5 THINGS: Flyers @ Hurricanes

GAME NOTES
In the front end of a back-to-back and middle game of a three-in-four set, Alain Vigneault's Philadelphia Flyers (6-3-2) are in Raleigh on Friday night to Rod Brind'Amour's Carolina Hurricanes (10-1-0). Game time at PNC Arena is 7:00 p.m. ET (NBCSP, 97.5 The Fanatic).

This is the first of four meetings this season between the Metro Division teams. They will rematch at the Wells Fargo Center on Nov. 26 and Jan. 11 before they return to Raleigh to finish the regular season series on March 12.
The Flyers enter this game coming off a 3-0 home shutout loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Philly generated plenty of shots in terms of quantity (36) but the quality of the team's scoring chances was so-so.
Five-on-five play was fairly equal. The big difference in the game was special teams. The Flyers went 0-for-4 on the man advantage, and had trouble even getting set up on their first three power plays. Meanwhile, the Flyers' PK failed them during a must-kill situation with a 1-0 deficit in the third period. The final Toronto tally came a few seconds after a power play expired.
The Hurricanes earned a 2-1 overtime road win against the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday evening. Teuvo Teräväinen (power play, third goal of the season) knotted the score midway through the third period. Martin Necas (3rd) won the game with 1:34 remaining on the overtime clock. Frederik Andersen saw just 18 shots for the game, stopping 17.
Here are five things to watch in Friday's game:
1. Hart vs. Andersen
Carter Hart brings a 3-3-2 record into Friday's game but has given the Flyers a chance to win. His 2.49 goals against average and .924 save percentage thus far is a more accurate reflection of Hart's play.
Both of the shutout losses the Flyers have suffered this season -- Oct. 30 in Calgary and Nov. 10 against the Maple Leafs -- have come in games where Hart was very sharp. In both games, he held the opponents at bay for much of the game but was ultimately victimized by goals he had little to no chance of stopping.
On Wednesday, the first Toronto goal was a deflection off Toronto forward William Nylander's skate midway through the second period. The goal was initially waved off but the on-ice call was reversed by the NHL Situation Room in Toronto. In the third period, Nylander (power play) and Ondrej Kase (shortly after the expiration of a power play) scored from prime shooting range.
Former Toronto goaltender Andersen is loving life so far in Carolina. He's played in 10 of the team's 11 games, rattling off a 9-1-0 record with a 1.74 GAA and eye-popping .939 save percentage.
The Hurricanes recently recalled former Flyers/Phantoms goalie Alex Lyon to serve as Andersen's backup.Antti Raanta (upper body) was injured in the collision around the net during the Hurricanes' loss to the Florida Panthers last Saturday.
Flyers backup Martin Jones (3-0-0) has played well in all three of his starts this season. He'll get the call on Saturday night in Dallas.
2. Winger Switch: Lindblom and Farabee
Oskar Lindblom has played well early this season on a line with Scott Laughton and James van Riemsdyk. Laughton has forechecked effectively. He's backchecked diligently. He had plenty of scoring chances. Unfortunately, the Swedish forward still finds himself without a goal -- and only a single assist -- 11 games into the season.
Meanwhile, coming off a breakout campaign in his second NHL season, Joel Farabee roared out of the gates over the first three games of this season on a line with newcomers Derick Brassard and Cam Atkinson. Unfortunately, things have dried up for the line as a whole (except for a Brassard goal in the Flyers' 2-1 win in Washington) and for Farabee in particular. Farabee is pointless in his last eight games after racking up three goals and six points over the first three games of the season.
The Flyers as a team have fallen into a cycle -- apart from the aforementioned Brassard goal and single tallies in back-to-back games by Laughton the previous two games -- where nearly all of their offensive output has to come from the top line at 5-on-5, the first power play unit or it hasn't come at all. At practice on Thursday, the coaching staff made two changes: They switched 5-on-5 line assignments for Lindblom and Farabee, and also put Lindblom onto PP2 for a four-forward look (defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen was taken off the power play).
Additionally, a mid-game switch on Wednesday saw Keith Yandle get restored to the first power play unit. Ivan Provorov moved down to the second unit. This will hold for Friday's game. Claude Giroux, who had primarily been playing the right side on PP1 of late, took some power play reps on his more accustomed left-side spot at practice on Thursday.

Neither Ryan Ellis (lower-body) nor Kevin Hayes (LTIR, abdominal muscle surgery) will play in this game. Both players, however, have traveled with the team on the road trip. Ellis will miss his ninth straight game while Hayes, who had surgery in September, has not been available to play. On Thursday, Vigneault said he is optimistic that Ellis will return to the lineup on Saturday in Dallas. The top-pair defenseman is being held out of this game primarily to avoid having to play in a back-to-back set right from the get-go. Vigneault originally said that the soonest Hayes could return would be next Tuesday against Calgary. However, the player is campaigning to return this weekend for the second game of the back-to-back.
For the game in Carolina, the Flyers will line up like this:
28 Claude Giroux - 14 Sean Couturier - 11 Travis Konecny
23 Oskar Lindblom - 19 Derick Brassard - 89 Cam Atkinson
86 Joel Farabee - 21 Scott Laughton - 25 James van Riemsdyk
38 Patrick Brown - 44 Nate Thompson - 17 Zack MacEwen
9 Ivan Provorov - 61 Justin Braun
6 Travis Sanheim - 70 Rasmus Ristolainen
3 Keith Yandle - 24 Nate Seeler
79 Carter Hart
[35 Martin Jones]
3. Inside the Numbers
The Flyers have their work cut out for them. There are no glaring weaknesses on Carolina that Philly can easily exploit. The Canes rank in the NHL's top five in most major puck-possession related measures and, without the puck, rank among the stingiest teams leaguewide in permitting opposing shots on goal. They've also been getting strong goaltending from Andersen thus far. When a team wins 10 of 11 games, it's clearly doing many things well, and the underlying numbers support the Canes' gaudy record.
The story with the Hurricanes thus far has boiled down to this: get to them early (11 GF- 10 GA in first periods) or you're probably not going to get to them at all. In the second period, Carolina has outscored opponents by a 15-8 margin. By the third period, the Canes have a staggering 14-3 goal edge. The Canes have also outshot opponents in all three periods, although the second period margin (129 to 126) is negligible.

