5 THINGS: Flyers @ Devils

GAME NOTES
Beginning a three-game road trip, interim head coach Mike Yeo's Philadelphia Flyers (8-11-4) are in Newark on Wednesday to take on Lindy Ruff's New Jersey Devils (9-9-5). Game time at the Prudential Center is 7:00 p.m. ET (NBCSP, 93.3 WMMR).

Both teams have been struggling in recent weeks. The Flyers drag a nine-game winless skid (0-7-2) into this game. and dismissed head coach Alain Vigneault along with assistant coach Michel Therrien on Monday of this week. The Devils are 2-5-3 in their last 10 games and 1-3-1 in the last five.
This is the second of three meetings this season between the Metro Division clubs, and the second and final game in Newark.
On Nov. 28, the Flyers pushed back from deficits of 1-0 and 2-0 to tie the game at 2-2 in the third period. New Jersey then converted a puck exchange miscue between Rasmus Ristolainen and Ivan Provorov into a 3-2 lead and went on to pull away for a 5-2 final. The season series will conclude in Philadelphia on Dec. 14.
The Flyers enter this game coming off a 7-5 home loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Monday. The bad news: Philly yielded 50 shots to one of the NHL's most dangerous offensive teams, got strafed for seven goals in back-to-back games, took too many penalties, got burned in transition and received a pedestrian goaltending performance by Martin Jones. The Flyers coughed up three Colorado power play goals and also yielded a shorthanded goal.
The more encouraging news: The Flyers at least didn't fold their tents and stop competing. That was a baby step compared to the 7-1 whipping the Flyers received from Tampa Bay the previous night in a game where Philly was by far the more rested team and the Lightning were missing two key players (Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov) and No. 1 goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy had the night off after an overtime game in Boston the previous night.
For a team to lose to the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions is one thing. Getting the doors blown off when every possible on-paper edge was in its favor heading into the game -- fatigue factor, depleted opposing lineup, urgency for a win -- is quite another.
Monday's game was nothing by which the Flyers could hang their hat, either. However, at least the team produced a competitive professional effort and at least they finally scored a few goals again. By the low-bar standards of how things have been going since the second week of November, it qualified as minor progress.
For the first time in six weeks, the Flyers mustered more than three goals in a game. Team captain Claude Giroux scored even-strength (1-0 lead) and power play goals (4-3 deficit) in a wild first period. The Flyers also received tallies from Oskar Lindblom (first of the season, 4-2 deficit in the first period), Cam Atkinson (5-4 deficit in the third period) and Scott Laughton (shorthanded, 7-5 deficit late in the third period). Kevin Hayes recorded a pair of primary assists, while Morgan Frost chipped in one.
The Devils are coming off a 3-2 loss via shootout to the Ottawa Senators on Sunday. New Jersey is winless in its last four games since defeating the Flyers on Nov. 28.
On Sunday, New Jersey was unable to protect or build upon leads of 1-0 in the first period or 2-1 in the second. Damon Severson and Nathan Bastian scored for New Jersey.
Struggling teams need to find building blocks from losses, whether it's the Flyers, the Devils or any other team that's scuffling. For the Devils on Sunday, the club limited the Senators to 21 shots against Mackenzie Blackwood and had a territorial edge for most of the game. New Jersey came away with one point but played well enough overall to get two. It was at least a bit of progress after losing 5-2 to the Minnesota Wild last Thursday and 8-4 to the Winnipeg Jets the next night.
Here are five things to track when the Flyers and Devils face off on Wednesday evening:
1. Flyers Best Players Need to Step Up
This has been a recurring item in the "Five Things" previews over the course of the Flyers' losing streak: The team's issues have been collective, and not just a matter of a certain player or a certain line not pulling its weight.
Monday's five-goal game against Colorado aside, goals have been hard to come by for six weeks. The defensive structure that showed improvement over the first dozen games -- the Flyers were bending but not breaking -- has fallen apart over the last 11 matches. That dragged the goaltending down with it, and the Flyers goalie play in its own right has not been very good in recent games after being the team's previous biggest strength this season.
