John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (18-10-3) will host Andrew Brunette's Nashville Predators (18-14-0) on Thursday evening at Wells Fargo Center. Game time 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 inter-conference teams and the lone game in Philadelphia. Last Tuesday (Dec. 12) at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, the Predators prevailed over the Flyers in overtime, 3-2.
The Flyers enter Thursday's game riding a nine-game point streak (7-0-2). Two nights ago, the Flyers rallied back from deficits of 1-0 and 2-1 to earn a 3-2 overtime road win over the New Jersey Devils. Owen Tippett netted the winning goal in OT.
Thursday's game is the Flyers' penultimate match before the leaguewide Christmas break. It's the Flyers final home game until January 4.
Here are five things to watch in the rematch with the Predators.
1. "It's a Find-a-Way League"
Tortorella has often said -- and players have picked up on the motto -- that the NHL is a "find-a-way league". Clubs must discover a variety of different means of winning games. There will be nights when it's a struggle to create energy. Nights where your goaltender has to steal the game for your club. Other nights where you may need to come out on top in a 5-4 final.
Over the course of the Flyers' current nine-game point streak, they've come away with wins -- or at least two regulation ties before dropping OT decisions -- by various different means. The team is 7-0-1 thus far in December: 4-3 shootout road win over Pittsburgh, 2-1 home overtime win home win against the Penguins, 4-1 road victory in Arizona, 5-2 road win in Colorado, 3-2 overtime loss in Nashville after pushing back from a 2-0 deficit, 4-3 home overtime win against Washington, 1-0 home victory against Detroit after scoring early in the first period, and Tuesday's 3-2 home OT win against the Devils.
The Flyers have shown themselves to be a resilient team. Even so, it would be ideal if the Flyers spend less time in the defensive zone than they have in some of their recent games. Philly has been one of the NHL's best teams when scoring first. The Flyers hold a 15-1-0 record. When trailing first, it took the Flyers until the latter half of November to come up with their first win but the team is now 3-9-3 in such games.
2. Teammates picking up for teammates
Part and parcel of finding a wide variety of ways to win is having a variety of players step up on different nights. One near-constant, though, is strong goaltending play. Due to Carter Hart dealing with illness, Samuel Ersson has started each of the Flyers last four games and has been outstanding.
With the Flyers playing a back-to-back set on Thursday at home against the Predators and Friday on the road in Detroit, the goalie work will likely be split between the two games. Ersson will certainly get one of the games. As long as Hart is feeling better, he'll get the other. The Flyers reassigned Cal Petersen to the Phantoms on Wednesday.
On Tuesday in Newark, Ryan Poehling stepped up in a big way. His two goals -- both tallied in the second period -- brought the Flyers back after trailing 1-0 and 2-1. Poehling didn't just score. He had an excellent all-around game. On a night where none of the Flyers' other centers -- Sean Couturier, Morgan Frost or Scott Laughton -- were at the top of their respective games, Poehling's big night was indispensable.
Likewise, in the game against the Devils, the Flyers moved fourth-line winger Garnet Hathaway up in the rotation over the latter portion of the game. Cam Atkinson was moved down. For that night, it worked.
3. Flyers power play vs. Nashville PK
The Flyers went 0-for-3 on the power play on Tuesday against the Devils. Neither the first power play unit nor the second unit generated sufficient pressure (although PP2 was the better unit on that night). In other recent games, PP1 created some looks at the net but no goals, and PP2 struggled to get set up at all.
Bottom line, the Flyers have scored only one power play goal thus far in December: by Tyson Foerster in Pittsburgh on December 2. It has not proven costly so far this month, but absolutely must improve.
For the season, the Flyers power play ranks 31st in the NHL at 10.2 percent (10-for-98). The Flyers have only allowed one shorthanded goal to date.
The Predators' penalty kill ranks 23rd in the NHL this season at 76.9 percent. Opposing power plays are 24-for-104 to date. The Predators have scored three shorthanded goals so far this season, all by Colton Sissons.
4. Flyers PK vs. Predators power play
The Flyers have yielded one opposing power play goal apiece in each of the last two games. Both were scored off unlucky bounces where a rebound ended up on an open player's stick at the other side of the net.
Overall, though, the Flyers' penalty kill has been outstanding. For the season, the Flyers rank fourth in the NHL at 85.6 percent success. Opposing power plays are 14-for-97. The Flyers' have scored seven shorthanded goals this season: three by Travis Konecny, two by defenseman Sean Walker, and one apiece by Poehling and Laughton.
The Predators power play ranks 17th in the NHL at 20.9 percent success. The team has gone 24-for-115 while yielding three shorthanded goals.
5. Behind Enemy Lines: Nashville Predators
The Predators enter this game coming off a 5-2 home loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday. The Preds fell into a 2-0 deficit in the first period and never drew closer than 2-1. The Preds trailed 4-1 by the end of the middle stanza and 5-1 within the third period before Cody Glass (1st) scored in the final 12 seconds of the game. Jeremy Lauzon (3rd) tallied the other Nashville goal.
Filip Forsberg leads the Predators offensively with 36 points (16g, 20a) through 32 games. He's followed by star defenseman Roman Josi (7g, 20a), veteran center Ryan O'Reilly (13g, 13a) and Gustav Nyquist (4g, 16a). In goal, Juuse Saros has made 25 starts, going 14-11-0 with a 2.85 goals against average, .908 save percentage and one shutout.
