5 THINGS: Flyers vs. Blue Jackets

Interim head coach Mike Yeo's Philadelphia Flyers (22-36-11) will host Brad Larsen's Columbus Blue Jackets (32-32-6) at the Wells Fargo Center on Tuesday evening. Game time is 7:00 p.m. EDT (NBCSP+, 93.3 WMMR).

Tuesday's game is the front end of a home-and-home set. The scene will shift to Nationwide Arena in Columbus on Thursday to conclude the three-game season series between the teams. On Jan. 20 at the Wells Fargo Center, the Flyers suffered a 2-1 regulation loss. Oliver Bjorkstrand and Patrik Laine scored for the Blue Jackets. Now-former Flyer Gerry Mayhew tallied the lone Flyers goal.
The Flyers enter this game coming off a 4-3 (1-0) shootout win against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Sunday despite letting a 3-0 third period lead slip away.
Kevin Hayes scored the winning shootout goal; the Flyers' first shooter to convert an opportunity in 18 tries this season. Cam York (3rd of the season), Owen Tippett (1st as a Flyer) and Joel Farabee (16th) scored in regulation. Martin Jones authored 43 saves in regulation and overtime and then went 3-for-3 in shootout stops.
The Blue Jackets are playing the second half of a back-to-back set, while the Flyers had a complete off-day on Monday. Both teams, however, will be playing their third game in four nights. Philadelphia may have a slight fatigue factor edge on paper due to the Monday off-day but the recent schedules are unlikely to significantly impact the comparative energy levels of the two teams heading into the game. Thursday's rematch will be a level playing field in that regard.
The Blue Jackets are coming off a chippy 3-2 overtime home loss to the Boston Bruins on Monday. Jake DeBrusk scored twice for Boston, including the overtime winner. Emil Bemström (5th) and Zack Werenski (11th) scored in regulation for Columbus. Longtime Flyers right wing Jakub Voracek earned his 45th and 46th assists of the season on the Bemström goal and also picked up 12 minutes worth of penalties on a roughing minor and a 10-minute misconduct. The Werenski goal withstood a Boston challenge.
Winless in their last seven games (0-4-3), Columbus was held to a modest 22 shots for the game on Monday. Blue Jackets goalie Elvis Merzlikins stopped 34 of 37 shots by Boston.
Here are five things to watch in this game:
1. Laughton's Return, Jenner's Absence
Scott Laughton has been missing from the Flyers' lineup for the last 12 games, ever since suffering a head injury during the team's March 10 game against the Florida Panthers. He was finally medically cleared last Friday to return to play, although the Flyers held him out of the weekend games against Toronto and the New York Rangers.
Barring any setbacks, Laughton could return to the Flyers' lineup for the home-and-home against the Blue Jackets. The team has missed his energy, intensity and two-way presence. Offensively, Laughton has contributed 11 goals (including two shorthanded tallies) and 28 points in 54 games played.
Laughton's versatility in playing either center or left wing with equal levels of comfort and comparable effectiveness has also been missed. His return will enable the Flyers, if they so choose, to move Farabee back to a wing after recently experimenting with him at center. Playing center for the first time at any level, Farabee has shown some potential to eventually adapt but his inexperience at the position has also been evident at times.
The Flyers lost top-line center and two-time Selke Trophy finalist Sean Couturier for the season to back surgery. Hayes struggled physically after returning from a second core muscle surgery within the 2021 calendar year and then had to exit the lineup to undergo a clean-out procedure to deal with fluid build-up from an infection. Since his return, Hayes has played his best hockey since 2019-20.
With Laughton returning, Hayes thriving and Morgan Frost recently playing some of the best hockey of his still-young NHL career, the Flyers outlook at center has brightened across the top three lines despite the large-scale ongoing impact of coping without Couturier.
Meanwhile, Columbus has felt the impact of playing without their captain, Boone Jenner. A longtime friend and former Oshawa Generals teammate of Laughton's, Jenner has posted 23 goals and 44 points in 59 games this season while leading all forwards on his team with 20:23 of ice time per game. He's also been something of a Flyers nemesis over the years, including nine goals in 28 career games against Philadelphia.
Jenner last played on March 11 and is currently on injured reserve. Also missing due to injury are forward Alexandre Tessier and goaltender Joonas Korpisalo.
2. Atkinson and Voracek
Traded straight up for one another in the off-season, Cam Atkinson has brought a shoot-first mentality to the Flyers (a trait the team still needs from more players) while Voracek has remained one of the NHL's top playmaking wingers.
Atkinson is playing in a rather banged-up state right now, as are many players. Nevertheless, with the departure of longtime captain Claude Giroux via trade two days before the NHL trade deadline, Atkinson leads the Flyers with 23 goals and 50 points while dressing in all 69 games played to date. Notably, 16 of his 23 goals have come on home ice this season.
A streaky goal scorer, Atkinson last scored nine games ago and has three assists over his last eight games. However, immediately before that, he rattled off a stretch of five goals and eight points in seven games.
Voracek has always been much more of a pass-first player than a shooter but his six 20-goal seasons to his credit. This season, he's tallied a career-low five goals in 67 games played but is tied with Sidney Crosby and Steven Stamkos for 21st on the NHL's assist leaderboard.
The misconduct Voracek received in Monday's game stemmed from his emotional reaction to a first-period hit Boston's Brad Marchand laid on Andrew Peeke. With Peeke laid out prone on the ice, Debrusk scored a goal at the other end of the ice. Voracek was enraged by the lack of a whistle to halt play as well as the hit itself. Peeke exited the game but returned in the second period.
3. Inside the Numbers
The Blue Jackets rank in the middle of the NHL pack offensively, clocking in at an average 3.16 goals per game to rank 14th. Meanwhile, in a season where scoring has jumped leaguewide -- 18 teams have averaged 3.00 goals per game or more -- the Flyers come in ranked 30th at 2.58 goals per game.
The 2021-22 season has been the sixth lowest-scoring campaign in Flyers franchise history. Four of the bottom five came either in the early years after the 1967 NHL expansion or fell within the leaguewide "dead puck" era of the late 1990s to 2004.
The Blue Jackets come into this game ranked 30th in the NHL with a 3.73 team goals against average. The Flyers, at 3.51 (ranked 27th) have only fared slightly better.
Both teams have struggled on special teams this season. The Flyers rank last in the NHL on the power play at 13.1 percent and have coughed up nine shorthanded goals (29th in the NHL). The Blue Jackets penalty kill checks in at a modest 77.7 percent (20th). Columbus's power play operates at 17.9 percent success (25th) while the Flyers 75.9 penalty kill ranks 24th.
It is notable, though, that the Flyers got through their weekend games against the NHL's No. 1 (Toronto) and No. 2 (Rangers) power plays by going a combined 4-for-4. The Flyers only took one penalty against Toronto and survived it. Martin Jones stepped up big and the Flyers blocked a bunch of shots in going 3-for-3 in New York.

