Playing the second game of a home back-to-back, Rick Tocchet's Philadelphia Flyers (22-13-8) faces off again with Jon Cooper's Tampa Bay Lightning (27-13-3) on Monday evening. It's the third and final meeting of the regular season series between the teams.
Game time at Xfinity Mobile Arena is 7:00 p.m. EST. The game will be televised on NBCSP.
Tampa Bay brings a nine-game winning streak into Monday's match. On Saturday, the Flyers trailed 2-1 through the first 33 minutes of the contest. Tampa led 3-1 going into the second intermission. Thereafter, the wheels came off for the Flyers and the Bolts went on to record a 7-2 win.
In a losing cause, Garnet Hathaway (1st goal of the season) and Owen Tippett (PPG, 14th) scored for the Flyers. Andrei Vasilevskiy turned aside 19 of 20 shots to earn the win in goal.
Offensively, Nikita Kucherov (two goals, two assists) led the way for Tampa Bay. Gage Goncalves scored twice. Nick Paul, Yanni Gourde, and Brandon Hagel notched a goal apiece.
Entering Monday's game, the Flyers are 13-2-5 when coming off a loss of any kind: 9-1-2 in the next game after a regulation defeat. They’ll need to continue that resilience against a Lightning team playing its best hockey of the season.
Here are the RAV4 Things to watch in Monday's rematch.
1. Injury Bug
Bobby Brink missed the Toronto and first Tampa games with an upper-body injury. He wore a no-contact jersey at Thursday's morning skate. By Sunday, he was cleared to be a full participant during practice at Flyers Training Center in Voorhees. Per Head Coach Rick Tocchet, Brink remains unavailable for tonight's game.
The status of Travis Konecny (14g, 24a, 38 points) is less clear. Konency returned to practice on Sunday after missing Saturday's match with an upper-body injury. Early in the practice session, Konency was struck in the knee by the puck. Per Tocchet, the puck hit a nerve and Konecny went numb. The player stood at rinkside, tried to walk off the sensation, and then took a test skate. He eventually went back to the locker room. His availability for Monday's game will be a game-time decision.
2. Bounceback for Barkey
Flyers rookie winger Denver Barkey had a tough night on Saturday. His task now is to immediately put the match in the rearview mirror and crank out a stronger performance in Monday's rematch with the Lightning. Step one was to come out and have a solid practice day on Sunday. Barkey did just that, showing the speed and hunger for the puck that earned him a promotion to the NHL a few weeks ago. Step two is to build off it again and make a few adjustments against the Lightning. Puck management is critical against Tampa, especially when they're in an offensive groove.
3. Between the pipes: Dan Vladar
The big Czech netminder is tasked with helping the Flyers continue their season-long run of coming back stronger the next game after a loss. Overall this season, Vladar has made 26 starts, posting a 16-6-4 record, 2.35 goals against average and .910 save percentage. Samuel Ersson was in net in each of Philly's first two games against the Bolts this season. For his previous career games for Boston and Calgary, Vladar made four appearances against Tampa Bay (2-2-0, 4.25 GAA, .855 SV%).
4. Containing Kucherov
Superstar Tampa winger brings a nine-game point streak into Monday's game with a run of eight straight multi-point performances. Overall this season, he's fourth in the Art Ross Trophy race with 65 points, trailing Nathan MacKinnon (78 points), Connor McDavid (78 points) and Macklin Celebrini (70 points). Meanwhile, Kucherov has been a one-man wrecking crew against the Flyers with seven points (2g, 5a) in two games. Overall, he has 41 points (13g, 28a) in 30 career games against Philly.
On Monday night, the Flyers' number one defensive task: prevent Kucherov from dominating even if he gets a point or two. Tampa has plenty of other dangerous players -- Brayden Point, Jake Guentzel, Brandon Hagel, etc. Nonetheless, it all starts with limiting time and space for Kucherov. He doesn't need much.
