5 Things: Flyers vs. Blues

The Halloween Spooktacular presented by Snickers goes down tonight at Wells Fargo Center as John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (3-6-1) take on Drew Bannister's St. Louis Blues (5-5-0) on Thursday evening. Game time is 7:00 p.m. EDT.

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 first of two meetings this season between the inter-conference teams. The Flyers and Blues will rematch at Enterprise Center in St. Louis on November 30.

The Flyers have won two of their last three games. They sandwiched a 7-5 home victory against the Minnesota Wild this past Saturday afternoon and a 2-0 road win over the Boston Bruins on Tuesday around a 4-3 home loss to the Montreal Canadiens on Sunday evening.

In Tuesday's win in Boston, Samuel Ersson recorded a 25-save shutout and the skaters in front of him blocked 28 opposing shot attempts. Tyson Foerster (2nd goal of the season) scored a second period goal at 5-on-5, assisted by Emil Andrae and Morgan Frost. Joel Farabee (2nd) added an unassisted empty net goal late in the third period to ice the triumph.

Here are five things to watch in Thursday's game.

1. Defensive structure has improved

The scores prior to the Boston game don't suggest it but the Flyers have actually done an improved job in recent games at taking away the middle of the ice and forcing play to the perimeter in their defensive zone.

Even in the back-to-back losses to the Washington Capitals and the defeat by Montreal, the problem was not regularly yielding the slots or attacks through the middle. Rather, there were a few shifts that proved costly due to isolated breakdowns or saveable shots that nonetheless found the net.

As October draws to a close, there are multiple areas in which the Flyers still need to get their collective game on track at 5-on-5 in particular. Defensive structure and shot suppression (24 shots on goal by Montreal, 25 by the Bruins), at least, seems to be trending the right way in terms of improved 5-on-5 play.

2. More puck possession needed

The flip side of the coin to the Flyers improved own zone play: The team is still spending too much time defending and not nearly enough time attacking. Tortorella has rightly pointed out how much time and effort has been going into simply clearing the puck out of the defensive zone or getting a badly needed stoppage to get fresh troops out on the ice.

The Flyers have spent most of the first 10 games of the 2024-25 season searching for cohesion as five-man units in generating clean breakouts and entries, attacking with pace, finding seams in the defense, getting the F1 in effectively on the forecheck with F2 support, completing passes tape-to-tape on the rush and consistently getting attackers to the net (in similar fashion to the third period of the Minnesota game).

Early this season, the Flyers rank in the bottom one-third of the NHL in total goal production (2.80 GPG, ranked 23rd). If not for a solid start on the power play (22.2 percent), the Flyers' overall offensive ranking would be lower. Philly has scored just 14 goals at 5-on-5 so far (tied for 27th in the NHL).

3. Flyers still must cut down on penalties

This theme has come up several times over the first 10 games of the 2024-25 season, and bears repeating: the Flyers have a stout penalty kill (34-for-39, 87.2 percent success, ranked 4th in the NHL). Even so, Philly is simply taking too many penalties that leave the club playing shorthanded.

In Tuesday's game, the Flyers survived a lengthy 5-on-3 disadvantage in the first period. That's always a mental boost when it happens but cannot be relied on by any club. The Flyers were burned by 5-on-3 and 4-on-3 disadvantages in Edmonton during the third game of the season.

4. Tippett and the F Troop

Foerster's second period goal in Boston was his first tally since he notched a power play goal on opening night in Vancouver. Farabee's empty netter against the Bruins was his first goal since October 12 in Calgary (second game of the season).

The third member of the Flyers' "F Troop", Morgan Frost, is pressing to score his first goal of the season. He's missed two potential slam dunks (in the third period against Washington and at home against Minnesota) in recent games and came within a whisker of a breakaway goal in the second period of the road game against the Capitals.

Note: Frost scored the shootout winning goal in Vancouver on opening night but shootout goals do not count in individual stats.

On a positive note, Frost has posted five assists through 10 games. He's tied with overall leading scorer Travis Konecny (10 points), rookie Matvei Michkov and frequent linemate Owen Tippett for the team lead in assists.

Tippett has one goal to date this season: a seeing-eye shot from above the left circle in the second period in Washington that found the mark courtesy of a Sean Couturier screen. However, including that game, Tippett rattled off five points in a three-game span against the Caps, Wild and Canadiens.

Moving forward, the Flyers need increased offensive production from Tippett, Frost, Farabee, and Foerster to supplement the combined 12 goals from the top-line trio of Sean Couturier (3g, 3a), Konecny (5g) and Michkov (4g). In Couturier's case, five of his six points came in the home win against the Wild.

In Tuesday's game in Boston, Tortorella put Foerster and Tippett together with Frost as a trio. After a tough start in which the line got hemmed in the defensive zone, their play picked up. Foerster's goal was huge, both for the team and for the second-year player individually.

5. Behind enemy lines: St. Louis Blues

The Blues have lost three of their last four games. The match in Philly will conclude a four-game road trip.

The trip started out with an impressive 5-1 win in Toronto but was followed by poor showings in a 5-2 defeat in Montreal and especially an 8-1 blowout loss in Ottawa two nights ago. A Dylan Holloway power play goal midway through the third period was the lone offensive highlight for the Blues against the Senators.

Through 10 games, Jordan Kyrou leads the Blues with nine points (2g, 8a). He's followed by defenseman Philip Broberg (2g, 6a, +5). Former Flyers forward Brayden Schenn has four points (1g, 3a) in the early going of the season.

The Blues are trying to work around the key absence of Robert Thomas (1g, 5a in seven games). Thomas sustained a fractured ankle in the third period of the Blues' 3-2 loss to the Winnipeg Jets on October 22.

In goal, Jordan Binnington (2-4-0, 3.12 GAA, .895 SV%) has made six starts and one relief appearance to date. Young goalie Joel Hofer (3-1-0, 3.39 GAA, .903 save percentage, one shutout) rattled off three straight wins but ran into trouble in Ottawa on Tuesday evening. After the Senators scored five goals (two on the power play) on their first 11 shots, Hofer was replaced by Binnington midway through the second period.