5 THINGS: Flyers vs. Panthers

John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (26-31-12) are home on Tuesday evening to take on Paul Maurice's Florida Panthers (35-27-7). Game time is 7:00 p.m. EDT.

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 third and final meeting of the season between the teams and the second in Philadelphia. On Oct. 19 in Sunrise, the Panthers prevailed by a 4-3 score. The scene shifted to Philly on Oct. 27, where the Flyers won the game by a 4-3 count.
Tonight's game is the third on the Flyers' current seven-game homestand. Philly is 1-1-1 to date on the homestand. On Sunday, the Flyers were less than one second away from a 4-3 regulation win over the Carolina Hurricanes before Carolina's Martin Necas scored with 0.3 second on the clock to force overtime. Just 28 seconds into OT, Sebastian Aho completed a hat trick and sent the Flyers down to a 5-4 overtime defeat. The Flyers are 2-6-2 in their last 10 games.
The Panthers, who have won back-to-back games, are 4-0-1 in their last five games and 7-2-1 in their last 10. The team has overtaken the Pittsburgh Penguins for the lower wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference playoff race. Both the Panthers and Penguins have 12 games remaining on their respective schedules. Florida enters tonight with 79 points while the Penguins, who have lost four straight games in regulation, have 78. Pittsburgh is idle on tonight's NHL schedule.
Here are five things to watch in tonight's Flyers vs. Panthers game:
1. Flyers young players at the forefront
For much of Saturday's game against Carolina, the big story for the Flyers was how well they competed with a top-notch opponent and the prominent roles that Philly's contingent of players age 24 or younger played in spurring Philly to a 4-3 lead after training by scores of 2-0 and 3-1. Unfortunately for the Flyers, the gut-wrenching and almost surreal conclusion of the game ended up overshadowing everything else.
In the big picture, however, there was encouragement to be found from most of what happened on Saturday. The Flyers received multi-point efforts from Tyson Foerster (1st career NHL goal, 2nd career assist), Noah Cates (5-on-3 power play goal, one assist), Owen Tippett (one primary assist and one secondary assist), Morgan Frost (two nicely executed primary assists). Joel Farabee cashed in a game-tying rebound goal in the third period for a goal in a second straight game after enduring a 26-game goalless drought.
Among the players on the Flyers' roster who are 25 or older, 27-year-old impending unrestricted free agent Brendan Lemieux had the most memorable night on Saturday. He generated a goal and an assist. The apple was a secondary assist that triggered a give-and-go sequence between Frost and Foerster that led up to Foerster nabbing his first goal. The Lemieux goal was a go-ahead tally in the third period. He scored it into a gaping net after Frost pressured Carolina goalie Frederik Andersen into a turnover behind the net and center the puck to Lemieux in front.
Over the final 13 games of the season, Tortorella aims to see many of the aforementioned players produce similar efforts on a consistent basis to their performances against Carolina. The Flyers may not be in playoff contention but these late-season games are meaningful to those vying to be part of the team's future beyond the 2022-23 campaign.
2. The "Tipp"-ing point
No Flyers player, veteran or younger player, has stood out more in recent weeks than Tippett. He has been outstanding in the month of March and was finally rewarded on the scoreboard in Friday's game against Buffalo as he racked up the first hat trick of his NHL career. He's been using his combination of speed and size to very strong effect more consistently. Although he still needs to finish scoring chances more consistently, Tippett has been a threat every time he steps on the ice of late.
Dating back the start of March, per Natural Stat Trick, Tippett has had 33 scoring chances at 5-on-5 alone in the last eight games including 15 high-danger chances. When all game situations are considered, he's had 37 scoring chances with 17 high-danger chances. Four of Tippett's chances have gone into the net for goals.
The closest Flyers player to Tippet has been Frost. At 5-on-5, "Frosty" has had 17 scoring chances with eight high-danger chances in the last eight games. Two have been converted into goals. Frost was recently dropped from the first power play unit to PP2 but is second in all-situations scoring chances (21 overall, 9 high-danger). Cates has 19 all-situations chances with 11 high-danger chances.

