Playing the second game of the California portion of a five-game road trip, John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (16-16-4) are in Tinseltown on Sunday to take on Jim Hiller's Los Angeles Kings (20-10-5). Game time at Crypto.com Arena is 9:00 p.m. EST.
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 series between the Flyers and Kings. On Dec. 19 at Well Fargo Center, the Flyers lost by a 7-3 score. Anze Kopitar and Kevin Fiala each tallied two goals for the Kings. In a losing cause, Tyson Foerster scored two goals. Additionally, Noah Cates started his current goal streak in that game.
Here are five things to watch in Sunday's match.
1. Learning from the previous meeting
In the Dec. 19 game, the match was highly competitive through two periods. The Flyers dominated the middle frame and seemed poised to take a 3-2 lead to the intermission. Disaster struck in the final minute.
At 19:16 of the second period, a lost faceoff in the defensive zone and a misplayed initial shot resulted in Kopitar sending the game to the third period tied at 3-3. At 1:53 of the final stanza, Warren Foegele put the Kings ahead to stay.
Staggered by the back-to-back goals that took them from leading to trailing, the wheels fell off for the Flyers. Over the course of the third period, the Kings outshot the Flyers by a margin of 8-2 and went on to rack up four goals to turn the up-for-grabs contest into a blowout. The Kings out-grinded the Flyers but also picked Philly apart in transition.
What happened and why? Lapses of structure, puck management and goalie play added up to an ugly result for the Flyers. To fare better against the Kings this time around, the Flyers will need to clean up the issues that caused the team to plummet to the NHL's worst goals against average through the leaguewide holiday break.
Philly took a step in the right direction in Saturday's 3-1 win in Anaheim. In particular, the club received a desperately needed strong game in goal by Samuel Ersson. Now the team will have to match or exceed that effort against a tough LA Kings club.
2. Goalie play: Kolosov's turn
The Flyers will not hold a morning skate in LA on Sunday Following Saturday's win in Anaheim, Tortorella did not identify which goaltender would start against the Kings. However, given that Sunday's game is the second half of a back-to-back and there is another game to follow in San Jose on Tuesday, it seems likely that Aleksei Kolosov will get the start in LA.
In the Flyers' previous game against the Kings, Kolosov stopped just 20 of 26 shots on goal. He was unable to stop the bleeding for his team once the offensive floodgates opened for the Kings.That ended up overshadowing a strong start to the game for Kolosov in making 10 saves in the first period.
For the season as a whole, Kolosov has posted a 4-6-1 record with a 3.34 GAA and .878 save percentage.
3. Cates' goal streak: Search for six in a row
Cates has scored a goal in each of the Flyers' last five games dating back to the previous meeting with the Kings. He has brought his goal total for the season from two to seven.
More importantly, Cates has maintained his customary 200-foot game without sacrificing any of his off-puck effectiveness. In fact, on a game-by-game basis, Cates' lineup with Foerster and Bobby Brink has been the Flyers' most consistent trio in December.
4. Continued search for power play spark
The Flyers went 0-for-5 on the power play in Anaheim on Saturday, dropping to 14.9 percent for the season (ranked 28th leaguewide). Over the last 30 games, the Flyers have connected on just 13.2 percent of their power plays (10-for-76).
Heading to LA, where the Kings rank tied for 12th in penalty killing success at 81.1 percent, the Flyers need to start with establishing the basic elements of generating scoring opportunities on the power play: winning the initial faceoff or gaining entries/retrievals if the puck is cleared. They need to get shots through to the net and traffic in front.
At a bare minimum, the Flyers cannot afford for the power play to be a momentum killer for their side. Philly has been scoring at a decent clip at 5-on-5 over the last six weeks. The power play must at least find a semblance of respectability moving forward.
5. Behind enemy lines: Kopitar and Kempe
Future Hall of Fame candidate Kopitar leads the Kings with 37 points (10 goals, 27 assists) through his first 35 games played this season. He swung the game in LA's favor the last time the Kings played the Flyers.
Adrian Kempe paces LA with 16 goals among the 33 points he has accumulated so far this season. He also leads all Kings players with a traditional +17 rating. Back on Dec. 19, Kempe had four shots on goal against the Flyers but did not get on the scoresheet that night.
