5 THINGS: Flyers vs. Panthers

On 1960s/1970s Throwback Thursday at the Wells Fargo Center, John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (4-2-0) will host Paul Maurice's Florida Panthers (4-2-1). Game time is 7:00 p.m. EDT.

GAME NOTES
The game will be televised on NBCSP. The local radio broadcast is on 97.5 The Fanatic with an online simulcast on
Flyers Radio 24/7.
This is the second of three meetings between the teams this season. The season series will conclude on March 21 with another game in Philadelphia.
On Oct. 19 in Sunrise, the Panthers defeated the Flyers, 4-3. Philadelphia overcame a 2-0 deficit to get the game to the third period tied at 2-2. However, the Panthers forged ahead again in the third period; this time to stay.
Carter Verhaeghe (1st and 2nd goals of the season) built a 2-0 lead for the Panthers in the first period, sandwiched around a disallowed would-be goal for Travis Konecny. In the latter stages of the first period,Nick Seeler (1st) got one back for the Flyers.
Florida had various chances in the second period to restore a two-goal margin. In the latter stages of the period, a James van Riemsdyk power play goal (2nd) in a scramble near the net made it a 2-2 game.
Rudolfs Balcers (1st) restored a 3-2 lead for Florida at 3:51 of the third period. On the very next shift, Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky denied Morgan Frost on a breakaway. Florida defenseman Josh Mahura (1st) made it 4-2 at 9:08. Travis Konecny (4th) scored a 6-on-5 goal with two seconds left in the game.
Here are five storylines to watch in Thursday's game.
1. TIppett returns to face Florida.
Back on opening night (Oct. 13) against the New Jersey Devils, Flyers right winger Owen Tippett collided heavily with the the Devils' Ondrej Palat late in the first period. Tippett had to leave the game with a suspected concussion. He subsequently went on the injury reserve list.
Tippett accompanied his team on its recent three-game road trip, skating regularly. He rejoined practice with the club on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, and passed the protocol to be cleared to play.
Thursday's game will mark the first time Tippett has played against the Panthers since his original organization traded him to Philadelphia in the deal that sent Claude Giroux to Florida as a rental for the 2022 stretch drive and playoffs.
TIppett's return is timely and much-needed for the Flyers. The team has lost James van Riemsdyk (impending surgery to repair a broken finger) for four or more weeks. Additionally, but on a happier note, young forward Tanner Laczynski is unavailable for Thursday's game because he and his wife, Madison, are awaiting the birth of their first child.
2. Flyers to start seven D.
Rugged Flyers defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen dealt with a lower-body injury during the preseason and a recurrence in the final practice before opening night cost the Finnish blueliner a trip to the injured reserve list. After missing the first six games of the regular season, Ristolainen has rejoined the active roster following two days of practice with the team.
Partially due to the temporary shortage of forwards and partially due to Tortorella wanting to ease Ristolainen back into the lineup without immediately removing any of Egor Zamula, Nick Seeler or Justin Braun, the Flyers will start seven defensemen and 11 forwards against Florida.
3. Cates back to left wing.
Noah Cates had an outstanding training camp and a solid start to the season. He immediately gained Tortorella's trust as a two-way forward and was switched from left wing to center. Tortorella feels that Cates can handle the heftier responsibilities that come with playing.
Cates, as expected, has been reliable without the puck. However, he's struggled on faceoffs (as have all the Flyers' centers so far).Cates has taken a team-high 103 draws this season but won a team-worst 34.95 percent.
More noticeably, playing center has rendered Cates unable to use one of his greatest assets -- his forechecking ability -- to its full advantage. A center is typically the last forward to exit the defensive zone and, correspondingly, is not the first forechecker (the F1) to arrive when the play moves up ice.
Through the first six games this season, Cates has only one point. More concerningly, he has just four shots on goal so far. His lone point, the game-winning goal in Tampa Bay, came in a forechecking situation where he was out against tired Tampa players who were caught on the ice on a very long shift. Cates pressured, forced a turnover up the middle, and claimed the puck to score on a nice turnaround shot.
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Noting that Cates has otherwise had a "little dip" in his offensive confidence and assertiveness while playing center thus far, Tortorella has at least temporarily had him switch places with Scott Laughton. Laughton, who has played center for much of his NHL career, will move back to the middle. Cates will be on left wing with Tippett -- who combined with Cates late last season as two-thirds on effective line with Morgan Frost -- completing the line.
