John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (26-19-6) return home to host Rick Bowness' Winnipeg Jets (30-13-5) on Thursday evening. Game time at Wells Fargo Center is 7:00 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 second and final meeting of the season between the Flyers and Jets, and the lone game in Philadelphia. On January 13 in Winnipeg, a 35-save shutout by Samuel Ersson and two goals by Cam Atkinson spurred the Flyers to a 2-0 win. At the time, Winnipeg carried an eight-game winning streak and 12-game point streak (12-0-2) into the game.
The Flyers enter this game coming off a 2-1 road win over the Florida Panthers on Tuesday evening. Ersson stopped 20 of 21 shots, and the team in front of him blocked 22 shot attempts by Florida. Travis Konecny (23rd) and Noah Cates (2nd) scored for Philadelphia. Owen Tippett returned to the Flyers' lineup after missing the previous four games with a lower-body injury. The victory halted a five-game losing streak for the Flyers.
The Jets exited the All-Star break with a 3-0 shutout road loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday. Sean Monahan made his debut for Winnipeg, while star center Mark Scheifele returned from a six-game absence due to a lower-body injury. In a losing cause, Connor Hellebuyck stopped 24 of 27 Pittsburgh shots. The Jets are winless in their last four games (0-3-1).
Here are five things to watch in Thursday's game:
1.The Farabee Factor
Left winger Joel Farabee has been the Flyers most consistently productive five-on-five producer this season with 35 points (one more than leading overall point-getter Konecny). On Tuesday in Sunrise, Farabee churned out a strong all-around performance in the Flyers' first game since the All-Star break.
The biggest highlight of Farabee's night against the Panthers: a backhand saucer pass to Konecny on the sequence that led to the goal that knotted the score at 1-1 late in the second period. Farabee was also pivotal to the Flyers finally establishing some retrievals and forechecking pressure after the Panthers hemmed Philly in their defensive zone for much of the first period.
If the Flyers are to find a way to sweep the season series against the Jets, Farabee is one of the players who must be one of the main tone-setters again.
2. Nick Seeler: Human Eraser
Shot suppression is crucial to beating any team, but especially one with as much talent as Winnipeg has at its disposal. The Flyers would be best served to force the Jets to defend as much as possible. Meanwhile, when play is in the Flyers zone, the same sort of timely shot blocking that was so indispensable in the win over the Panthers will also be needed against the Jets.
On Tuesday evening, Flyers defenseman Nick Seeler blocked a half-dozen shots. In doing so, he passed New York Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba for the NHL lead in blocks. To date, Seeler has blocked 147 opposition shot attempts with an average of 10.21 blocks per 60 minutes of ice time.
As a team, the Flyers rank 4th in the NHL in terms of fewest shots allowed per game (28.1 on average). The Jets rank seventh at 29.0.
Seeler is also good at knocking the puck-carrier off the puck or riding him out of the play. He leads Flyers' defensemen in credited hits with 81 to date. Rasmus Ristolainen tops the blueline in terms of hitting frequency with 6.45 per 60 minutes.
3. Production Down the Middle: Centers and D
Plain and simple, the Flyers need more production from their centers, especially in the goal-scoring department.
Sean Couturier, who missed three games in late January with a mild lower-body injury, is still third on the team in scoring with 31 points (10g, 21a) in 47 games played this season while averaging 19:54 of ice time.
While he's remaining strong in his two-way game, points have been hard to come by lately for Couturier. He has just one point (0g, 1a) in his last six games and just one goal in 16 games played (1g, 7a, 8 points) since the Christmas break. Couturier's last tally came on January 6 at home against Calgary.
Morgan Frost had a strong month of January in terms of scoring chance creation and assists (nine assists in 13 games). However, he has just two goals since the calendar flipped to 2024 and he has not recorded a point in the last three games. Frost's last goal was scored on Jan. 10 against Montreal.
Ryan Poehling has been getting a lot of top-nine usage by Tortorella of late, including 21:12 of ice time against Boston (26 shifts, four shots on goal, minus-three) and 18:46 against Florida (21 shifts, one shot on goal, even). Playing within the top nine increases the need for offensive production.
Poehling (5g, 9a, 14 points in 46 games overall) has seen a mixture of top-nine and fourth-line usage the last couple months. His all-around game and size/speed combination recently earned the player a two-year contract extension. However, more is needed offensively if he's to play above the fourth line.
