Flyers Hope to Bounce Back Against Florida
By Scott Cole
The last game the Flyers played was heartbreaking. With 0.3 seconds left to go in the game, Martin Necas tied it up with Sebastian Aho scoring the game winner 28 seconds into overtime. Ouch. But hey, at least we got a point out of it, right? Right?
The Flyers host the Florida Panthers next. So far, the two teams have met up twice in October and have each won a contest 4-3. Tonight’s game will determine the season series. Florida is clinging tenuously to a playoff spot and the Flyers have a delicious chance to play the role of a spoiler.
Philadelphia Flyers
Record: 26-31-12 (64 points, 7th in Metro)
Despite their gut punching loss against the Hurricanes, the Flyers have played rather well recently. They played a close game with Metro Division leader Carolina and they knocked around Buffalo with a great game from Owen Tippett.
Speaking of Tippett, he has yet to score a point against his old team. It would be sweet justice for him to score in a game that could knock the Florida Kitty Kats out of the playoffs. They gave up on him last year for rental for Claude Giroux. It didn’t work out for them at all and we are benefitting from that now.
With Egor Zamula called up, the Flyers are going with seven defensemen. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Nick Seeler play a little on the fourth line. Speaking of the fourth line, it will be helmed by Nicolas Desluariers and James van Riemsdyk. Looks like John Tortorella is letting theyoungsters handle this one and see who can play. It is telling that both Tanner Laczynski and Kieffer Bellows are healthy scratches for this one.
Flyers Projected Lineup
Joel Farabee — Noah Cates — Owen Tippett
Kevin Hayes — Scott Laughton — Wade Allison
Brendan Lemieux — Morgan Frost — Tyson Foerster
Nicolas Deslauriers — James van Riemsdyk
Ivan Provorov — Cam York
Travis Sanheim — Rasmus Ristolainen
Nick Seeler — Tony DeAngelo
Egor Zamula
Carter Hart
Florida Panthers
Record: 36-27-7 (79 points, 4th in Atlantic)
Last year they were the President’s Trophy winners. After acquiring Giroux, it looked like a done deal. The Stanley Cup would be theirs. Then they fell flat in the playoffs pretty hard. Then in the offseason, they traded Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar for Matthew Tkachuk.
Tkachuk has scored 33 goals for the Panthers, but the rest of the team around him has kind of faltered. Former Flyer goalie Sergei Bobrovsky has struggling mightily at times. They are the second worst team in the league in terms of penalty minutes.
The Panthers have won six of their last seven games, including a wild 9-4 game against Montreal last week. They are surging at the right time as they are fighting for their playoff life. Will this momentum carry them against Philly or will they fall flat?
Projected Lineup
Eetu Luostarinen — Aleksander Barkov — Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe — Anton Lundell — Matthew Tkachuk
Ryan Lomberg — Eric Staal — Anthony Duclair
Nick Cousins — Colin White — Givani Smith
Gustav Forsling — Aaron Ekblad
Marc Staal — Brandon Montour
Josh Mahura — Radko Gudas
Alex Lyon
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: FuboTV
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