When times get tough, teams have to circle wagons. But someone has to take the lead, with everyone following suit. It's vital for the Flyers go-to players to step up to end the free-fall:
* Team captain Giroux has been doing his part to lead by example, such as his first-period outburst on Monday. His 15 points (5g, 10a) tops the team's overall scoring lead in the last 18 games. Via goal or assist, he's individually figured in 45.45 percent of the last 33 goals the Flyers have scored.
* Sean Couturier opened the season with 12 points in the first 10 games but the former Selke Trophy winner has been struggling both offensively and defensively in recent weeks. A season ago, Couturier had a down year defensively by his standards although he produced offense at an acceptable pace. The Flyers desperately need Couturier to get back on top of his game on both sides of the puck, from which others can follow suit. From an offensive standpoint, Couturier has shown some recent signs of getting/creating scoring chances again but the numbers have yet to show it. Goalless in his last 13 games, Couturier has posted only two assists in that span. Just as importantly, he's uncharacteristically lost puck battles he normally wins and has come out on the short end of defensive assignments he normally handles effectively. Has he been playing through injury? The stoic Couturier would never admit to it or use it as an excuse. One encouraging sign: he's had 23 shots on goal over the past six games with (by my count) seven Grade A or Grade B scoring chances. That's usually the first step toward ending a deep slump.
* The Flyers came into this season banking on the combination of Ivan Provorov and newcomer Ryan Ellis being the backbone of the blueline. Due to a nagging and recurring lower-body injury, Ellis has been limited to just four games this season. He remains week-to-week. Provorov got off an excellent defensive start to the season, although he wasn't getting many results at the offensive end. When Ellis was lost after the third game of the season, Provorov kept up his strong play through October and veteran Justin Braun filled in admirably in Ellis' spot. Over the last month, however, Provorov's defensive game has struggled mightily in its own right. Especially without Ellis in the lineup, when Provorov struggles, everything else on the blueline destabilizes.
Again, the Flyers defensive woes are collective and a five-man unit issue -- not just on Provorov alone -- but the Flyers need more from their designated No. 1 guy on the blueline. He must lead the way for the team to start cutting a GAA that has ballooned again of late. They could also use increased two-way consistency from Rasmus Ristolainen and Travis Sanheim. Meanwhile, veteran Keith Yandle has had a rough time over the last month. Nick Seeler has played more games (21 of 23) this season than was intended heading into the campaign, and played adequately relative to his role as the No. 6 when he dresses for a game.
* Last but certainly not least, Carter Hart opened the season playing Vezina Trophy caliber hockey in goal. However, as the play in front of him has fallen off, Hart himself has seen an undeniable drop-off in his play in recent starts. Of late, there's been an uptick in potentially stoppable shots that wind up in the net. Hart's been victimized by a few bad bounces (including a few off teammates) as well as back-door goals, outnumbered scrambles and layered screens. Those aren't on the goalie. But he's also given up a few leaky goals or flat angle tallies.
Hart will get the start in New Jersey. The Flyers really need their No. 1 goalie to crank out a strong performance and get back to stopping pretty much everything he has a realistic chance at stopping. Such is the life of the guy who's the last line of defense.
2. Atkinson and Scoring Depth Needs.
Except for the sport's most prolific, future Hockey Hall of Fame snipers, streakiness tends to go with the territory for players relied upon to rank among their team's goal-scoring leaders. Cam Atkinson fits the latter description. He opened the 2021-22 season, his first as a Flyer, with six goals across the season's first five games. Then he mustered only a single goal and three assists across the next 15 games.
Very recently, though, Atkinson has shown signs of heating up again. He's scored goals in back-to-back games -- a power play deflection goal against Tampa Bay on Sunday, a drive-the-net finish of a Kevin Hayes feed against Colorado -- and currently has a three-game point streak (2g, 1a) after a few games where he has getting a few prime scoring chances but not putting them in the net.