On Monday in Voorhees, Tippett joined his teammates on the ice for the start of practice but left before line rushes and did not return. Tortorella said the player is a bit "nicked up" and elected to take a maintenance day but will be OK to play tonight.
Tippett has been logging massive ice time lately, including some penalty killing duties. A few times, he's hobbled off the ice after painfully blocking shots. He's also taken assorted hits and slashes from opponents trying (often in vain) to slow him down.
3. Hart likely to start
Old-school-styled head coach John Tortorella is among what's now a minority of NHL head coaches who declines to publicly announce his team's starting goalie during the regular season until the day of a game (rather than one day ahead). However, barring illness or injury, it's usually a pretty safe bet to project Carter Hart as the starting goalie unless it's the second game of a back-to-back or an otherwise compacted portion of the schedule.
Hart missed an initially scheduled start last Tuesday because he was dealing with the flu. He returned on Friday to play a strong game in defeating Buffalo. Felix Sandström went the next night against Carolina.
In all likelihood, Hart will return to the net against Florida. For the season, Hart is 18-21-10 with a 2.94 GAA, .907 save percentage and one shutout.
4. Flyers line play
On Monday, the Flyers used their second of four allotted standard (i.e., non-emergency) post-NHL trade deadline recalls from the AHL to bring Egor Zamula back up from the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms to the parent club. Zamula has dressed in 11 games for the Flyers this season, last appearing in the NHL on Dec. 1 against Tampa Bay.
The apparent plan with Zamula is for the Russian defenseman to dress in two games this week -- on left defense against Florida tonight and possibly on right defense against Minnesota on Thursday. The Phantoms return to action over the weekend after being idle this week on Monday through Friday. Tortorella is considering whether to dress seven defensemen and 11 forwards against the Panthers but deferred that decision until after Tuesday's morning skate at the FTC.
The Flyers head coach said on Monday that he has not seen sufficient progress this season in the play off center/winger Tanner Laczynski, either before the player's 36-game absence with a lower-body injury or since his return. On Saturday, the Flyers shortened their bench against Carolina.
Laczynski (seven shifts, 5:29 TOI, minus-two) and Wade Allison (minus-two, 8:48 TOI) remained on the bench over latter half of the game as the Flyers mostly rolled the top three lines and periodically double-shifted Frost with JVR and Nicolas Deslauriers on his wings in between Frost taking his regular shifts with Foerster and Lemieux.
On Monday, Laczynski was not part of the team's line rushes at practice.Injury-rehabbing center Sean Couturier tooks reps with the fourth line and was a stand-in penalty killer. Travis Konecny, meanwhile, took RW4 rushes and stood in for Tippett on PP1 reps. Neither player is ready to play yet -- Couturier is closer than Konecny -- but both continue to make progress.
Projected starting lineup (subject to change)
86 Joel Farabee - 49 Noah Cates - 74 Owen Tippett
21 Brendan Lemieux - 48 Morgan Frost - 52 Tyson Foerster
21 Scott Laughton - 13 Kevin Hayes - 25 James van Riemsdyk
44 Nicolas Deslauriers - xxxx - 57 Wade Allison
9 Ivan Provorov - 45 Cam York
6 Travis Sanheim - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
24 Nick Seeler - 77 Tony DeAngelo
54 Egor Zamula
79 Carter Hart
[32 Felix Sandström]
Available: 20 Kieffer Bellows, 58 Tanner Laczynski, 61 Justin Braun

5. Behind enemy lines: Florida Panthers
The Panthers have plenty of motivation heading into tonight's game with a chance to open a three-point lead over Pittsburgh in the chase for the final playoff spot in the East. Florida is playing its third game in four nights (home-road-road) and the second half of a back-to-back.
On Saturday, the Panthers earned a 4-2 home win against the New Jersey Devils. Two goals by Sam Reinhart (25th and 26th, power play and empty net) amid a four-goal outburst in the third period propelled Florida from a 2-0 deficit to a two-goal victory.
Between the 6:14 and 8:44 marks of the third period, the Panthers scored three times in a span of two-and-a-half minutes to go from trailing 0-2 to leading 3-2. Aleksander Barkov (18th goal of the season) and Matthew Tkachuk (32nd) also tallied for Florida. Starting for the 12th consecutive game, former two-time Vezina Trophy winner Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 33 of 35 shots to earn the win in goal.
Last night, the Panthers earned a 5-2 road win over the Detroit Red Wings. Tkachuk (33rd), Carter Verhaeghe (35th), Gustav Forsling (10th), Eric Staal (13th) and a late power play goal by Verhaeghe (36th) led the team offensively. Tkachuk also generated a pair of assists in addition to his goal, bringing his season point total to 95. Bobrovsky, in has 13th straight start, denied 20 of 22 shots as he improved to 24-17-3 on the season with a 2.98 goals against average and .904 save percentage.
Sam Bennett left last night's game in Detroit and did not return. Maurice had no update on Bennett's status after the game, saying only that he would be reevaluated on Tuesday morning. He is questionable to doubtful (depending on the prognosis) for tonight's game against the Flyers. If Bennett is a no-go for this game, the Panthers may opt to go with 11 forwards and seven defensemen with Casey Fitzgerald drawing into the lineup.
With the Panthers at the back end of a 3-in-4 and back-to-back scenario, the team will not hold a morning skate. Florida may give former Phantoms/Flyers goalie Alex Lyon the start tonight against his former team. For the season, Lyon is 3-2-1 in five starts and one relief appearance with a 3.89 GAA and .892 save percentage. As Flyers and Phantoms fans know well, Lyon makes some unorthodox saves but battles for every puck.
The Panthers are still a team that relies more on its offensive firepower than its defensive prowess. The club ranks fourth offensively in the NHL, averaging 3.50 goals per game. The power play ranks 11th leaguewide at 22.5 percent efficiency. Defensively, the Panthers rank 23rd at a 3.34 team goals against average. The penalty kill checks in 27th leaguewide with a 74.3 percent success rate.
Veteran forward Patric Hörnqvist and rugged Givani Smith are unavailable for Florida, as both remain on the Injured Reserve list. Young goalie Spencer Knight (NHL Assistance Program) is unavailable indefinitely.
Monday's lineup (will change tonight if Bennett cannot play)
27 Eetu Luostarinen - 16 Aleksander Barkov - 13 Sam Reinhart
23 Carter Verhaeghe - 9 Sam Bennett (?) - 19 Matthew Tkachuk
94 Ryan Lomberg - 15 Anton Lundell - 10 Anthony Duclair
21 Nick Cousins - 12 Eric Staal - 6 Colin White
42 Gustav Forsling - 5 Aaron Ekblad
18 Marc Staal - 62 Brandon Montour
28 Josh Mahura - 7 Radko Gudas
4 Casey Fitzerald (available)
34 Alex Lyon
72 Sergei Bobrovsky