In Game Three of the Eastern Conference Semifinal, Rick Tocchet's Philadelphia Flyers are home on Wednesday night to take on Rod Brind'Amour's Carolina Hurricanes. The Flyers trail in the series, two games to zero.
Game time at Xfinity Mobile Arena is 8:00 p.m. EDT. The game will be televised nationally on TNT, TRUTV and HBO Max.
In Game Two on Monday, the Flyers jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead on goals by Jamie Drysdale (PPG, 2nd) and Sean Couturier (1st). Later, a Nikolaj Ehlers goal (PPG, 1st) narrowed the deficit to 2-1.
The Flyers held the one goal lead until the latter half of the third period. Finally, at 11:21, Seth Jarvis (1st) knotted the score to force overtime. In sudden death, the Flyers controlled most of the play. Most notably, Travis Konecny had the game on his stick with a clear breakaway. At 18:51, Taylor Hall (3rd) scored in a scramble near the net to end the game.
In a losing cause, Dan Vladar made 38 saves on 41 shots. Frederik Andersen stopped 34 of 36 shots for Carolina. Andersen allowed two goals on the first three shots he faced and then made 33 saves in a row for the win.
As a result, instead of the series coming back to Philadelphia tied at one win apiece, the Flyers have the task of climbing back into the series.
The Flyers held practice on Wednesday at the FTC in Voorhees. They will have an optional morning skate at XMA on Thursday morning.
On the injury front, the Flyers have several banged up players. Most notably, Noah Cates (lower body) is out for the rest of the series after suffering an injury in Game Two. Cates was the only Flyer to dress in all 82 regular season games and each of the first eight games of the playoffs.
The nagging injury that affected Owen Tippett during the Pittsburgh series worsened enough for the speedy winger to miss the first and second games against the Hurricanes. Tippett remains day-to-day. He practiced, mostly on his own, on Wednesday.
In Game One, both Christian Dvorak and top defenseman Travis Sanheim were rocked by heavy hits. Both dressed in Game Two and are expected to be available for Game Three. Dvorak had a maintenance day on Wednesday.
Here are the RAV4 Things to watch in Game Three.
1. Next man up mentality
There is no doubt that the Flyers are missing key players from the lineup and have others playing at less than full health. However, it cannot be used as an excuse. The team needs to make do with a patchwork group down the middle.
Team captain Couturier, who has been the team's most consistent forward in the playoffs, will move higher in the five-on-five rotation. Moved recently from wing to center, rookie Denver Barkey will hold down a spot in the middle.
Dvorak is expected to gut out his undisclosed injury to play his usual center spot. Swingman forward Trevor Zegras, who has had a roller coaster playoff run so far -- but several fine plays among his four points (1g, 3a) to date -- will go back again to center.
Fourth line swingman Luke Glendening is available to skate shifts at center -- and take faceoffs -- as needed.
In the meantime, the Flyers need some of their wingers who have gone cold in the playoffs to start generating more offense: Konecny (1g, 3a), Porter Martone (pointless in five games after he had two goals and an assist in his first three games), and Matvei Michkov (0g. 1a), Tyson Foerster (0 points) are especially important in the absence of Tippett.
2. Forechecking pressure
The Hurricanes have no need to alter their swarming forecheck that has keyed their 6-0 record so far in the playoffs. Game Two was the only time they've ever trailed so far in the playoffs.
Philly did a better job at handling the pressure in Game Two than they did in Game One. However, there's still room for improvement. Meanwhile, the Flyers' own forecheck picked up immensely as Game Two went along, especially in overtime.
The Hurricanes will yield Grade A chances but opponents need to be quick and decisive with the puck. Tocchet called it a "chess mentality": knowing your next move with the puck before the puck even arrives on your stick.
3. Shooting mentality
From the first day of training camp through Game Two of the Eastern Conference Final, Tocchet and his staff have preached the need for a shot-first mentality. Don't pass up opening shooting lanes looking for back-door tap-ins. Too often, the attempted tic-tac-toe plays get broken up or otherwise fail the make connections. Scoring chances get lost that way.
This especially goes for odd-man rushes and power play puck rotations. Making extra passes plays into the Hurricanes' hands.
4. Special teams
There's been a very high volume of special teams play so far in the series, to the detriment of 5-on-5 flow. So far in the series, each team has only scored one power play goal apiece. The Flyers are 1-for-11, while Carolina is 1-for-10.
