After a competitive showing which ended ultimately in a tough loss in the Sunday matinee to the high-powered Avalanche, the Flyers will be hoping that they can build on any positive momentum that they’ve been brewing, and get things back on track with a win over this more middling visiting Sharks team.
Puck drop: 7:00 p.m.
How to watch/listen:
📺: NBCSP
📻: 97.5 The Fanatic
Pregame reading
- The Flyers are set to have one NHL debut taking place, as Ty Murchison is getting into the lineup tonight, and Maddie (that’s me!) took a deep dive into what his game looks like and what we might reasonably expect to see from him in tonight’s game. [BSH]
- Sticking with the prospect thread, Jett Luchanko’s off to a pretty good start to his tenure in Brantford. [BSH]
- Alright, that’s enough hockey talk. Let’s talk about Black Mirror. [BSH]
Pregame watching
By the numbers
Philadelphia Flyers – 15-9-3 (6th in Metro)
Goals: Trevor Zegras/Tyson Foerster (10)
Assists: Trevor Zegras/Travis Konecny (16)
Points: Trevor Zegras (26)
San Jose Sharks – 14-13-3 (5th in Pacific)
Goals: Macklin Celebrini (15)
Assists: Macklin Celebrini (28)
Points: Macklin Celebrini (43)
Projected lineups
Trevor Zegras – Christian Dvorak – Travis Konecny
Nikita Grebenkin – Noah Cates – Bobby Brink
Matvei Michkov – Sean Couturier – Owen Tippett
Nic Deslauriers – Rodrigo Abols – Garnet Hathaway
Nick Seeler – Travis Sanheim
Emil Andrae – Jamie Drysdale
Ty Murchison – Noah Juulsen
Dan Vladar
(Sam Ersson)
Collin Graf – Macklin Celebrini – Will Smith
William Eklund – Alex Wennberg – Tyler Toffoli
Adam Gaudette – Ty Dellandrea – Philipp Kurashev
Ryan Reaves – Zack Ostapchuk – Barclay Goodrow
Dmitry Orlov – Timothy Liljegren*
Mario Ferraro – John Klingberg
Sam Dickinson – Nick Leddy
*game time decision
Alex Nedeljkovic
(Yaroslav Askarov)
Storylines to watch
Ty Murchison makes his debut
We talked about this a little bit off the top, but one of the bigger headlines of tonight’s game will be Murchison making his NHL debut. We likely won’t be seeing a ton of him in this one — he’ll be sheltered a bit down on that third pair with Noah Juulsen — but it’s still a big moment, and it’ll be interesting to see how he holds up under even those limited minutes. He’s not quite at the point in his development where he’s comfortably ready to take on this job full time, but it’s still a nice bit of recognition being given for the good work he’s been putting in through the early part of the season with the Phantoms.
New look on the fourth line
As the most often used fourth line of Nic Deslauriers, Rodrigo Abols, and Garnet Hathaway has continued to struggle with no shift in favor for them looming on the horizon, it was time for something to give, and they’ve opted to make a change to the lineup, taking Deslauriers out and putting Carl Grundstrom in. This will be the second game of the season Grundstrom has gotten in for, and while that one didn’t go great for him, there’s still some room for optimism here that he can give that line a bit of a jolt, and they can deliver at least a little bit more than what that line has been giving up to this point. And who knows, maybe tonight’s the night we see them combine for a goal. Right?
Michkov meets Celebrini (again)
Of course, we can’t overlook the fact that this game will also see two of the most exciting young talents in this league facing off for just the third time in their NHL careers. Already, there seems to be no love lost between the two, as they came to blows in one of the Flyers’ two matchups agains the Sharks last season. Whether there will be lingering bad feelings from that matchup, who’s to say, but it’s always exciting to see two players as dynamic as these matching up (and of course, the difference in conference means we don’t get to see these two facing off very often).
Of course, we will be putting a lot of stock in who wins the matchup, and we’ll see who comes out on top in the end.