1. WELCOME TO PHILLY
The Flyers host the expansion Vegas Golden Knights for the very first time... They will be hosting an NHL team in their expansion year for the first time in nearly 17 years to the date, since Mar. 15, 2001, when they hosted the Minnesota Wild in their first season (a span of 6,206 days - 16 years, 11 months & 25 days)... This is the second meeting between the two clubs with the Flyers earning a 4-1 win at Vegas on Feb. 11 despite the Golden Knights outshooting the Flyers by a 39 to 18 margin... The Flyers top line produced most of the offense led by Sean Couturier (1g-2a), Claude Giroux (1g-1a) and Travis Konecny (2a).
2. TAKING FLIGHT
The Flyers play the second of their three-game homestand, their longest remaining homestand of the season, and are coming off a win vs. Winnipeg in the first game... At 81 points and 69 games played, the Flyers are three points back of the Metropolitan Division lead, Pittsburgh (84pts-70gp) and two back of Washington (83pts-68gp), while New Jersey (78pts-69gp) is the Flyers closest pursuer... Petr Mrazek has started eight of the last nine games for the Flyers, going 4-3-1... Nolan Patrick has points in three straight (3a) and continues to lead all rookies since Feb. 16 in goals (5) and is tied for second in overall points (10), while Jakub Voracek also has points in three straight (2g-1a) and five points (3g-2a) in his last five games.
3. A KNIGHT'S TALE
The Golden Knights come in leading the Pacific Division in their first year of existence with 44 wins and 93 points, which is also second in the Western Conference and fourth in the entire NHL... Vegas does not have a single player in the Top 20 in NHL scoring, but they are the only NHL team with four players who have 60 or more points this year, and are one of only three teams (PIT & TBL) with five 20-goal scorers... The Golden Knights also have three players in the Top 5 of plus-minus in the entire league with William Karlsson leading at plus-38, Reilly Smith second at plus-32 and Jonathan Marchessault T-4th at plus-29... Vegas leads the Western Conference and ranks second in the NHL in goals scored (229) and goals per-game (3.37).
4. AN EAST-WEST THING
With their win against the Jets, the Flyers have now won eight of their last nine games against Western Conference opponents (8-1-0)... The Golden Knights are in the midst of playing seven straight games against the East, having won three of the first five games... The Flyers have an overall mark of 13-10-4 against the West, including a 8-5-2 against the Pacific Division, while Vegas has a mark of 17-10-3 against the East, but has the worst record against the Metropolitan than against any other division at 7-6-1.
5. PLAYERS TO WATCH:
FLYERS (LW: #28 - Claude Giroux)
Giroux continues to pace the Flyers in overall points (81) which is tied for fourth in the NHL... He is currently riding a six-game point streak, recording a point in every game in March with (2g-5a)... In addition, he also has a seven-game point streak on home ice, recording 11 points in that stretch (4g-7a).
GOLDEN KNIGHTS (LW: #57 - David Perron)
Perron is tied for second on the team with 61 points (16g-45a), while his 45 assists lead the Golden Knights... He comes into today's game with points in three of his last four games (1g-3a), all of which have been on the road... Perron also leads the team in road scoring with 34 points (10g-24a).
