Playing the latter half on their opening weekend back-to-back set, John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (1-0-0) have traveled to Alberta from British Columbia to take on Ryan Huska's Calgary Flames (1-0-0).
Game time at Scotiabank Saddledome is 10PM EDT. The game will be televised on NBCSP. The radio broadcast is on 93.3 WMMR with an online simulcast on Flyers Radio 24/7.
Saturday's match is the first of the two games between the teams in 2024-25. The season series will conclude on March 4 at Wells Fargo Center.
On Friday evening, the Flyers earned a 3-2 (2-1) shootout win over the Vancouver Canucks. Tyson Foerster (PPG, 1st) and Cam York (1st) scored in regulation for the Flyers. Morgan Frost netted the winning shootout goal in the fifth round, while Travis Konecny also converted his shootout attempt.
Here are five things to watch in Saturday's game.
1. First B2B of the season
Due to the compacted schedule to accommodate the Four Nations tournament in February, teams leaguewide have a higher-than-average volume of back-to-back game days on their dockets. Philly is no exception.
The Flyers will play 12 B2Bs this season, with four being of the road/road variety. The first set is the opening weekend games in Vancouver and Calgary.
2. Tough act to follow for Fedotov
Samuel Ersson played brilliantly in net for the Flyers in Vancouver. The Swedish goaltender took First Star honors in stopping 24 of 26 shots before going 4-for-5 in denying shootout attempts.
On Saturday, it is likely that Ivan Fedotov will get the starting nod in goal for Philly due to the immediate turnaround from Pacific to Mountain time. The fact that Friday's game went 65 minutes of game play plus the lengthy shootout further adds to this probability.
The keys for the 6-foot-7 goaltender are to stay on top of his angles and to avoid overcommitting. Fedotov is an adept puckhandler but is still adapting to the NHL game.
3. Andrae in the house
With Nick Seeler opening the season on injured reserve with a lower body injury sustained in an October 1 preseason game, the Flyers recalled second-year defenseman Emil Andrae on Saturday from the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
Last season, Andrae opened the campaign on Philly's NHL roster. After a four-game stint with the parent team, Andrae spent the remainder of his rookie season in North America with the Phantoms.
An offensive-minding blueliner with very good passing skills and ice vision, Andrae played a leading role on a generally solid Phantoms power play last season. He worked on some of his defensive reads and reactions.
Andrae enjoyed a strong training camp for the Flyers to leapfrog several other recall candidates in the pecking order to be the first callup.
At 5-foot-9, Andrae is the smallest defenseman on the Flyers' roster. However, his low center of gravity can also work to his benefit. He had a strong summer in terms of conditioning and he carries a leaner but still sturdy 189 pounds on his compact frame. Andrae is also a highly competitive player.
4. Eye on special teams
Last season, the Flyers were at or near the top of the NHL in penalty killing success for most of the campaign. A late season swoon hurt down the stretch but Philly was still comfortably in the top one-third of the league. The Flyers also led the NHL in shorthanded goals.
Hopefully for the Flyers, the opener in Vancouver was a harbinger of good things to come. The PK went 5-for-5 and had a pair of near misses on shorthanded scoring chances. The only thing the Flyers need to alter is avoiding Friday's excessive number of minor penalties taken.
Regarding the power play, which has been a constant sore spot for the last three seasons, the Flyers went 1-for-4 on Friday. The puck movement and entries were generally good. Philly made particularly effective use of one-touch passes and high-to-low plays.
5. Behind enemy lines: Calgary Flames
The Flames burned the Canucks on Wednesday for an improbable 6-5 overtime win after trailing 4-1 at the first intermission and being unable to close out a late 5-4 lead in regulation. Connor Zary scored the winning goal.
Anthony Mantha (1g, 1a), Rasmus Andersson (1g, 1a) and Martin Pospisil (1g, 1a) also scored for Calgary. Nazem Kadri collected two assists for the Flames. Dan Vladar made 20 saves in net.
