John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (4-5-1) will play the second game of their home-and-home set with Don Granato's Buffalo Sabres (5-5-0) on Friday evening. The Flyers lost a 5-2 decision to the Sabres at Wells Fargo Center on Wednesday. Now the scene shifts to the KeyBank Center in Buffalo. Game time is 7:00 p.m. ET.
Wednesday's game will be televised on NBCSP. The radio broadcast is on 97.5 The Fanatic with Tim Saunders and Todd Fedoruk on the call and an online simulcast on Flyers Radio 24/7.
Here are five things to watch in the second game of the home-and-home:
1 Rallying around Ersson
On Thursday, the Flyers recalled veteran goaltender Cal Petersen from the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms and loaned defenseman Victor Mete to Lehigh Valley. With Flyers' No. 1 goaltender Carter Hart dealing with a mid-body injury suffered at the 10-minute mark of the first period in Wednesday's game against the Sabres, Petersen will join the club in Buffalo.
On Wednesday, Samuel Ersson (0-2-1, 4.91 GAA, .763 save percentage) played the final 50 minutes after Hart was forced to exit. Ersson saw just nine shots, yielding third-period goals to Owen Power (1st goal of the season) and Tage Thompson (5th). With Hart unavailable, the Flyers will need Ersson to step up as the likely primary starter for the time being. Ersson impressed last season in his first healthy season in North America.
Ersson had a rough time in the first two periods of the Flyers' 5-4 overtime loss in Dallas on Oct. 21. However, he settled in and played a strong third period before the Stars prevailed in 3-on-3 sudden death. The Flyers' 7-4 loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Oct. 28 was a bizarre game in which Philly dominated most of the territorial play but played from behind all day as the Ducks capitalized on a series of broken plays, favoriable bounces and Flyers' turnovers in dangerous areas of the ice. Ersson wasn't tested much in Wednesday's game until the third period, but the first two non-routine save opportunities ended up in the net.
Ersson is an immensely more capable young goaltender than his early-season numbers suggest, both in terms of physical ability and mental toughness. It's now up to Ersson to rise to the challenge in similar fashion to how he won each of his first five NHL decisions last season. It's imperative for the rest of the team to rally around their goaltender. There's no need for the team to change how it's playing. The underlying process has generally been good despite the team's three straight losses and 1-4-1 record over the last six games.
With the Flyers in the midst of their first run of three games in four nights, it remains to be seen whether Ersson or Petersen will split the Friday and Saturday games against the Sabres and Kings. For now, the Flyers' only focus should be on achieving a split with the Sabres in the road half of the home-and-home.
2. Flyers must find ways to score
On Wednesday, the Flyers received a fluky goal from Joel Farabee (5th of the season) in the opening minute of the game and a Cam Atkinson deflection tally (6th) on a give-and-go with Travis Sanheim (10 points). The Farabee goal was actually intended as a pass but Buffalo defenseman Henri Jokiharju accidentally deflected it into the net.
Especially considering that the Flyers got off to a sluggish start in the first period of Wednesday's game, the tallies by Farabee and Atkinson were a promising way to put a couple pucks in the cash register before Philly got into an offensive rhythm.
The Flyers have created a healthy volume of scoring chances this season including the last two games. Converting the chances into goals has been a different story. Among the Flyers five regulation losses to date, Philadelphia's inability to turn Grade A or Grade B chances into goals -- while their opponents were far more opportunistic -- has been a major factor in why the Flyers came away with no points from eminently winnable games. On Wednesday against the Sabres, the Flyers generated 24 bonafide scoring chances and outshot Buffalo by a 30-9 margin over the final 40 minutes after the game went to the first intermission tied at 2-2.
3. Flyers power play vs. Buffalo PK
The Flyers started the season 1-for-20 on the power play, with the lone goal coming on a two-man advantage in Ottawa in the season's second game. The Flyers finally got off the schneid at 5-on-4 with two power play goals against Minnesota and one against Anaheim. Since that time, however, the Flyers went 0-for-5 against Carolina and 0-for-3 on Wednesday against the Sabres.
Digging a little deeper, the Flyers' power plays over the last three games have been wildly inconsistent. There have been several that went nowhere in a hurry, where simply getting set up in the attack zone was elusive. There were a couple that generated heavy pressure but had no payoff. The rest were somewhere in between, such as one in Wednesday's game where there was nicely executed offensive zone entry after a Buffalo clearing play, but which fizzled out thereafter and ended with an unscreened point shot for a routine save.
Statistically, the Flyers enter Friday's game at 4-for-35 (11.4 percent, ranked 28th leaguewide) on the season. The Flyers have yielded one shorthanded goal against (Anaheim's Frank Vatrano). The Sabres penalty kill clocks in at 90 percent (36-for-40) to date with one shorthanded goal scored by Thompson.
4. Flyers PK vs. Buffalo power play
The Flyers had been in a good groove on the penalty kill through the season's first seven games. In fact, up to that point, the Flyers actually boasted more shorthanded goals scored than opposing power play goals yielded. Subsequently, the penalty kill has stumbled, going a combined 0-for-3 in PK opportunities against Anaheim (0-for-2) and Carolina (0-for-1).
On Wednesday, the Flyers took a corrective step against the Sabres. Philly went 2-for-2 on the penalty kill in that game. Entering Friday, the Flyers are 21-for-26 overall (77.8 percent, ranked 16th) on the penalty kill for the season.
Buffalo's power play has struggled to get untracked so far this season. Entering Friday's rematch with the Flyers, the Sabres are 3-for-30 (10 percent, ranked 30th) on the man advantage.
5. Behind enemy lines: Buffalo Sabres
Goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen has had back-to-back outstanding outings with a 23-save shutout against the Colorado Avalanche and a 38-save gem against the Flyers. Overall, he's 3-1-0 with a 2.60 goals against and .926 save percentage to date this season.
Highly touted young goalie Devon Levi, who has dealt with some injury issues in the early season, is widely considered to be Buffalo's backstop of both the present and the future. He backed up Luukkonen last game in Philly. To date, Levi is 1-3-0 with a 3.26 GAA and .892 save percentage.
On Wednesday, Brandon Biro tallied even-strength and empty-net goals for his first two tallies in the NHL (in his second career NHL game). The Sabres also received tallies from Casey Mittelstadt (3rd), Power and Thompson. A would-be first period goal by Jeff Skinner was disallowed upon a Flyers challenge because forward JJ Peterka was offside on the entry into the Flyers' zone.
