shutouts) and has rattled off three wins in his last four starts with in-game save percentages of 90 percent or better in all four games.
