Thankfully, the Philadelphia Flyers gave their hometown crowd one final win at the Wells Fargo Center. It was an exciting loss in overtime; something the Flyers have struggled with all season.
Now, the season is coming to a close. The Flyers will finish off the year with a contest against the Chicago Blackhawks, one of the worst teams in the NHL. Don’t underestimate them. The Blackhawks gave the Flyers a horrific drubbing back at WFC in January. They also dropped the Pittsburgh Penguins in their last game, 5-2 which is the game that probably, more than anything, kept the Pens from reaching the playoffs. My response to that is:
Philadelphia Flyers
Record: 30-38-13 (73 points, 7th in Metro)
As I said in the last preview, some Flyers are still close to some milestones. Morgan Frost is one goal shy of 20 while Scott Laughton and Kevin Hayes are two away from 20 as well. This would be Laughton’s first time cracking 20 goals and Hayes’ first time since his first year in Philly. Hayes is also one point shy of tying his career high of 55. Laughton’s 43 points are also his career high.
Nicolas Deslauriers is three points away from not only tying his career high of 15 but also of reaching 100 career points. Travis Konecny is one goal away from cracking the 30 goal club. And if TK has a big game, he is four points away from tying his career high of 61 points. And while Joel Farabee’s goal numbers are down, he has set a career high with 39 points, leaving him one away from 40.
Finally, we come to Justin Braun. Many of you may wonder why is has he been playing so much lately. Well, there are two reasons. For one thing, many of the young guys have been sent back to the AHL to help the Phantoms on their playoff run. Likewise, Braun is just one point shy of reaching 200 career points. It may not be a lot of points for someone who has played 13 years, but it is something.
Flyers assistant coach Darryl Williams will get to man the bench tonight as coach. John Tortorella is still evaluating the team from up above. Rocky Thompson has gotten to helm the team recently. This is the first time that Williams has coached a team at the NHL level in a game.
Felix Sanstrom will get the start in net tonight. Tony DeAngelo, once again, is a healthy scratch.
Projected Lineup
Kevin Hayes — Noah Cates — Owen Tippett
Joel Farabee — Morgan Frost — Travis Konecny
James van Riemsdyk — Scott Laughton — Wade Allison
Nicolas Deslauriers — Tanner Laczynski — Brendan Lemieux
Ivan Provorov — Cam York
Travis Sanheim — Rasmus Ristolainen
Nick Seeler — Justin Braun
Felix Sandstrom
Chicago Blackhawks
Record: 26-49-6 (58 points, 8th in Central)
Chicago is tied with Anaheim for the second worst record in the league and is just one point above the Columbus Blue Jackets, who with a quirk in the schedule, have two games left to play.
Ten years ago, the Blackhawks were perennial contenders. They could always be counted on to make a deep run in the playoffs. As Flyers fans, we know all about that only too well. They last won the Stanley Cup in 2015.
Since then, they have fallen on hard times, much like the Flyers. They have missed the playoffs in four of the last five seasons and were knocked out in the first round in the two years following their last championship. The last time they made the playoffs was in 2020, when they won in the qualifying round in the bubble to get into the playoffs only to be knocked out in the first round by Vegas.
Much like the Flyers, this is a proud, historic team looking for answers on how to become relevant again. This will be the last home game of Jonathan Toews’s career in Chicago.
Projected Lineup
Tyler Johnson — Jonathan Toews — Jason Dickinson
Anders Bjork — Andreas Athanasiou — Buddy Robinson
Boris Katchouk — Jujhar Khaira — Joey Anderson
Austin Wagner — MacKenzie Entwistle — Reese Johnson
Caleb Jones — Seth Jones
Wyatt Kaiser — Connor Murphy
Andreas Englund — Nikita Zaitsev
Alex Stalock
Where, When, and How to Watch/Listen
Time: 8:30 PM
Where: United Center
Watch: NBC Sports Philadelphia
Radio: 97.5 FM
Live Stream: Fubo Tv
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