Rick Tocchet's Philadelphia Flyers (39-26-12) are in Newark on Tuesday to take on Sheldon Keefe's New Jersey Devils (40-34-3). This is the third and final meeting of the season series between the teams. The Flyers won the first two games: 6-3 (home) and 5-3 (road) in late November.
Game time at Prudential Center is 7:00 p.m. EDT. The game will be televised locally on NBCSP. Outside the Philadelphia market, the game is on ESPN.
The Flyers have gone 7-3-0 over their last 10 games. The Devils are 6-3-1. Philly now controls its own fate in the push for a playoff spot.
In the Metropolitan Division standings, the third-place Flyers enter this game with a one-point lead (plus a game in hand) on the New York Islanders. Philadelphia has a two-point lead on the Columbus Blue Jackets. It is vital for the Flyers to stay ahead of the Islanders, Blue Jackets and Washington Capitals (87 points) in total points. Philly would lose the regulation wins tiebreaker with any of those three teams.
As a backup, the Flyers are still in the Eastern Conference wildcard mix if they fall out of a top-three spot in the Metro. However, that would be a more complicated path. The Ottawa Senators, like the Flyers, currently have 90 points. The Senators hold the tiebreaker advantage. Meanwhile, the Detroit Red Wings are just two points behind the Flyers and Senators.
The Flyers enter Tuesday's game coming off a 2-1 home overtime win against the Boston Bruins on Sunday afternoon. Flyers rookie Porter Martone assisted on the game's first goal and later notched his first NHL goal to win the game in overtime. The Devils, meanwhile, enter this game coming off a home-and-home split with the Montreal Canadiens: 4-3 home loss on Saturday and 3-0 road shutout win the next day.
Here are the RAV4 Things to watch on Tuesday.
1. Goals from different sources.
The Flyers' recent run has not been based on one line or one specific player carrying the team to victory. Different players and different lines have stepped up on different days. Team captain Sean Couturier said on Friday that this is the approach the team needs to bring for the remainder of the season. For example, before Martone was the hero against the Bruins, Matvei Michkov had a three-point game (1g, 2a) last Friday against the Islanders. Back on March 28, Owen Tippett notched a hat trick and an assist in a key win in Detroit and then struck for another in the April 3 win over the Islanders.
Meanwhile, the Flyers' top defensive pairing of Travis Sanheim and Rasmus Ristolainen has been playing at a very high level, both defensively and offensively, since the Olympic break ended. Sanheim has four points in the last five games (2g, 2a) and is +4 in that span. Ristolainen has chipped in three assists and is plus-five in the last five matches.
2. Neutral zone forecheck
Ever since Tocchet and his staff made some tweaks in the Flyers' neutral zone 1-2-2, the team has done a stellar overall job of bottling up teams in the neutral zone. They're killing plays before they become controlled entries or chip-ins with high-speed pursuit. The Flyers themselves have also been playing faster. The result has been counterattacking chances for Philly.
It's important to keep that up in both the neutral and defensive zones against Jack Hughes and company in New Jersey. Team USA Olympic hero Hughes has been on a point-collecting rampage ever since returning from Milan. The Flyers will have their hands full with him, as well as Jesper Bratt and Nico Hischier.
3. Special teams (again)
The power play and (periodically) the penalty kill have been the flies in the ointment for the Flyers. The team spent a large portion of Monday's practice at Xfinity Mobile Arena working on the power play. Tocchet and assistant coaches Yogi Svejkovsky and Jay Varady are trying to simplify things by taking out certain puck rotations and set plays in favor of shorter passes and constantly emphasizing a shoot-first mentality. For there, however, it comes down to execution: the passes must connect, and more shot attempts have to get on net.
4. Tyson Foerster
The big winger has seemingly not skipped a beat, with or without the puck, in the three games since his surprise return from an upper-body injury that had kept him out since early December. With Forester, apart for him shooting ability that poses a threat anymore from the top of the circle or the deep slot down to netfront, it is also his ability to win the decided majority of his puck battles in the trenches that makes him so valuable. Foerster scored in his first game back in the lineup. He has four shots on goal over the last two games.
