5 THINGS: Flyers vs. Penguins

Winless in their eight games, John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (7-8-5) will host Mike Sullivan's Pittsburgh Penguins (10-7-3) on Black Friday at the Wells Fargo Center. Game time is 5:30 p.m. ET.

GAME NOTES
The game will be nationally televised on TNT. The radio broadcast is on 93.3 WMMR with an online simulcast on Flyers Radio 24/7.
This is the first of three meetings this season between the Metro Division rivals. and the lone game in Philadelphia. The teams will rematch at PPG Paints Arena on the afternoon of March 11 and the evening of April 2.
The Flyers are coming off a 3-2 overtime road loss to the Washington Capitals on Wednesday. Philadelphia fell to 0-5-3 over its last eight games,
The Flyers led 2-1 late in the third period -- in which they held the Capitals to six shots -- but had a disastrously ill-timed coverage meltdown on a Washington rush that started out behind their net and ended in a tap-in goal by Sonny Milano. In a losing cause, Morgan Frost and Patrick Brown scored for the Flyers, respectively giving the team leads of 1-0 and 2-1.
The Penguins bring a four-game winning streak into Friday's game, and are 6-1-1 over their last eight games. Leaguewide, only the St. Louis Blues (14) have more points than the Penguins (13) over that span.
On Wednesday, the Penguins defeated the visiting Calgary Flames via shootout, 2-1 ( 3-2). Tristan Jarry stopped 33 of 34 shots during regulation and overtime to earn the win in goal. Jan Rutta scored in regulation before Evgeni Malkin netted the winner in the shootout. Rickard Rakell and Sidney Crosby also converted their shootout opportunities for Pittsburgh.
Here are five things to watch in Friday's game.
1. Energy and emotion
The Flyers are catching the Penguins at a time when Pittsburgh is red hot, playing with sky-high confidence and their veteran-laden roster is mostly healthy . Philly, meanwhile, is riddled with injuries and finding ways to lose winnable games.
The Flyers have remained a remarkably resilient team this season, even as they've found themselves regularly playing from behind. However, they are no longer winning games in which they battle back from deficits to draw even (or least back within one goal). When playing from ahead, Philly has struggled to close out games. They are also winless in games that have been decided beyond regulation.
There are a lot of things that are beyond the Flyers' control right now. One thing they can control is their energy level and channeling the emotions inherent to being the underdog playing in their own building against their archrival.
Most of the major on-paper factors in Friday's matchup favor the Penguins: puck possession time, shot quality including expected goal differentials, recent special teams trends, etc. But there are also intangibles that can factor into the outcome of any given game.
Tortorella discussed this topic last week when he said, "You don't want to lose your belief when you have some struggles. ...I like some of the personality that we have within our club. I think we've shown some that this year in terms of growing into becoming that type of team [that opponents know will always compete hard against them]. It's so important that we have some swagger. I think we need to always work on our swagger and our attitude."
2. The special teams factor
Both ends of special teams have been very troublesome -- and costly -- for the Flyers over their current eight-game winless streak.
A penalty kill that ranked fourth in the NHL coming into the Nov. 12 game against Ottawa has since plummeted to 26th in the league (74,2 percent). There have been some subtle recent improvements on the PK in terms of taking away the middle of the ice in some recent games but it's been the rare game of late in which opposition power play goals do not factor into the outcome. The Penguins' power play, on the whole, has struggled this season. The club enters this game ranked 26th in the NHL at 17.9 percent on the man advantage. However, dating back over the last two and a half seasons, the Penguins are 10-for-27 on the power play against the Flyers over the last 10 meetings between the teams.
The Penguins have been outstanding of late on the penalty kill, bringing into this game a five-game streak of not allowing an opposing power play goal. Over the last six games, the Pens are 17-for-18. Overall, Pittsburgh has improved to 80.3 percent (13th) on the PK. The Flyers, meanwhile, have dropped to 29th in the NHL on the power play, bringing an anemic 14.9 percent success rate (10-for-67) into this game including a 4-for-31 mark (12.9 percent) on home ice.
With so much of their key personnel still missing for the Flyers, it would be a positive if the club can make the respective special teams outcomes cancel out in this game. At 5-on-5, the Flyers have broken even to date this season (36 goals for versus 36 goals against). The Penguins are a plus-nine at 5-on-5 (49 GF versus 40 GA).
3. Hayes and Hart
For the Flyers to end their own eight-game winless streak and simultaneously halt Pittsburgh's four-game winning streak, there is a good chance they will need a stellar effort from Carter Hart in goal.
Hart started out the season playing at an otherworldly -- and clearly unsustainable for any goalie -- level. Since that time, his play has been decent but not spectacular. His season save percentage is still strong at .920 but it's been dropping steadily of late, albeit not primarily due to his own errors.
A good example was Monday's 5-2 home loss to Calgary. The first two Flames goals were on 2-on-1s and not easy saves but, by the same token, neither shot was unstoppable. Hart conceded a lot of net on both goals. The third Calgary goal was accidentally deflected into the net off the stick of teammate Joel Farabee. With Hart pulled for an extra attacker, the Flames scored two empty net goals to turn a 3-2 game into a final three-goal margin.