Over his last 21 games, Poehling has chipped in one goal and four assists. His last goal came nine games ago in St. Louis on January 15. In that stretch, Poehling has played 14 minutes or more in 10 games,
Scott Laughton and Poehling have essentially been flip-flopping roles in the top nine and fourth line. Laughton recently has had issues staying out of the penalty box (including five minors in a recent two-game span). He's also struggled for offensive production.
In his last 21 games, Laughton has posted seven points (3g, 4a). He has five points (2g, 3a) in 18 games since the Christmas break. He's pointless in his last six games since scoring goals in back-to-back games against St. Louis on Jan. 15 and at home against Dallas on Jan. 18.
Winger/center Cates scored a huge goal -- both for the team on for himself -- against the Panthers to decide Tuesday's game. The tally was Cates' first since Oct. 24 and second of the season.
4. Flyers special teams vs. Jets special teams
The Flyers were 0-for-1 on the power play and 1-for-2 on the penalty kill against Florida on Tuesday.
The Panthers made quick work of their first power play, as Carter Verhaeghe skated downhill into a wrister from the top of the left circle and used Flyers defenseman Travis Sanheim as a screen. Philly's lone power play of the game came early in the second period, Neither the first nor second units generated any meaningful pressure; in fact, neither unit even got set up in the attack zone for more than a couple seconds.
At least things ended well for the Flyers on special teams in Tuesday's game. With Tippett in the penalty box, the PK stepped up big to preserve a one-goal lead.
For the season, the Flyers have slippest back down to 31st on the power play through the games on Feb. 6 (21-for-159, 13.2 percent, three shorthanded goals against). The Flyers PK has been uneven over the team's last six games, but is still second overall in the NHL at 85.4 percent success (opponents are 23-for-158) with 10 shorthanded goals scored: five by Konecny. two by Sean Walker, and one apiece for Poehling, Laughton and Garnet Hathaway.
The Jets had a tough night on special teams in Pittsburgh on Tuesday. The Penguins went 2-for-3 on the power play, with tallies by Jeff Carter and Bryan Rust. The Jets were 0-for-2 on their own power plays.
Overall, through the games of Feb. 6, the Jets power play ranks 24th leaguewide (23-for-149, 15.4 percent, three shorthanded goals yielded). Winnipeg's PK ranks 27th on the PK at 76.4 percent (opponents are 33-for-140) with three shorthanded goals scored: one each by Adam Lowry, Vladislav Namestnikov and Mason Appleton. Monahan notched two SHGs with Montreal prior to the trade to the Jets.
5. Behind Enemy Lines: Winnipeg Jets
For the season, the Jets are an impressive 14-6-3 on the road. In the club's last 10 games overall, Winnipeg is 5-4-1, with an 0-3-1 mark over the last four games. During that stretch, the Jets lost 4-1 (road) to the Boston Bruins, 1-0 in overtime (road) against the Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-2 (home) in a rematch with Toronto and then 3-0 the Penguins on Tuesday.
The No. 1 reason for the Jets' overall success this season has been its dominance at 5-on-5. The team is in the red on special teams but plus-36 in its overall goal differential. However, over the last four games, goals have been hard to come by for the Jets in any manpower situation.
Winnipeg is bound to make other teams pay for their recent offensive hiccup, especially with Scheifele (42 games played, 14g, 27a, 41 points) back in the lineup and Monahan (13g, 22a, 35 points with Montreal) now on the club. The club also missed Kyle Connor during a 16-game absence with a knee injury. Connor has not recorded a point in the five games since his return, and he has 29 points (18g, 11a) in 32 games overall.
For the Flyers, the goal is to prolong the Jets' scoring struggles for one more game. After that, when the Jets return home to face the Penguins in a rematch of Tuesday game at PPG Paints Arena, an offensive explosion from Winnipeg would be beneficial to Philadelphia.
Nikolaj Ehlers trails only Scheifele on the Winnipeg scoring leaderboard, posting 16 goals, 35 points and a plus-19 rating. Cole Perfetti has produced 14 goals and 30 points to date. Josh Morrisey leads the blueline corps with 34 points (7g, 24a), a plus-20 rating and an average 24:18 of ice time. Morrissey's defense partner, Dylan DeMelo (1g, 14a, 15 points) leads the team with a plus-27 while averaging 21:47 of ice time per game.
As usual, Hellebuyck (36 starts, 21-10-3 record, 2.22 GAA, .923 save percentage, two shutouts) has been a workhorse in goal for the Jets. Backup goalie Laurent Brossoit has made 12 starts (7-3-2 record, 2.07 GAA, .926 SV%) to date.
