In the first game of a tough three-game road trip, John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (24-28-11) are in the Sunshine State on Tuesday to take on Jon Cooper's Tampa Bay Lightning (37-21-5). Game time at Amalie Arena is 7:00 p.m. ET.
5 THINGS: Flyers @ Lightning
In the first game of a tough three-game road trip, John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (24-28-11) are in the Sunshine State on Tuesday to take on Jon Cooper's Tampa Bay Lightning (37-21-5)
GAME NOTES
The game will be televised on NBCSP+. The radio broadcast is on 93.3 WMMR with an online simulcast on Flyers Radio 24/7.
This is the third and final meeting of the season between the teams, and the second game in Tampa. On Oct. 18 at Amalie Arena, the Flyers overcame a 2-0 deficit to rally for a 3-2 victory. The Lightning got revenge at the Wells Fargo Center on Dec. 1, defeating the Flyers by a 4-1 count.
On Sunday, the Flyers snapped a four-game winless streak (0-3-1) with a 3-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings. Nicolas Deslauriers (SHG, 5th), Noah Cates (10th) and Scott Laughton (ENG, 15th) scored for the Flyers. Carter Hart made 24 saves on 25 shots, overcoming a leaky goal in the first period to step up whenever needed.
1. Heavy usage for Tippett
Over the Flyers' last five games, Owen Tippett has logged massive ice time for Tortorella's club. He's averaged nearly 22 minutes TOI per game in that span including 31 shifts apiece against the New York Rangers (27:40) and Red Wings (24:09).
In the last two games, Tippett has double-shifted throughout. In addition to regularly playing with Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee, Tippett had double-shifted as the right wing with the fourth line. He's also had a handful of shifts on the Kevin Hayes line. In the latter half of the game against the Rangers, Tortorella sometimes sent Tippett over the boards on every other shift. Periodically, Wade Allison spelled Tippett for a shift with Frost and Farabee before Tippett came right back out for the line's next shift.
Tippett's play the last few games has merited the extended ice time. He's been dynamic in using his combination of size and speed and has been in the middle of a host of scoring chances and impressive rushes down the ice. The player has scored a goal in three of the last five games.
Tortorella has even had Tippett kill penalties the last couple games. However, there was a scary moment in the third period of the Detroit game when the player limped off the ice after painfully blocking a shot off his leg. He briefly went down the tunnel but, fortunately, reemerged quickly and was out for his next 5-on-5 shift.
There's not much to criticize or nitpick in Tippett's game, but he eventually needs to start converting a higher percentage of his scoring chances into goals. He's still two away from his first 20-goal season in the NHL and is fourth on the Flyers over the last 35 games with 22 points (11g, 11a); one point behind Frost (8g, 15a) in the same span.
Based on quality of chances, Tippett could currently be at (or at least very near) the 30-goal mark this season. In the last three games alone, Tippett has had no fewer than six glorious scoring chances plus two near assists on chances that he set up for teammates. Instead, the player has only one point -- a power play goal against the Rangers -- to show for it. In the Rangers game alone, Tippett had two other Grade A chances from point blank range (one hit the point, one missed the net) plus a Grade B chance with an open look from mid-slot (missed the net).
For the season, Tippett has scored on 11.5 percent of the shots he's put on net. That's an improvement from his career average (9.5 percent) but still only good enough to be tied for 165th leaguewide among all players who've scored 10 or more goals this season. He's also missed the net 56 times (45 wide, six over the net, and five off the post or crossbar).
In terms of missed shots, Tippett is tied with Toronto's Mitchell Marner and the New York Islanders' Mathew Barzal for 106th leaguewide. The difference: Marner, who is more of a pure playmaker than goal scorer but has 22 goals this season, has scored on 14.4 percent of his shots on goal this season. Likewise, Barzal is more playmaker (37 assists) than goal-scorer (14 goals). Tippett, conversely, is more shooter than playmaker, although he has underrated distribution ability, too.
Over time, the Flyers will need Tippett to put more pucks in the net. Tippett has been individually credited with 53 high-danger chances this season across all game situations per Natural Stat Trick. On a Flyers team that collectively needs more finish, Tippett's 18 goals are decent but he has room to get better.
2. Will Farabee End His Point Drought in Tampa?
This has been a much-discussed topic in the second half of the season: Joel Farabee's struggles to produce points. Farabee has no goals and a single assist in the 12 games since the All-Star break. In fact, his drought goes all the way back to Jan. 16: one point in his last 20 games. His last goal was 23 games ago, in Buffalo on Jan. 9.
There have, however, been hopeful signs over the past two games.
Farabee generated three shots on goal in the game against the Rangers last Wednesday, including one notable scoring chance. He also was noticeably forechecking with more jam and, correspondingly, winning more battles.
He built off that performance with an excellent game against Detroit. Farabee had three separate Grade A scoring chances (one even a Grade A+ on which goalie Ville Husso made a phenomenal save after seeming to be dead-to-rights on the play). Farabee attempted seven shots and put four on net.
However, for all the good work he's done over the last two games, Farabee has come away with goose eggs on the scoresheet. So has Frost, who has been on the set up end (five) or shooting end (one) of six high-danger chances in the last two games with no points to show for it.
That's going to happen sometimes: lots of scoring chances, no reward on the scoresheet. In the bigger picture, though, it's very important mentally for Farabee to finally end his lengthy drought and finish out strong in the final 19 games of the season.
