Philadelphia Flyers return home to face Anaheim Ducks
By Scott Cole
The Flyers are home safe and sound. They won’t have to play Boston again for quite a while which is good news for us. The next few weeks will be telling for the Flyers as it could determine what happens for the rest of this season. But after facing off against the Bruins on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the Flyers will have an easier time this week. Their two-game homestand will see the Flyers hosting the two last-place teams in the Western Conference.
Up first are the unmighty Ducks of Anaheim. When the Flyers last faced off against the Ducks, it was Jan 2. Samuel Ersson was 40 seconds away from getting his first career shutout as the Flyers dropped the Ducks 4-1. The floundering Ducks could just be what the Flyers need right now.
Philadelphia Flyers
Record: 18-19-7 (43 points, 7th in Metro)
The Flyers got beaten by the best team in the NHL. Time to dust it off and move forward. Overall, they are still on a hot streak. They’ve lost just two games since Christmas: yesterday’s loss to Boston and a loss to Toronto. You can’t win every game, but you can still win more than you lose. The Flyers have to reset and take out their frustrations on the hapless Ducks.
To do this, they will need to score. They shot the puck 29 times in Boston but failed to find the back of the net. In the last game the Flyers lost, against Buffalo, the team responded with a shutout, blowout win against Buffalo, one of the top-scoring teams in the league. You could easily see the Flyers doing the same thing here. They have the talent and abilities to run over a team like Anaheim. If the Flyers want to be taken seriously, this is the sort of team that the Flyers need to beat up on.
Ersson will get the start in net tonight. Maybe he can get his second career shutout against the Ducks this time around.
Flyers Projected Lineup
James van Riemsdyk — Morgan Frost — Owen Tippett
Joel Farabee — Noah Cates — Travis Konecny
Kevin Hayes — Scott Laughton — Wade Allison
Nicolas Deslauriers — Patrick Brown — Zack MacEwen
Ivan Provorov — Cam York
Travis Sanheim — Tony DeAngelo
Nick Seeler — Rasmus Ristolainen
Samuel Ersson
Anaheim Ducks
Record: 12-27-5 (29 points, 8th in Pacific)
Since losing in the Western Conference Finals in 2017 to the Nashville Predators, this team has fallen on hard times. Things are getting better for them. They are everything the Boston Bruins are not. Whereas the Bruins are near the top in every category, the Ducks are their polar opposites. Anaheim is 31st in goals for, dead last in goals against, 31st on the power play, 19th in penalty kill, and 29th in total penalty minutes.
What this means for a hungry Flyers team is that they can and should take out all of their frustrations on this team. Starting goalie John Gibson has a GAA of 4.14 and a save percentage of .895. Backup goalie, and former Flyers prospect, Anthony Stolarz isn’t much better with a 3.88 and .893 respectively. As of right now, it looks as if Stolarz will get the start in net. But if the Flyers have a great day, maybe we will see both.
Trevor Zegras leads the team with 14 goals. Troy Terry leads with 46 points. There is not a lot of offense here to be worried about. At the same time, you can’t be caught sleeping. That’s when teams like this get you.
Ducks Projected Lineup
Adam Henrique — Mason McTavish — Troy Terry
Trevor Zegras — Ryan Strome — Frank Vatrano
Max Comtois — Sam Carrick — Jakob Silfverberg
Max Jones — Jayson Megna — Brett Leason
Cam Fowler — Dmitry Kulikov
Simon Benoit — John Klingberg
Urho Vaakanainen — Kevin Shattenkirk
Anthony Stolarz
Where, When, and How to Watch/Listen
Time: 7 PM
Where: Wells Fargo Center
Watch: NBC Sports Philadelphia, ESPN+
Radio: 97.5 FM
Live Stream: FuboTV
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