2. MEET EVEN HOTTER STUFF
The Flyers welcome in the NHL's best team in the standings - by far... With 45 wins and 94 points, the Lightning hold a 15-point lead over the second place team in the NHL (CGY: 79pts) as well as nine more wins than the next team (TOR-CGY-WPG: 36)... Tampa is currently riding a six-game winning streak where they have outscored their opponent, 30-9, and are also on a 10-game point streak, going 8-0-2... The Lightning lead the NHL in most goals (233) and goals per-game (3.88), while also ranking in the Top 5 in goals allowed (T-4th: 159) and goals allowed per-game (5th: 2.65)... Tampa has scored four or more goals in 37 of their 60 games, including 14 games in which they have scored six or more goals, as well as 30 games in which they have allowed two or fewer goals.
3. WELCOME TO 100
Tonight is the 100th all-time regular season meeting between the two clubs with the Flyers owning an all-time record of 47-37-8-7... This season, the clubs have combined for 22 goals in the first two games, which were identical in score and situation - The Flyers overcame a four-goal (Nov. 17) and three-goal (Dec. 27) deficit in the third period to force overtime, but eventually fell 6-5... Eight power-play goals have been scored in the series with the Lightning going 5-for-7 (71.4%) and Flyers going 3-for-7 (28.6%)... James van Riemsdyk leads the team with four points (1g-3a) and a +3 in the series, while Nikita Kucherov leads the Lightning with six points (1g-5a), but is a -2.
4. THIS, THAT & THE OTHER
THIS: Tampa has three players in the Top 10 of NHL scoring (Stamkos, Point & Kucherov) with Kucherov leading all players with 99 points, which is the seventh most in NHL history through their team's first 60 games... THAT: The Flyers have scored on the power play in four of their last five games entering tonight, going 5-for-17 (29.4%), while the Lightning have gone 9-for-20 (45.0%) on the power play during their current six-game win streak... THE OTHER: Since the New Year began, six of the seven hottest teams in the NHL are from the Eastern Conference, including three from the Metro Division (3-CAR: 31pts, T4-NYI: 30pts, 7-PHI: 28pts) and two from the Atlantic Division (2-BOS: 32pts, T4-TBL: 30pts).
5. PLAYERS TO WATCH:
FLYERS (C: #14 - Sean Couturier)
Couturier has put together three consecutive multi-points games (1g-5a) and has points in nine of his last 10 (5g-10a) and 15 of his last 17 games (9g-16a)... He leads the Flyers in scoring since the New Year began and since Jan. 8, he is T-5th among all players in the NHL with 25 points (9g-16a) in 17 games and T-3rd with a +12 rating... He has three points (1g-2a) in the season series against the Lightning.
LIGHTNING (C: #21 - Brayden Point)
With all the attention on Kucherov & Stamkos, Point is also putting together an impressive campaign leading the team in goals (35), which is also T-4th in the NHL, and is T-4th in the league in overall scoring with 78 points... He also has three goals and four points in the season series, while also posting five goals and nine points in seven career games, including an active six-game point streak against Philly.
