5 THINGS: Flyers @ Jets

John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (20-21-9) are in Manitoba on Saturday to take on Rick Bowness's Winnipeg Jets (31-18-1). Game time at Canada Life Centre is 7:00 p.m. ET.

GAME NOTES
The game will be televised on NBCSP. The radio broadcast is on 97.5 The Fanatic with an online simulcast on Flyers Radio 24/7.
This is the second and final meeting of the season between the teams and the lone game in Winnipeg. Last Sunday at the Wells Fargo Center, the Flyers rallied all the way back from a 3-0 deficit only to yield a bad goal and ultimately go on to suffer a 5-3 loss.
The Flyers, who are 0-1-2 in their last three games, are coming off a 3-2 overtime loss in Saint Paul against the Minnesota Wild. In a feisty game that saw four separate fights, a late third-period goal by defenseman Tony DeAngelo (8th of the season) at 6-on-5 forced overtime. Noah Cates (7th) scored a first period goal on a deflection.
Here are five things to watch in Saturday's rematch with the Jets.
1. Reigniting offense starts with TK
Between the games played on Dec. 17 to Jan. 14, the Flyers scored three goals or more in 11 of the 12 games in that span. Philly tallied four more goals in seven games, five or more goals twice and six goals once (6-2 home win over Arizona on Jan. 5).
More recently, goals have been harder to come by again for the Flyers. Starting with the team's 6-0 shutout loss at the hands of the Boston Bruins on MLK Day, the Flyers have scored two or fewer goals in four of the last seven games.
In the majority of recent games, the checking has been much tighter and the difficulty of the Flyers' opposition has been tougher. It's not going to get easier going into Winnipeg. The Jets are 17-7-0 on home ice, as opposed to 14-11-1 on the road.
For the Flyers to earn a victory in Winnipeg, they may need four or more goals to defeat a team that averages 3.38 goals per game on home ice (3.24 overall). That will take some doing, as the Flyers rank 27th overall offensively at 2.76 goals per game (2.62 on the road).
In order for that to happen, the Flyers will likely need a big night from leading scorer Travis Konecny (24g, 25a, 49 points in 44 games).
TK's offensive output has ebbed since his career-best 10-game, 20-point streak ended. He is currently looking to end his first three-game pointless stretch of the 2022-23 season. Konency has been held without a point in six of the last eight games and has only three points (0g, 3a) in that stretch. His last goals were his hat trick against the Washington Capitals on Jan. 11.
Konecny is a player who needs to push the envelope and get under opponents' skin while working his way inside and below the dots to score with regularity. Of late, although he's had a handful of prime scoring chances -- including a 2-on-1 in overtime of the Minnesota game on Thursday -- he's had to fight through a lot of tight checking.
He's gotten frustrated at times. Konecny has taken eight minor penalties (16 PIM) in the last eight games. The Flyers need him on the ice.
2. Hart vs. Hellebuyck
Both Carter Hart and Connor Hellebuyck absorbed hard-luck losses in their last outings.
Hart stopped 20 of 23 shots in Minnesota but the low shot totals masked the difficulty of many of the shots he had to face. Hart faced 13 high-dangers overall among the 23 shots that reached his net. The team in front of him blocked 20 shot attempts. Bottom line: the puck was in the Flyers' end of the ice quite a bit and Thursday's game was a tough one for a goalie.
By comparison, Hellebuyck saw more rubber reach the net in Thursday's 3-2 home loss to the Buffalo Sabres -- 33 saves on 36 shots -- but the exact same number of high-danger chances (13) that Hart faced in Minnesota. Hellebuyck, however, faced quite a few more medium-danger chances than Hart that night. Hellebuyck earned third-star honors in a losing cause.
Last Sunday when the Flyers played the Jets at the Wells Fargo Center, both teams went with their backup goalies because they were each playing their third game in four nights (fifth in seven nights for Philly, fifth in eight nights but with more travel for the Jets). Felix Sandstrom went for Philly while David Rittich started for Winnipeg.
This time around, look for Hart and Hellebuyck to go head-to-head barring illness or undisclosed injury. For the season, Hart is 14-14-8 with a 2.97 GAA and .908 save percentage. Hellebuyck is 23-14-1 with a 2.40 GAA and .924 save percentage.
3. Situational play
For the Flyers, one of the most frustrating aspects of last Sunday's loss to the Jets is that they actually won both sides of the special teams battle against a Winnipeg club that entered the game scorching hot on both the power play and the penalty kill. Last Sunday, the Flyers went 2-for-4 on the power play as Kevin Hayes notched late-second and early-third period goals to turn a 3-1 deficit into a 3-3 deadlock. Additionally, the Flyers went 5-for-5 on the penalty kill in that game.
For the season, the Jets rank 13th in the NHL on the power play at 23.6 percent success (37-for-157) while the Flyers rank 20th on the penalty kill at 76.9 percent (opposing power play are 34-for-147). Philly still leads the NHL with nine shorthanded goals scored while the Jets have yielded three opposing shorthanded goals. Konecny and Scott Laughton lead the Flyers with three shorties apiece, while Noah Cates, Travis Sanheim and Rasmus Ristolainen have notched one apiece.
Winnipeg entered last Sunday's game ranked 2nd in the NHL on the PK. They now rank 4th at 83.6 percent efficiency (opposing power plays are 23-for-140). The Flyers' power play, which has been a roller coaster of mini hot streaks and prolonged droughts, comes in ranked 29th in the NHL at 16.2 percent (25-for-154) overall, and a dreadful 13.2 percent on the road (19.2 percent at home). The Flyers have given up four opposing shorthanded goals. The Jets have scored four shorthanders including two by Adam Lowry.
At five-on-five, the Jets are plus-11 (99 scored, 88 allowed). The Flyers are minus-9 (91 scored, 100 yielded).