Up front, the Flyers really need a strong two-way game -- no major lapses on either side of the puck -- from Kevin Hayes. In the absence of regular linemate and team leading scorer Travis Konecny, Hayes (five goals, team-high 14 assists, 19 points in 20 games) is the Flyers' most consistent point producer.
However, there have been other aspects of Hayes' game that Tortorella has not been quite as happy with this season. The issues boil down to inconsistent attention to detail on the defensive side of the puck, certain high-risk puck management decisions and, to a lesser extent, shift discipline. He (and Konecny) were benched for the third period of the Oct. 23 game against San Jose. More recently, Hayes was moved to left wing at the start of the game against Calgary.
Hayes, who nevertheless has five points (2g, 3a) over his last five games despite the slew of injuries that have depleted the Flyers' roster, had a rough game in Washington on Wednesday. None of the five shots Hayes attempted made it on net (three were blocked, two missed the net) across 27 shifts and 19:55 of ice time. He did not block a shot, get credited with any hits or takeaways. In terms of underlying numbers, Hayes was a team-low 31.58 percent on-ice Corsi for that game and was on the ice for six Capitals scoring chances to one for his own team. In overtime, Hayes lost the opening faceoff of the 3-on-3 sudden death, and Philly never touched the puck again in the 65 seconds until Alex Ovechkin ended the game.
It should go without saying that these stats from Wednesday's game are a reflection of the entire group -- not just one player -- on the ice. Nevertheless, the Flyers are very reliant on Hayes in particular. Getting a strong bounceback performance from both Hayes and his linemates against the Penguins is an extremely important factor in whether the Flyers give themselves a realistic chance at an upset win on this given day.
4. Flyers line play
As with the Penguins, the Flyers are in the midst of a stretch of three games in four nights and the first game of a back-to-back set. The Flyers did not practice on Thanksgiving Day and the unusual twilight starting time of Friday's game made a typical morning skate session on game day impractical.
The line combinations below are the primary combos that were used in Washington and are subject to change:
86 Joel Farabee - 48 Morgan Frost - 74 Owen Tippett
49 Noah Cates - 13 Kevin Hayes - 17 Zack MacEwen
59 Jackson Cates - 38 Patrick Brown - 58 Tanner Laczynski
44 Nicolas Deslauriers - 23 Lukas Sedlak - 20 Kieffer Bellows
9 Ivan Provorov - 77 Tony DeAngelo
6 Travis Sanheim - 61 Justin Braun
24 Nick Seeler - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
79 Carter Hart
32 Felix Sandström
5. Behind Enemy Lines: Pittsburgh Penguins
Tortorella and Sullivan are longtime friends away from the game and have worked closely together in the past. Sullivan was Tortorella's assistant coach and protege in Tampa Bay, New York and Vancouver before his highly successful tenure and two Stanley Cup rings as the Penguins head coach.
Additionally, the Penguins roster is loaded with veterans. There won't be any surprises thrown at the Flyers by the Pens. The onus is on the Flyers to show they can handle what Pittsburgh will throw at them in terms of puck pressure and to eventually dictate more of the play to their own liking. The Flyers have to respect the Penguins' still-formidable attack, but they can't give much respect that Philly plays strictly a passive, reactive game.
For the first time in years, the Penguins have had both Crosby (10 goals, 17 points) and Malkin (eight goals, 20 points) available throughout the first 20 games of the regular season. Defenseman Kris Letang is off to a slow start by his standards (one goal, 10 assists, 11 points, traditional minus-nine in 19 games) but has often tortured the Flyers over the course of his career.
Likewise, forward Jake Guentzel has been a Flyer-killer for most of his career to date. In 23 games against the Flyers, Guentzel has racked up nine goals and 24 points. For the 2022-23 season to date, Guentzel has produced 10 goals and 18 points in 16 games played. Meanwhile, veteran forward Jason Zucker (5g, 13a in 18 games), 37-year-old ex-Flyer Jeff Carter (3g, 8a in 17 games), Rickard Rakell (eight goals, 13 points) and Bryan Rust (5g, 5a) are long-familiar opponents.
In goal, Jarry has made 12 appearances this season (7-3-2 record, 3.06 GAA, .910 save percentage, one shutout) and backup Casey DeSmith (3-4-1, 2.88 GAA, .909 SV%) has played in eight games.
Potential lineup (subject to change):
59 Jake Guentzel -87 Sidny Crosby - 67 Rickard Rakell
16 Jason Zucker - 71 Evgeni Malkin - 17 Bryan Rust
23 Brock McGinn - 77 Jeff Carter - 43 Danton Heinen
25 Ryan Poehling - 53 Teddy Blueger - 15 Josh Archibald
28 Marcus Pettersson - 58 Kris Letang
73 Pierre-Olivier Joseph - 26 Jeff Petry
8 Brian Dumoulin - 44 Jan Rutta
35 Tristan Jarry
1 Casey DeSmith