Per Natural Stat Trick, Farabee has been individually credited with 42 high-danger chances this season; 9th on the Flyers. He's capable of much better than that. Although his own point totals are modest relative to his talent level, linemate Frost has been credited with 70 high-danger chances this season (only the injured Travis Konecny, with 77, has more among the Flyers).
3. Special teams: good news and bad news
Entering tonight's game, the Flyers are tied for second in the NHL with 11 shorthanded goals: three apiece by Laughton and Konecny, one apiece for Noah Cates, ex-Flyer Brown, Deslauriers, Travis Sanheim and Rasmus Ristolainen. The Lightning have coughed up 10 opposing shorthanded goals this season (30th in the NHL), so there could be counterattacking opportunities for the Flyers.
That's the good news.
The bigger-picture bad news: The Flyers' PK has been on a roller coaster ride all season. Overall, the Flyers enter tonight's game ranked 23rd on the penalty kill (75.9 percent) and 30th on the road (72.9 percent).
Meanwhile, the Flyers' PK faces almost as steep a challenge in playing Tampa's power play, which is ranked 2nd in the NHL at 25.6 percent. In much the same manner as the best way to deal with the Edmonton Oilers' top-ranked power play is to stay out of the penalty box in the first place, the Flyers would do well to avoid needless penalties.
On the other end of special teams, the Flyers rank last in the NHL on the power play (15.6 percent overall, 12.5 percent on the road). The Lightning rank 14th on the penalty kill (79.2 percent), with three shorthanded goals scored.
4. Flyers line play
The Flyers started 11 forwards and seven defensemen -- something they've done with some frequency, although not on an every-game basis the last few weeks -- in Sunday's game against Detroit. The team did not practice on Monday. Coming off a solid win, the lines may remain the same in Tampa.
Earlier this season, for a four-plus week stretch in December to January, Tortorella used the exact same four forward line combinations and defense pairs on an every game basis. Ever since the final game before the All-Star break, there have usually been game-to-game changes of some sort.
Injuries have been one reason for the line juggling. Apart from a handful of players who were out with long-term injuries, the Flyers were remarkably injury free for a month-plus before the penultimate game before the All-Star break.
Another reason: the team's inconsistency -- with more downs than ups -- in February. Lastly, the subtractions of Patrick Brown and Zack MacEwen (activated from IR on Friday, then traded) at the NHL trade deadline, the addition of Brendan Lemieux and the return of Tanner Laczynski from a 36-game injury absence, altered the lineup for last game against the Red Wings.
Heading into Tampa, the combos from the Detroit game may carry over. How long they'll remain together, even within tonight's game, remains to be seen.
Throughout the season, the Flyers have shuffled around power play personnel between the two units all season with little lasting impact (apart from a game or two here and there).
86 Joel Farabee - 48 Morgan Frost - 74 Owen Tippett
25 James van Riemsdyk - 13 Kevin Hayes - 57 Wade Allison
21 Scott Laughton - 49 Noah Cates - 22 Brendan Lemieux
44 Nicolas Deslauriers - 58 Tanner Laczynski - [Tippett, double-shifts]
9 Ivan Provorov - 45 Cam York
6 Travis Sanheim - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
24 Nick Seeler - 77 Tony DeAngelo
61 Justin Braun
79 Carter Hart
[32 Felix Sandström]
PP1: Tippett, Laughton, Hayes, Ristolainen, DeAngelo
PP2: Frost, JVR, Cates, Farabee, York
5. Behind Enemy Lines: Tampa Bay Lightning
Depending on how one wants to look at it, the Flyers are either catching the three-time defending Eastern Conference champions at the ideal time or at the worst possible time.
The Lightning are winless in their last five games (0-4-1), and have had several ugly losses along the way.
In a 5-3 road loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday, Cooper benched top stars Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point for the third period. On Sunday in Raleigh, the Bolts got into penalty trouble and never got rolling offensively in what turned into a 6-0 rout for the Hurricanes.
They also saw No. 1 defenseman Victor Hedman exit the Carolina game due to injury after he took a hit from Andrei Svechnikov and went back-first into the boards. The initial word was that the Lightning were hopeful he wouldn't miss much time.
On the flip side, the Lightning did not win back-to-back Stanley Cup championships and three straight Eastern Conference championships for nothing. All teams face trials and tribulations over the course of a season. This is Tampa's first five-game winless skid since March 2014, but the team knows how to handle adversity. Sooner or later, the Lightning will work through their recent skid, and start to surge again.
The Lightning, who are 22-5-4 on home ice this season compared to a 15-16-1 record on the road, now begin a four-game homestand.
Tonight's game is Tampa's third in four nights. The Flyers are playing for the third time in a 10-night span.
With Travis Konecny shelved for at least a few more weeks due to an upper-body injury, the Flyers have only one player (Hayes) who has compiled 40 or more points this season. Tampa Bay, by comparison, has players with at least 40 points this season.
91 Steven Stamkos - 21 Brayden Point - 86 Nikita Kucherov
38 Brandon Hagel - 20 Nick Paul - 17 Alex Killorn
23 Michael Eyssimont - 71 Anthony Cirelli - 84 Tanner Jeannot
79 Ross Colton - 41 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - 10 Corey Perry
77 Victor Hedman (?) - 48 Nicklaus Perbix
98 Mikhail Sergachev - 24 Zach Bogosian
28 Ian Cole - 7 Haydn Fleury
88 Andei Vasilevskiy
1 Brian Elliott