Until the last two games, the story for the Flyers had been one of strong first periods, poor second periods and solid third periods with a decided goal-differential edge. That was not the case in the games against Washington or Toronto.
In the 2-1 victory in Washington, the Flyers played their best 200-foot game of the season across the opening 40 minutes. They withstood a heavy Washington push in the third, which was partially due to the effects of Philly taking a 2-0 lead into the final stanza and partially because the Flyers could not re-establish momentum of their own and needed Jones to come up big repeatedly to nail down the win.
In the Toronto game, 5-on-5 play was largely a toss-up for two periods, although Sean Couturier's line spent more time defending and less time attacking than they'd have wanted. The Brassard line, which had been struggling mightily in terms of puck possession after the third game of the season, actually had a pretty strong game in terms of spending shifts on the attack. Unfortunately for the Flyers, Toronto was by far the better team in the third period, and a manageable game turned into a rather disappointing three-goal loss.
Against Carolina, the Flyers do not have much margin for error. They'll have to protect the puck effectively, be as clean as possible on breakouts and clearing opportunities, be opportunistic when their own scoring chances (the Canes haven't been yielding many) and do a better job at creating screens and scrambles around the net than they did against Toronto. The Flyers settled for a lot of unscreened shots from the perimeter in the Toronto game, and had 16 shot attempts blocked. The areas between and below the dots are hockey's prime real estate, and the Flyers goal-scoring has largely dried up of late because opponents have owned those spaces too often.
4. Behind Enemy Lines: Carolina Hurricanes
The Flyers' last opponent, Toronto, has been very top-heavy this season. They didn't have veteran superstar John Tavares in the lineup but another member of their central core -- Nylander -- scored twice and Auston Matthews collected two assists. In Carolina's case, the Flyers need to beware not only of the players at the top-end of the lineup but also the supporting cast. Five Canes players already are in double-digits in points and a total of nine players have collected six points or more through the first 11 games.
The team's top talents are collectively off to strong starts. Start with Andrei Svechnikov (7g, 8a), Sebastian Aho (5g, 7a) and Vincent Trochek (3g, 8a). Teräväinen also has 10 points, while Jesper Fast has collected five goals. Meanwhile the Anthony DeAngelo reclamation project -- apart from an NHL-issued fine this week for embellishment -- has been a big success so far with the offensive defenseman collecting 11 points and sporting a traditional plus-11 rating.
Nino Niederreiter (lower-body injury) is eligible to come off IR for the Flyers game but the team has no need to rush him back before he's ready. He scored three goals in seven games prior to the injury. The team recalled Josh Leivo to fill in the temporarily vacated roster spot.
Carolina lost Dougie Hamilton during the offseason but the team hasn't skipped a beat on the blueline. DeAngelo has filled the offensive void and the team has a good mix of mobility and puck-moving prowess on defense. Defenseman Jaccob Slavin has posted eight assists, new acquisition Ethan Bear has brought his mobility into the mix.
The Canes have a lot of speed and skill. However, if need be, they aren't afraid to grind it out and play physically. The team has four players who've been credited with 20 or more hits thus far, led by veteran shutdown center Jordan Staal's 30. The Flyers, led by Ristolainen's 32 credited hit in nine games played, have only two players who've reached 20 credited hits thus far. The other is Scott Laughton (24) although Zack MacEwen is on the cusp of becoming the third and has only played nine games.
Thus far, off-season restricted free agent offer sheet acquisition Jesperi Kotkaniemi, is still trying to find a groove with the Hurricanes. He has two goals and three points to date, while averaging 12:40 of ice time. The young Finn has only one goal and two points over his last eight games. The Flyers are well aware, however, that Kotkaniemi is a naturally talented young player. He burned Philly a couple times as a member of the Montreal Canadiens during the first round of the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Potential starting lineup (unconfirmed):
37 Andrei Svechnikov - 20 Sebastian Aho - 86 Teuvo Teravainen
82 Jesperi Kotkaniemi - 16 Vincent Trocheck - 88 Martin Necas
78 Steven Lorentz - 11 Jordan Staal - 71 Jesper Fast
48 Jordan Martinook - 18 Derek Stepan - 24 Seth Jarvis
74 Jaccob Slavin - 25 Ethan Bear
76 Brady Skjei - 77 Tony DeAngelo
7 Brendan Smith - 28 Ian Cole
31 Frederik Andersen
[34 Alex Lyon]
5. Players to watch: Provorov and Trochek
The Flyers have strongly preached the necessity of playing as cohesive five-man units, and thus far, the players have largely bought in. At the same time, Ivan Provorov's pairing with Justin Braun and Couturier's line with Giroux and Travis Konecny will have their hands full regardless of the matchups they end up seeing. With Brind'Amour's Canes having the last line change on home ice, he has the option of trying to get the Schechnikov-Aho-Teräväinen line away from the Couturier line or going strength-on-strength and trying to get Trochek's line with Kotkaniemi and Martin Necar out against the Brassard line.
Opposing teams are hyper-aware of the need to contain Aho and Svechnikov. But Trochek, who is also part of the first power play unit, is formidable in his own right as the Carolina second-line center. He's been a difference-maker a few times this season and the Flyers have to check him effectively.