4. Sedlak will move around.
Claimed off waivers from Colorado last week, veteran forward Lukas Sedlak has displayed the combination of defensive responsibility, tenacious puck pursuit, above-average mobility and versatility that made him a trusted fourth-line player under Tortorella in Columbus for several seasons.
Sedlak can play center or either wing with nearly equal degrees of comfort. He's been a fourth-line player for most of his NHL career but is not devoid of offensive ability. With the Flyers playing short a forward, Sedlak will start Thursday's game
on left wing with Frost and Wade Allison as his linemates.
However, Tortorella said that he expects to do significant line juggling over the course of this match. Sedlak will see some shifts on a wing, and some at center. Frost may play with various wingers rotating on and off the line. On Wednesday, Nick Deslauriers was on the line with Frost and Allison while Zack MacEwen has also seen time with Frost in recent games.
Projected Flyers starting lineup (subject to change
86 Joel Farabee - 13 Kevin Hayes - 11 Travis Konecny
49 Noah Cates - 21 Scott Laughton - 74 Owen Tippett
23 Lukas Sedlak - 48 Morgan Frost - 57 Wade Allison
44 Nicolas Deslauriers - xxxxxxx - 17 Zack MacEwen
9 Ivan Provorov - 77 Tony DeAngelo
6 Travis Sanheim - 61 Justin Braun
24 Nick Seeler - 54 Egor Zamula
55 Rasmus Ristolanen
79 Carter Hart
[32 Felix Sandström]
PP1: DeAngelo (point), Farabee, Hayes, Konency (bumper), Laughton (netfront).
PP2: Provorov (point), Cates, Frost, Tippett, Allison (netfront).
5. Behind Enemy Lines: Florida Panthers
Last Thursday, the Panthers punished the Flyers with their transition game, generating no fewer than six odd-man rush opportunities and scoring two goals on what became breakaways or semi-breakaways. If not for a couple of missed nets with wide-open looks, the game might easily have been a rout rather than one in which the Flyers hung close for most of the night.
Two-time Vezina Trophy winner Bobrovsky, a former Flyer, stopped 31 of 34 shots in the teams' first meeting this season. He came up big several times, particularly in stoning Frost when Philadelphia had a chance to quickly re-tie the game after the Panthers took a 3-2 lead.
In the week since Florida's home win over the Flyers, the Panthers are 1-1-1. They sustained a 3-2 overtime loss on home ice against archrival Tampa Bay last Friday and then concluded their homestand with a 3-2 victory over the New York Islanders on Sunday. This week, the Panthers embarked upon a brief, two-game road trip. Before coming to Philadelphia, the Panthers were upset by the Chicago Blackhawks, 4-2, on Tuesday evening.
The match in Chicago followed the classic "trap game" scenario. The Panthers lacked focus in falling into a 3-0 deficit that included veteran superstar Patrick Kane scoring his first goal of the season in the final half-minute of the opening period. Florida found its sense of urgency in the third period but were unable to find a tying goal after Eetu Luostarinen and Matthew Tkachuk narrowed the deficit to 3-2. An empty-net goal by veteran Chicago captain Jonathan Toews sealed the 4-2 final score. After mustering a meager 16 shots through 40 minutes, Florida let loose with 15 shots (to just six including the ENG for Chicago) in the final period.
As such, there is a good chance the Flyers will see a hungrier opponent in Thursday's game than the version of the Panthers squad that slogged through two periods before their ultimately unsuccessful comeback bid in the final stanza. The Panthers' No. 1 defenseman, Aaron Ekblad, remains sidelined. His absence had no bearing on last Thursday's game against the Flyers, as the Panthers still had their way for the decided majority of the game.
Potential starting lineup (subject to change)
23 Carter Verhaeghe - 16 Aleksander Barkov - 13 Sam Reinhart
38 Rudofs Balcers - 9 Sam Bennett - 19 Matthew Tkachuk
27 Eeto Luostarinen - 15 Anton Lundell - 6 Colin White
94 Ryan Lomberg - 21 Nick Cousins - 70 Patric Hörnqvist
42 Gustav Forsling - 62 Brandon Montour
28 Josh Mahura- 7 Radko Gudas
3 Matt Kiersted - 18 Marc Staal
72 Sergei Bobrovsky
30 Spencer Knight
PP1:Bennett-Reinhart-Tkachuk-Barkov-Montour
PP2: Hörnqvist-Lundell-Balcers-Verhaeghe-Forsling