Playing the front end of a home-and-home set, John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (25-26-7) are home on Tuesday evening to take on Mike Sullivan's Pittsburgh Penguins (23-27-9). Game time at Wells Fargo is 7:00 p.m. EST,
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 of four meetings between the cross-state rivals this season and the second of three games in February between the Flyers and Penguins. The season series will conclude on Thursday at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh. On Feb. 8, in the final game before the 4 Nations Face-Off break, the host Flyers defeated Pittsburgh, 3-2. Travis Konecny converted a delayed penalty on Pittsburgh into the game-winning goal at 4:27 of the third period.
Heading into play on Tuesday, the Flyers trail the Ottawa Senators and Columbus Blue Jackets by six points -- five standings points plus a tiebreaker disadvantage -- in the race for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The Flyers have 24 games remaining on the schedule while the other two clubs have 25 apiece.
Here are five things to watch in the first game of the home-and-home set.
1. Tippett-Couturier-Michkov line
The trio of Flyers captain Sean Couturier (nine goals, 19 assists, 28 points) centering a line with Owen Tippett (16g, 16a, 32 points) and rookie Matvei Michkov (17g, 22a, 39 points) is coming off a dominating performance on Saturday in a 6-3 win against the defending Western Conference champion Edmonton Oilers. The line was on the ice for five Philadelphia goals and none for the opposing club.
Along the way, Michkov collected three points: one goal and a pair of primary assists. Tippett notched a pair of goals. Couturier scored a goal (200th of his NHL regular season career) and chipped in two assists.
From an offensive standpoint, Saturday's game was somewhat reminiscent of the Flyers' 7-5 victory against the Minnesota Wild back on October 26. On that afternoon, Couturier recorded a hat trick and two assists on a line with Michkov (one goal, one assist) and Konecny (one goal, four assists). At the time, Tippett (two assists) was playing on a line with now-former Flyer Morgan Frost and checking winger Garnet Hathaway.
2. Special teams vs. 5-on-5
In the first match of the season series, the Penguins went 3-for-3 on the power play. The Flyers did not have any power play opportunities in the game. On February 8, the Flyers only had one power play (0-for-1) but scored on the aforementioned 6-on-5 delayed penalty situation. Meanwhile, Philly went 2-for-2 on the penalty kill.
Overall this season, the Flyers rank 28th on the power play (16.2 percent success) and 18th on the penalty kill (78.6 percent). Pittsburgh's power play ranks eighth leaguewide (24.7 percent) while the penalty kill ranks 16th (79.0 percent).
At 5-on-5, the Flyers and Penguins have both scored 111 goals (tied for 18th). The Flyers have yielded 134 goals at 5-on-5, while the Penguins have given up 143 (only the San Jose Sharks, with 146 allowed, have been scored against more often at 5-on-5).
3. Transition game
When the Flyers are going well offensively, the team is effective at generating scoring chances on transition plays. The team runs into trouble sometimes when it has to grind out goals by winning 50-50 battles on the walls and getting traffic to the net.
In the first of the two previous meetings this season -- a 7-3 loss in Pittsburgh on Dec. 23 -- a four-goal outburst by Pittsburgh in the first period put the Flyers in a cavernous hole. As they built a multi-goal advantage, Pittsburgh scored two goals that counted and one that was disallowed for an offside entry. In the same game, the Flyers temporarily drew within 4-3 on a Couturier goal that started with a textbook two-pass breakout: defenseman (Cam York) to an open forward (Scott Laughton) and ahead to Konecny and Couturier.