4. Behind Enemy Lines: Columbus Blue Jackets
Patrik Laine enters this game leading the Blue Jackets in scoring with 52 points in 51 games. He has four power play goals and nine power play assists for the season. Laine is followed on the team's scoring leaderboard by Voracek, Bjorkstrand (24 goals, 50 points), the injured Jenner, defenseman Werenski (43 points) and forward Gustav Nyquist (17 goals, 41 points while dressing in all 70 games).
In goal, Merzlikins has been a workhorse: 48 games played including 46 starts (22-18-6, 3.40 GAA, .903 save percentage, two shutouts). He has made five starts in the last 10 nights. If Larsen elects not to start the Latvian netminder for the third time in four nights, journeyman former Lehigh Valley Phantoms netminder J-F Berube (4 GP, 3-1-0, 3.25 GAA, .924 SV%) could get the start with Korpisalo unavailable.
5. Players to Watch: Sanheim and Gavrikov
Travis Sanheim, who could win his first Barry Ashbee Trophy this season, has been jumping into the play with sky-high confidence for several months. Dating back to the NHL All-Star break, the tall and mobile blueliner has posted four goals, 12 points and a traditional +5 on-ice goal differential in 24 games played. For the season, Sanheim has chipped in six goals and 27 points despite sparse power play ice time (0:27 per game average).
Columbus defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov has compiled 115 credited hits and 118 blocked shots this season while averaging 22:04 of ice time. The 25-year-old has also chipped in a career-high 30 points (5g, 25a) including a pair of goals and two assists in his last four games. In the meantime, Sanheim's former Calgary Hitmen teammate, Jake Bean, has been logging very heavy ice time of late including 22:56 last game against Boston and 24:39 against Minnesota back on March 26. For the season, the offensively skilled and mobile Bean has five goals and 19 points in 55 games during his first season with the Blue Jackets.