In their final game before the Olympic break, Rick Tocchet's Philadelphia Flyers (25-20-10) host Travis Green's Ottawa Senators (27-22-7). This is the third and final meeting of the season series between the teams. The Flyers are 0-0-1 against the Senators this season, losing 2-1 and 3-2 (overtime) decisions.
Game time at Xfinity Mobile Arena is 7:00 p.m. EST. The game will be televised on NBCSP.
The Flyers enter this game coming off a 4-2 home win on Tuesday against the Washington Capitals. Dan Vladar was outstanding in making 26 saves. The Flyers received goals from Owen Tippett (19th of the season), Carl Grundstrom (8th), Jamie Drysdale (PPG, 4th) and Rasmus Ristolainen (ENG, 1st).
Travis Konecny, who assisted on the Drysdale and Ristolainen goals, leads the Flyers in scoring this season with 54 points (22 goals, 32 assists). He's followed by Trevor Zegras with 48 points (20g, 28a) and Tippett's 35 points (19g, 16a).
Ottawa is coming off a 4-3 road loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday. In a losing cause, Stephen Halliday (4th), Tim Stutzle (PPG, 27th), and Jake Sanderson (PPG, 11th) scored goals for the Senators. Dylan Cozens notched a pair of assists.
Here are the RAV4 Things to watch on Thursday evening.
1. Flyers Olympians
While most of the players will take a vacation or spend time with family over the Olympic break, the Flyers will have four players going to the Winter Games in Milano Cortina, Italy: defenseman Travis Sanheim (Canada), defenseman Ristolainen (Finland), and goaltender Vladar (Czechia). Center Rodrigo Abols (Latvia) was chosen but is unable to participate due to a lower body injury.
Additionally, Tocchet will serve as an assistant coach for Team Canada. He'll be part of head coach Jon Cooper's staff.
On the Ottawa side, Brady Tkachuk (USA), Jake Sanderson (USA), Stützle (Germany), Lars Eller (Denmark) and Nikolas Matinpalo (Finland) will represent their national teams during the Olympic men's hockey tournament.
2. Special teams
The Flyers power play experienced a dreadful drought that lasted the better part of two months. Recently, however, the Flyers have started to show signs of improvement. After dropping as low as 31st in the league, the team has climbed three spots in the league rankings (16.3). However, opposing shorthanded goals have remained an issue. Meanwhile, the Ottawa penalty kill ranks 30th at 72.9 percent success.
The Senators boast a solid power play, ranking in the top one-third of the NHL with a 23.2 percent success rate. The Flyers penalty kill was outstanding through Thanksgiving. After hitting a major snag, the PK has started to stabilize again. Overall, the Flyers' penalty kill ranks in a tie for 18th at 78.9 percent for the season.
3. At the dot
Ottawa is the NHL's second highest-rated faceoff team this season. The Senators have won 54.8 percent of their draws. Former Flyers star Claude Giroux has won a robust 63.9 percent of the faceoffs he's taken.
The Flyers rank 20th on faceoffs at 49.2 percent. Christian Dvorak (54.0 percent) and Sean Couturier (53.4 percent) top the team in this department.
4. Contain Stützle
Capitals leading scorer Stützle (27g, 33a for 60 points) has been scorching hot of late. He brings a four-game goal scoring streak into Thursday's game. The German star has racked up nine points (5g, 4a) over his last six games. The Flyers need to alert and maintain a tight structure to prevent Stützle from taking over the game. For his career, Stützle has 18 points (10g, 8a) in 14 games against Philly.
