Flyers Look to Extend Winning Streak Against Bolts
By Scott Cole
Strike up the band! Crank up Blur’s Song #2. The Flyers losing streak is over! Whoo hoo!
Ok, now that that is out of our system, back to reality. The streak is over, they beat the Islanders, but that is all in the past. They have to look ahead at the future now. And the future is now and now is the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Bolts are coming to Philly and they don’t look as dominant as they have had in years past, but this is still a strong team and they are coming into town looking for a win.
The last time these two teams faced off against each other was Oct 18. A game in which the Flyers won 3-2, Tampa got off to a 2-0 lead, but goals by Scott Laughton, James van Riemsdyk, and Noah Cates secured the comeback win. Oh, and Nicolas Deslauriers got into a fight with Pat Maroon.
Philadelphia Flyers
Record: 8-10-5 (21 points, 7th in Metro)
Kevin Hayes has been on fire lately and that’s what this team needs. In his last five games, he has scored three goals with three assists, including two in the game that ended the streak. He is leading the team with 24 points and has picked up the scoring slack with Travis Konency being down.
Also back in the mix is Laughton. He didn’t register a point, but he has almost 19 minutes of ice time, won 58% of his faceoffs, and even dealt out a hit. For a team that has been wrecked with injuries, this is a welcome sign. Another person who has been hotter lately is Lukas Sedlak. He has seven points on the season, but three of his assists and one of his goals came in the last two games against the Islanders.
Carter Hart seemed to be getting his groove back a little bit. After being chased from Saturday’s game against the Islanders, he stopped 23 of 24 shots faced in the rematch. Which is great, because he is going to be facing some much tougher competition.
Projected Lineup
Travis Konecny – Morgan Frost – Owen Tippett
Scott Laughton – Noah Cates – Zack MacEwen
Joel Farabee – Lukas Sedlak – Kevin Hayes
Nicolas Deslauriers – Tanner Laczynski – Max Willman
Ivan Provorov – Tony DeAngelo
Travis Sanheim – Rasmus Ristolainen
Egor Zamula – Nick Seeler
Carter Hart
Tampa Bay Lightning
Record: 13-8-1 (27 points, 3rd in Atlantic)
The Lightning have been the top team in the Eastern Conference for the last few seasons. They have represented the East the last three years in the Stanley Cup finals, winning the first two of them.
Right now, they are struggling. Granted, it is better to struggle in November than April/May. But they are far behind the Bruins and the Maple Leafs in third place and the resurgent Red Wings are nipping at their heels. They just came off of a two game winning streak by getting beat by the Bruins 3-1; who also beat them the week before 5-3.
Nikita Kucherov leads the team with 25 points, with 10 goals. Steven Stamkos is leading with 13 goals. Brayden Point also has 10 goals with 14 points. Andrei Vasilevskiy is having a bit of a down year lately, but he is still one the top goalies on the planet. He has a GAA of 2.88 and a save percentage of .906. While he picked up the win against St. Louis last week, he also was in between the pipes for both losses to Boston.
The Lightning may not be as tough as they have been in the past. Maybe the deep playoff runs in years past is starting to take its toll on the team. But they are still a dangerous team loaded with playmakers. It would be nice if the Flyers could bring their new winning streak to two games, but this will be a hard one. However, a win will definitely lift the spirits of this team.
Projected Lineup
Brandon Hagel – Brayden Point – Nikita Kucherov
Steven Stamkos – Nicholas Paul – Alex Killorn
Ross Colton – Vladislav Namestnikov – Corey Perry
Cole Koepke – Pierre-Edouard Bellemare – Pat Maroon
Victor Hedman – Mikhail Sergachev
Ian Cole – Erik Cernak
Haydn Fleury – Zach Bogosian
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Where, When, and How to Watch/Listen
Time: 7:00 PM
Where: Wells Fargo Center
Watch: NBC Sports Philadelphia
Radio: 97.5 FM
Live Stream: Fubo Tv
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