Rick Tocchet's Philadelphia Flyers (20-11-7) are in Alberta on Wednesday for a New Year's Eve showdown with Ryan Huska's Calgary Flames (17-18-4). This is the second and final meeting of the season between the teams.
Game time at the Scotiabank Saddledome is 9:30 p.m. EDT. The game will be televised on NBCSP.
The Flyers enter this game coming off a 6-3 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday night. Noah Cates, Carl Grundstrom, Travis Konecny, Bobby Brink, Owen Tippett (ENG, SHG) and Christian Dvorak (ENG) scored for the Flyers. Dan Vladar made 31 saves to earn the win.
Calgary had an off day on Tuesday. The club has won back-to-back games since the holiday break. The club skated to a 2-1 overtime win against the Boston Bruins on Monday after defeating the arch-rival Edmonton Oilers, 3-2 on Dec. 27.
Connor Zary netted the OT winner on the power play against Boston. Earlier, the recently red hot Blake Coleman erased a Boston lead in the middle stages of the second period.
The earlier meeting this season between the Flyers and Flames, a 2-1 Calgary win at Xfinity Mobile Arena on November 2, was an important one for Calgary. The game itself was a very low-event match in which neither team generated -- or gave up-- much offense.
The difference was a two-goal performance from veteran winger Jonathan Huberdeau. Travis Konecny scored a late third-period goal for the Flyers but it wasn't enough. More importantly, the match was a turnaround game for the Flames. Huska's team entered the game saddled with a 2-9-2 record. Since that day, the Flames have gone 15-9-2.
Meanwhile, the Flyers look back at the Nov. 2 game as one of the low points of the season. Philly generated just 18 shots for the entire match, including a mere six scoring chances. Nearly everything came from the perimeter. Dustin Wolf had a rather easy night in goal. Samuel Ersson (19 saves) took the loss but was not tested much more than his Calgary counterpart.
Here are the RAV4 Things to watch in the final match of the 2025 calendar year.
1. Energy management
The Flyers are playing their third game in four nights. They had an overnight flight with a one-hour time zone change (Mountain to Pacific) after the game in Vancouver on Wednesday. As such, Philly is at a fatigue factor disadvantage heading into this match.
The opposite was the case on Tuesday. The Canucks noticeably slowed down after dominating the first 10 minutes, and the Flyers took over the game in the second period. On Wednesday, it's important for the Flyers to start faster, manage their energy wisely and navigate the second (long line change period) and third (tired legs) periods successfully.
2. Special teams
The Flames have the 32nd-ranked power play in the NHL at just 13.6 percent efficiency, bringing up the rear in the league. Meanwhile, Philly is 0-for-4 since the Christmas break, and 25th in the NHL for the season at 16.2 percent.
Calgary has issues getting pucks and traffic to the inside and spends too much time regrouping after opposing PKs clear the puck down the ice. Faceoffs, especially on the right side, are an issue. In some ways, the Flyers have had similar issues for years.
On the flip side, both the Flyers (83.1 percent, ranked 6th) and the Flames (80.6 percent, ranked 14th) have been good penalty killing clubs for the most part. The Flyers' PK started out great this season, hit a snag for about a month and then settled back in nicely of late.
3. Follow up game for Michkov
Matvei Michkov is coming off arguably his best performance of the season. In the Vancouver game on Tuesday, Michkov showed patience and creativity in generating a pair of primary assists. He also had no fewer than three bonafide scoring chances of his own.
The second-year Russian forward has only scored one goal in December. It would be an ideal ending to the calendar year if he gets back in the goal-scoring column on New Year's Eve.
4. Ersson expected to start
At Monday's practice in Vancouver, Samuel Ersson got the majority of the work in the starter's net. However, Tocchet and goaltending coach Kim Dillabaugh tabbed Vladar to play against the Canucks.
Ersson is expected to get the start in the latter half of the back-to-back. He's played well in most of his recent starts, although Vladar has been more effective for the season on the whole.