4. Flyers line play
The Flyers suffered two injuries in the Minnesota game on Thursday, and played the majority of the game with just 10 forwards. Zack MacEwen sustained an upper-body injury in a first period fight with the Wild's Marcus Foligno, while Wade Allison incurred a lower-body injury as he blocked a shot early in the second period. Allison subsequently attempted to skate one more shift, but exited after 10 seconds and left the game.
After MacEwen and Allison went down, Tortorella did extensive line juggling during the Minnesota game, He entirely broke up the trio of James van Riemsdyk, Morgan Frost and Owen Tippett. Frost saw time with Hayes on his left wing and variously had the likes of Joel Farabee and Patrick Brown on his line as well.
The statuses of Allison and MacEwen are unknown as of this writing. The Flyers did not practice on Friday and will also not hold a morning skate in Winnipeg on Saturday. Tortorella will speak to the media at 5:00 p.m. ET.
Unless both Allison and MacEwen are somehow able to play on Saturday, the Flyers will feature an altered starting lineup for the first time in 18 games. Notably, the Flyers did not recall any players from the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Friday.
It's still possible that the Flyers could make a callup on Saturday and rush a player to Winnipeg if neither Allison nor MacEwen can play. Alternatively, the Flyers could start seven defensemen and 11 forwards, dressing both winger Kieffer Bellows and defenseman Justin Braun. This possibility is reflected below in the lineup projection but the actual starting lineup could vary.
In the Minnesota game, the Flyers altered the arrangement of the personnel on their two power play units. Most notably, Hayes and Laughton were placed on the same unit, along with DeAngelo manning the point. It's possible the Flyers could revert to the arrangement they used the last time they played the Jets (and went 2-for-4).
The projected power play units below are a carryover from the Minnesota game but it would not be a surprise if the personnel is moved around again to the unit arrangement of the previous three-plus games including the last game against Winnipeg.
Potential Flyers line combinations (speculative and subject to change)
86 Joel Farabee - 49 Noah Cates - 11 Travis Konecny
25 James van Riemsdyk - 48 Morgan Frost - 74 Owen Tippett
13 Kevin Hayes - 21 Scott Laughton - 20 Kieffer Bellows [57 Wade Allison]
44 Nicolas Deslauriers - 38 Patrick Brown - xxxxxx [17 Zack MacEwen]
9 Ivan Provorov - 45 Cam York
6 Travis Sanheim - 77 Tony DeAngelo
24 Nick Seeler - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
61 Justin Braun
79 Carter Hart
[32 Felix Sandström]
PP1: Laughton, Hayes, Konecny, JVR, DeAngelo
PP2: Cates, Frost, Tippett, Farabee, York
5. Behind Enemy Lines: Winnipeg Jets
In Thursday's 3-2 home regulation loss to Buffalo, the Jets fell behind 3-0 before staging a late comeback bid that fell one goal short. Nate Schmidt (PPG, 5th) and Pierre-Luc Dubois (6-on-5, 22nd) tallied in the final five minutes of the game but Winnipeg was unable to find an equalizer. The Jets exited the game lamenting a poor second period in which they were significantly outplayed.
The Jets practiced at home on Friday. Hellebuyck, Dubois, Nikolaj Ehlers and Dylan DeMelo all took a maintenance day. The four players are expected to be available against the Flyers on Saturday.
In last Sunday's game in Philadelphia, the Flyers struggled to cope with Ehlers' speed in particular and they paid the price for a couple of turnovers and coverage breakdowns as the Jets blitzed them for three goals in the first eight and a half minutes of the game. Thereafter, the Flyers seemed to adapt.
Entering the rematch against the Flyers, Kyler Connor leads the Jets with 57 points (24 g, 33a). He is followed by Dubois (22g, 30a, 50 points), offensive-minded defenseman John Morrissey (8g, 43a, 51 points), longtime Jets centerpiece player Mark Scheifele (29g, 16a, 45 points), and the playmaking Wheeler (12g,24a, 36 points).
Projected lineup (based on last game, subject to change)
81 Kyle Connor - 80 Pierre-Luc Dubois - 91 Cole Perfetti
26 Blake Wheeler - 55 Mark Scheifele - 27 Nikolaj Ehlers
36 Morgan Barron - 17 Adam Lowry - 20 Karson Kuhlman
71 Axel Jonsson-Fjällby - 28 Kevin Stenlund - 8 Saku Mäenalanen
44 Josh Morrissey - 2 Dylan DeMelo
5 Brenden Dillon - 4 Neal Pionk
64 Logan Stanley - 88 Nate Schmidt
37 Connor Hellebuyck
[33 David Rittich]
PP1: Dubois, Scheifele, Connor, Ehlers, Morrissey
PP2: Wheeler, Lowry, Perfetti, Schmidt, Pionk
Extras: 89 Sam Gagner, 54 Dylan Samberg, 77 Kyle Capobianco