The first game of a four-game road trip was a 2-1 overtime loss for the Flyers. Now they try to right the ship as they go to play in the NHL’s smallest arena against the Arizona Coyotes. The Coyotes have been struggling as of late but then again, they’ve been struggling the last few years for a bunch of reasons. If the Flyers play their cards right, they can come out of the desert with a win.
Philadelphia Flyers
Record: 9-13-6 (24 points, 7th in Metro)
The Flyers are playing well, and yet losing more games than winning. They are playing other teams tough, but the lack of scoring is holding them back. It’s simple hockey physics: if you can’t score, you can’t win.
Cam York made his season debut against the Golden Knights and played well enough. He played in place of Tony DeAngelo who was given a night out in an effort to help restart his season, as he has been playing good offense, but poor defense lately.
James van Riemsdyk is back and has little to show for his efforts. In his two games back, he has taken one penalty and has three shots. He needs to be better and that may take some time for him to get back into the swing of things. But for the Flyers to get better, he needs to be better.
Projected Lineup
Kevin Hayes – Noah Cates – Travis Konecny
Joel Farabee – Scott Laughton – Owen Tippett
James van Riemsdyk – Morgan Frost – Zack MacEwen
Nicolas Deslauriers – Patrick Brown – Lukas Sedlak
Ivan Provorov – Rasmus Ristolainen
Travis Sanheim – Justin Braun
Cam York – Nick Seeler
Carter Hart
Arizona Coyotes
Record: 8-13-4 (20 points, 7th in Central)
Whereas the Flyers have had a bad record this season because of injuries and inability to score, this is just a bad, bad team. They are 29th in goals scored (just one goal more than Philly), tied with the Flyers for 21st in goals against, 24th on the power play, and 22nd on the penalty kill. Unlike the Flyers who can use a whole laundry list of injuries this season to make excuses for, the Coyotes can’t say that. They are who they are, and they aren’t very good. But watch out! After losing six in a row, they toppled the Boston Bruins 4-3 on Friday night.
Clayton Keller leads the team with 23 points, Matias Maccelli leads with 17 assists, and Lawson Crouse leads with 23 goals. The other top scorer on this team is former Flyer Shayne Gostisbehere with six goals and 20 assists. Raise your hand if you’d like him over Rasmus Ristolainen right about now! Ghost Bear has more points in the Boston game (two assists) than Risto has had all year.
Projected Lineup
Matias Maccelli – Nick Bjugstad – Lawson Crouse
Clayton Keller – Travis Boyd – Nick Schmaltz
Liam O’Brien – Jack McBain – Christian Fischer
Nick Ritchie – Barrett Hayton
Jakob Chychrun – Shayne Gostisbehere
J.J. Moser – Josh Brown
Patrik Nemeth – Troy Stetcher
Juuso Valimaki
Karel Vejmelka
Where, When, and How to Watch/Listen
Time: 7:00 PM
Where: Mullett Arena
Watch: NBC Sports Philadelphia, ESPN+
Radio: 97.5 FM
Live Stream: Fubo Tv
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