Flyers Look to Have Dallas Seeing Stars
By Scott Cole
The Flyers play their last home game before embarking on a three game road trip. After playing a game that saw Claude Giroux return to the Wells Fargo Center, the Flyers will host the Dallas Stars, one of the top teams in the Western Conference.
The Stars have a combination of great goaltending, great defense, and great scoring. And even though the season is young, they are starting to emerge as one of the favorites to make a deep run in the playoffs. And unlike the Flyers, they are a healthy team with only depth forward Denis Gurianov out with an upper body injury.
Philadelphia Flyers
Record: 7-5-2 (16 points, 5th in Metro)
It was supposed to have been an easy week. The Flyers had three games against last place teams: St. Louis, Columbus, and Ottawa. Instead, they picked up only one win. This is a team that is struggling to score goals and is, now, starting to struggle to keep the other team from scoring.
The team is still sixth overall in goals against, which is good. However, they are still 31st in scoring. And two of the three teams that defeated the Flyers this week had been were underneath them in the goals scored rankings. That’s not good and needs a lot of improving.
Travis Konecny is staying hot, leading the team with five goals and 13 points. Kevin Hayes scored his third goal of the season; the only goal the Flyers put up against the Senators.
Wade Allison got hurt in the second period of the Ottawa game on Saturday. He delivered a hit to Senators’ defenseman Jacob Bernard-Docker. He had to be assisted off the ice and did not return. He will be evaluated to the extent of the injury This is not a good prognosis Allison as he has been injured often in his young career. Kieffer Bellows will likely take his spot in the lineup, but this could result in some line shuffling.
Carter Hart has now dropped two straight games after sitting out against St. Louis with an illness. To be fair to him, the team hasn’t been fair to him. Against the Blue Jackets, three of the goals were scored off of sloppy turnovers. Against Ottawa, two goals were on scored on power plays. Hart is a great goalie, but he isn’t a miracle worker. He can’t do everything for the team if the team is doing things to help themselves win. If the team is putting him in situations where he can’t be successful, expect more of this to happen.
Dallas is a good team right now, playing well. If the Flyers struggled with the basement dwellers, they may find this game to be a tough matchup.
Projected Lineup
Joel Farabee – Kevin Hayes – Travis Konecny
Kieffer Bellows – Scott Laughton – Owen Tippett
Lukas Sedlak – Noah Cates – Zack MacEwen
Nicolas Deslauriers – Morgan Frost – Tanner Laczynski
Ivan Provorov – Tony DeAngelo
Travis Sanheim – Justin Braun
Nick Seeler – Rasmus Ristolainen
Felix Sandstrom
Dallas Stars
Record: 8-5-1 (17 points, 3rd in Central)
The Dallas Stars are rolling into town to kick off a three game road trip that will take them to Tampa and Florida. Facing the two Florida teams and the defensive minded Flyers could be a daunting challenge for the Stars.
Dallas is on the heels of a two game losing streak where they have been outscored 10-5. For most of the year, they have been near the top of their division, trading the top spots with Winnipeg and Colorado. This is still a young season and anything can happen, but the Stars are a pretty strong team, being ninth in overall scoring, fourth in goals against, fourth in power play, and fifth on the penalty kill. In short, they are good on both sides of the puck.
Left wing Jason Robertson leads the way for this team. He has nine goals and 12 assists to lead the team with 21 points. Robertson shares the team lead of assists with center Roope Hintz. Hintz has 18 points on the season so far. Joe Pavelski is showing no signs of slowing down with seven goals and seven assists. And Jamie Benn, (remember all those rumors about the Flyers going after him?) is having a solid start to his season with six goals.
Part of the reason that Dallas has been so successful has been the stellar play of their goaltenders. The Stars have been rotating between their goalies, Jake Oettinger and Scott Wedgewood, who have played eight and seven games respectively. Oettinger has a 5-2 record with a GAA of 1.90 and a save percentage of .931. He leads the league in GAA and is sixth in save percentage (Hart leads the NHL here with .937). Wedgewood is 3-3 with a 3.21 GAA and a .903 save percentage. Whomever they face, the Flyers will have a tough netminder between the pipes.
Projected Lineup
Jason Robertson – Roope Hintz – Joe Pavelski
Mason Marchment – Tyler Seguin – Matej Blumel
Jamie Benn – Wyatt Johnston – Ty Dellandrea
Radek Faksa – Luke Glendening – Joel Kiviranta
Miro Heiskanen – Colin Miller
Ryan Suter – Nils Lundkvist
Esa Lindell – Jani Hakanpää
Jake Oettinger
Where, When, and How to Watch/Listen
Time: 1 PM
Where: Wells Fargo Center
Watch: NBC Sports Philadelphia, NHL Network
Radio: 97.5 FM
Live Stream: Fubo Tv
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