5 THINGS: Flyers vs. Blues
John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (6-3-2) are home on Tuesday evening to take on Craig Berube's St. Louis Blues (3-7-0)
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 first of two games between the inter-conference teams this season. The Flyers and Blues will rematch in St. Louis on April 4.
The Flyers are coming off a 2-1 road win in Ottawa on Saturday. The club had an off-day on Sunday and then practiced on Monday at the Flyers Training Center. The Blues are playing the second game of a back-to-back set. On Monday evening, the Blues dropped a 3-1 road decision to the Boston Bruins.
Here are five things to watch in this game.
1.Spreading the offense.
There are only three Flyers players who have had more than a single multi-point game through the season's first 11 matches: Travis Konecny (five), Kevin Hayes (four) and Joel Farabee (two). Philadelphia ranks 30th in the NHL with an average 2.55 goals scored per game.
Tortorella said after Monday's practice that with so many key personnel (Sean Couturier, Cam Atkinson, James van Riemsdyk) out with injuries), it's even more imperative for the team to grind out low-scoring victories. He's also trying to balance his line combinations to diversify the skillsets as much as possible.
The Flyers, who have been at a puck possession deficit in the majority of the periods played this season, were able to play with the puck more often -- especially in the second period -- of Saturday's game in Ottawa. Tortorella is pushing his club to build from that performance.
2. Establishing a more sustainable process.
The Flyers have been able to keep their heads above water in the standings so far for four primary reasons:
* They have been getting spectacular goaltending from Carter Hart (6-0-2, 1.97 GAA, .946 save percentage). Goalie play is still hockey's greatest equalizer.
* Although the team yields 36.5 shots per game (third-most in the NHL), they also blost the second-most shot attempts per game (19.84) in the league, which is a both-sides-of-the-coin reflection of the team's character and work ethic to get in the lanes but also shows how infrequently the Flyers have had possession overall.
* The Flyers have thus far pulled their abysmal 2021-22 power play (12.6 success rate, last in the NHL and the worst in franchise history after the inaugural 1967-68 season), to 20 percent. Additionally, the Flyers penalty kill clocks in ranked in a tie for 8th league at 82.1 percent. The team's special teams index of 102.1 percent is a vast improvement so far from a season ago.
* As mentioned above, the 2022-23 Flyers have thus far been a much more resilient squad than recent past editions. While it's far from ideal that the Flyers have yielded the game's first goal in nine of the 11 games so far, the fact that team already has won five such games -- as many as they did in that situation for the entire 2021-22 season demonstrates strong character.
In the bigger picture, the real question is whether it's sustainable to keep winning in the manner that the Flyers have thus far. That won't be easy. That's why the win in Ottawa was a step in the right direction in several areas.Ultimately, the Flyers need to spend more time attacking and less time defending than they have so far, the skaters need from a defensive standpoint to provide Hart with a fair opportunity to make saves and the goalie himself must continue to perform at a very high level.
3. Can Flyers Wear Down the Blues?
On average, the Blues are a bigger and heavier team than the Flyers but they have one of the older rosters across the league. The average age on the St. Louis roster is roughly 28 years and three months old. The Flyers' average age is 27.1 across the 23-man active roster. In and of itself, these are just numbers. It doesn't necessarily mean anything significant.
However, the Blues have had a tendency so far this season to fade as games go along. Opponents have only scored six times in the first period against St. Louis (against eight goals by the Blues) but the team in is the red in both its goal and shot differentials over the latter periods of the game. This includes being outscored 13 to 7 in third periods so far this season.
With the Blues playing the second game of a back-to-back and the Flyers having been idle on the schedule on Sunday and Monday nights, there's an opportunity for the Flyers to wear down St. Louis over the course of Tuesday's match. Doing so may require the Flyers to force the Blues to get into some penalty trouble and to establish their forechecking game at 5-on-5.
4. Flyers Line Play
The Flyers used the same 5-on-5 forward combinations at Monday's practice that they did for Saturday's game in Ottawa. The club had an optional morning skate on Tuesday. Assuming the forward combinations hold over to start another game, Kieffer Bellows may be the odd man out in the lineup for a second straight game.
Noah Cates took the faceoffs (3-for-9) for his line in Saturday's game, but he also saw time on left wing with Lukas Sedlak in the middle.
Meanwhile, the Flyers may have a lineup change on defense. Rasmus Ristolainen was a healthy scratch in Ottawa but may return for this game. Egor Zamula had a rough game against the Senators, playing 9:27 across 15 shifts. However, the Flyers rotated defensive personnel regularly at Monday's practice.
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 - 54 Egor Zamula or 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
24 Nick Seeler - 61 Justin Braun
79 Carter Hart
[32 Felix Sandström]
5. Behind Enemy Lines: St. Louis Blues
On Monday at TD Garden, the Blues sustained a 3-1 loss to the Bruins. Jake DeBrusk opened the scoring for Boston with a power play goal at 13:34 of the first period. In the second period, Brayden Schenn knotted the score at the 11:37 mark (assisted by Jordan Kyrou and Torey Krug). The score remained tied until Bostron struck on a third-period power play by goal by Patrice Bergeron at 12:45. The Bruins netted an insurance goal by Trent Frederic at 16:26. The Bruins outshot the Blues by a 37-26 margin.
Brayden Schenn is tied for the team scoring lead with 10 points (3g, 7a) along with Justin Fauk (3g, 7a). Vladimir Tarasenko has notched a team-leading four goals among his nine points. Jordan Binnington (3-5-0, 3.37 GAA, .886 SV%) was in goal for the Boston game, making Thomas Greiss (0-2-0, 3.28 GAA, .915 SV%),
Only the Blues have scored fewer 5-on-5 goals (13) to date than the Flyers (17). St. Louis has allowed 25 goals at 5-on-5. On the power play, they have gone 6-for-27 (22.2 percent, ranked 15th). On the penalty kill, St. Louis is ranked 29th, going 16-for-23 (69.6 percent).
Projected lines (subject to change)
20 Brandon Saad - 90 Ryan O'Reilly - 49 Ivan Barbashev
89 Pavel Buchnevich - 18 Robert Thomas - 91 Vladimir Tarasenko
63 Jake Neighbours - 10 Brayden Schenn - 25 Jordan Kyrou
65 Alexei Toropchenko - 52 Noel Acciari - 26 Nathan Walker
4 Nick Leddy - 55 Colton Parayko
46 Torey Krug - 72 Justin Faulk
77 Niko Mikkola - 41 Robert Bortuzzo
1 Thomas Greiss
[50 Jordan Binnington]