Atkinson's performance on Monday was a case of someone leading by example. He exited the game for a stretch of the second period (four shifts all period) and seemed to be hobbling but he dug deep in the third period to get his team back within a goal. This came one day after Atkinson said that his team needed more players to go to the "greasy areas" as well as to adopt more of a shooting mentality.
In the absence of the injured Joel Farabee -- who worked through a prolonged goal drought of his own to score goals in three straight games before being lost to a shoulder injury in the first period of last Wednesday's game at Madison Square Garden -- the Flyers need others to heat up offensively in similar fashion. Atkinson took a step forward the last few games. Travis Konecny delivered a pair of nifty assists on Monday against Colorado and is looking to end a stretch of eight games without a goal (one goal in the last 14).
On Monday, Yeo showed a measure of faith in the struggling Oskar Lindblom, reuniting him with Couturier and Konecny on what had been the Flyers' most effective line for the first seven weeks of the 2019-20 season prior to Lindblom's Ewing Sarcoma diagnosis. Lindblom and Konecny responded with their respective best games in several weeks, including Lindblom taking a cetering feed from Konecny to finally get his long-elusive first goal of the 2021-22 campaign. Now the line has to build off it. Ditto Frost, who attacked with a lot of pace and created several scoring chances in Monday's game.
3. Inside the Numbers
The Flyers PK took a hit on Monday, dropping to 22nd in the NHL (79.7 percent) after Colorado struck three times. The Devils have had an inconsistent year on the penalty kill, particularly on home ice (75.7 percent). The Flyers' power play, which has been a sore spot pretty much from the end of the early western Canada road trip onward, has looked better over the last three games in terms of entries and puck movement.
With Yeo being moved up from PK/blueline coach to the interim head coaching spot and Therrien having been relieved of his duties as PP/forwards coach, there is a void to fill in the assistant coaching ranks. Assistant coach Darryl Williams ran the team's pregame power play meeting on Monday before the match against Colorado. Lehigh Valley Phantoms head coach Ian Laperriere filled in as a bench assistant to Yeo on Monday. However, more long-term assignments had yet to be decided as of Tuesday.
Additionally, Yeo has said that he plans to have a series of individual meetings with players. The goal: Getting everyone on the same page before some system tweaks are implemented -- there are no practices this week due to the 5-in-7 schedule -- and hopefully improving upon puck possession, shot quality and goal differential metrics at 5-on-5 that have been pedestrian-to-dreadful for too much of the season to date.

4. Behind Enemy Lines: New Jersey Devils
The last time the Flyers played the Devils, they struggled to contain any among defenseman Dougie Hamilton or forwards Jesper Bratt and Andreas Johansson. Hamilton racked up 10 shots on goal and produced a goal and an assist. Johnsson had two goals, two assists and was on the ice for all five New Jersey Devils and neither of Philly's two goals. Bratt set up Johnsson's tallies and scored one of his own.
At the other end of the ice, the Flyers attempted 57 shots on goal but only put 25 of them on Blackwood's net. New Jersey blocked 13 attempts and the Flyers missed the net on another 19. Although the Flyers blocked 21 New Jersey attempts, the Devils put 35 of the unblocked attempts onto the net (Jones was in goal for the Flyers) and missed the net on just 13 including two that hit the post.
New Jersey has not played well overall in the games that have followed, but the effort against Ottawa was a step on the right direction from a two-way game and puck possession standpoint.
5. Players to Watch: Hischier and Connauton
Nico Hischier was quiet offensively in the game against Ottawa but produced a strong off-puck performance. He scored a goal and had a half-dozen shots on goal in the game against Winnipeg; one of the few bright spots for the Devils on that night. The first overall pick of the 2017 NHL Draft has logged 19 or more minutes of ice time in seven of the team's last 11 games.
The Flyers claimed veteran defenseman Kevin Connauton off waivers from the Florida Panthers on Tuesday. He could make his Flyers debut in New Jersey, possibly replacing Seeler in the lineup. Connauton will wear No. 8 as a Flyer.