5 THINGS: Flyers vs. Ducks

John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (18-19-7) are home on Tuesday evening to host Dallas Eakins' Anaheim Ducks (12-27-5). Game time is 7:00 p.m. ET.

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 second and final meeting of the season between the teams. On January 2, the Flyers completed a three-game sweep of a post-Christmas road trip through California with a 4-1 win over the Ducks at the Honda Center. Joel Farabee, Morgan Frost,Travis Konecny and Scott Laughton scored for the Flyers. Kevin Hayes notched two assists. Samuel Ersson carried a shutout for 59:20 before a Ryan Strome goal in the game's final 40 seconds made it a 4-1 final.
The Flyer enter this game coming off a 6-0 whipping at the hands of the Boston Bruins at TD Garden on Monday afternoon. Beyond the first four minutes of the game, the Flyers were thoroughly outplayed in just about every aspect.
Prior to the debacle in Boston, the Flyers had won seven of their previous eight games. The team will look for an immediate rebound against the Ducks.
For the Flyers, Tuesday's game is the second half of a back-to-back set, the second game of a three-in-four (the Chicago Blackhawks pay their annual visit to Philadelphia come Thursday), and the second game of a rare slate of five games in just seven nights, which will conclude this weekend with a road/home back-to-back set in Detroit on Saturday and at home against Winnipeg on Sunday.
1. Turning the Page
The last time the Flyers got their tails kicked by a top-tier opponent -- Jan. 8 by Toronto -- they responded well. Philly rattled off three straight wins thereafter. The Flyers shut out the Buffalo Sabres and then swept a home-and-home set with the Washington Capitals.
The Flyers now face a similar challenge to dust themselves off and get back on the winning side. The team's next two opponents (the Ducks and the Blackhawks) are teams that are eminently beatable if the Flyers play the right way.
Philadelphia will try to come right at the Ducks from the outset of Tuesday's game. What they can ill-afford to do is get sloppy or frustrated. The Flyers will need to reestablish their forecheck, and get back to the structure they showed in the early minutes of Monday's game before the Bruins started to dismantle them.
2. One Extreme to the Other
The contrast of opponents could hardly be starker. On Monday, the Flyers ran into a Bruins team that ranked atop the NHL in team goals against average. Boston bettered the mark even further by shutting out the Flyers to lower their team goals against average to a 2.12 GAA. Philly has scored a combined one goal in two games against the Bruins last year.
Meanwhile, the Ducks rank dead last (32nd) in the NHL defensively, dragging a 4.16 team GAA into Tuesday's game. The last time the Flyers played the Ducks, they enjoyed ample time and space to make plays.
One night after the Flyers were smothered by airtight checking, heavily pressured to make hurried decisions in tight space and limited to 16 mostly harmless shots for two-plus periods, Philly now faces an opponent with an extremely porous defense.

It's a golden opportunity to reignite the offensive engines but the Flyers will have to work for it. The last time the two teams played, the Flyers got out to a big lead over the Ducks and then allowed Anaheim to take the play to them for much of the latter portion of the game. Ersson was tested pretty severely at times -- especially by Trevor Zegras --on the way to a near shutout.
Another stark contrast: After dropping a six-spot on the Flyers on Monday, the Bruins now rank No. 1 offensively in the NHL at an average 3.81 goals scored per game. The Ducks have a lot of young bonafide talent up front atop their lineup but, as a team, struggle to score. Anaheim ranks last in the NHL with an average 2.27 goals scored per game.
3. Taking Care of the Puck
A big part of the frustration of Monday's game was that the Flyers rarely had sustained possession of the puck. For starters, the Bruins repeatedly took control directly off the faceoff. Boston won 63 percent of the draws (38 wins. 22 losses). Secondly, when the Flyers got possession, they couldn't keep it for very long. They had far too many one-and-done forays and were unable to establish a meaningful forecheck. Boston also owned the 50-50 battles in the trenches. Lastly, Philly struggled with failed clears, giveaways (12 charged) and Boston players picking their pockets (two credited takeways for the Bruins but a few more than that by the eye test).
Regardless of the opponent the Flyers play, they will need to a better job of taking care of the puck: crisper passing, better decision making, more cohensive puck support and better execution overall when there's an opportunity to clear the defensive zone, break out of the D zone, navigate the neutral zone, enter the attack zone or chip in and be first on the puck. If the Flyers can do that against Anaheim, they should be in good shape.
4. Flyers Line Play
As is customary in the second game of a back-to-back, the Flyers will not hold a morning skate on Tuesday. Tortorella juggled line combinations in the second and third periods of Monday's game in Boston. The last time the Flyers lost (6-2 at home to Toronto on Jan. 8) , the team reverted to its recent standard line combinations the next evening in Buffalo (a 4-0 win).
Thus, it would not be surprising if the Flyers start the same lines against the Ducks that they have in recent weeks. If Tortorella wants to make any alterations -- or if there are any injury/illness absences -- defenseman Justin Braun and forward Kieffer Bellows are available.
In the third period of Monday afternoon's game, Konecny took a spill into the end boards and Frost came up bleeding after taking an inadvertent high stick to the face by Boston's Patrice Bergeron. Both Philadelphia players seemed OK afterwards and finished the game.
Heading into the back-to-back, the apparent plan was to start Ersson against Anaheim after Hart started in Boston. Chances are that the plan will hold, although Ersson plated 32:25 (11 saves on 13 shots) in relief of Hart (27:35 played, 13 saves on 19 shots).
Tortorella indicated after the game in Boston that the change in goal was not due to Hart's individual play. Between the two goaltenders, four of the six goals would have been very hard to prevent and two were potentially stoppable. Hart allowed a Pavel Zacha one-timer -- an explosive shot that went in off the far side post, but unscreened from above the right circle -- and Ersson gave up a 4-on-4 goal from the right circle to defenseman Matt Grzelcyk that seemed stoppable.
Potential starting lineup (subject to change)
86 Joel Farabee - 49 Noah Cates - 11 Travis Konecny
25 James van Riemsdyk - 48 Morgan Frost - 74 Owen Tippett
13 Kevin Hayes - 21 Scott Laughton - 57 Wade Allison
44 Nicolas Deslauriers - 38 Patrick Brown - 17 Zack MacEwen
9 Ivan Provorov - 45 Cam York
6 Travis Sanheim - 77 Tony DeAngelo
24 Nick Seeler - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
33 Samuel Ersson
79 Carter Hart
5. Behind Enemy Lines: Anaheim Ducks
The Ducks, like the Flyers, are playing the second game of a B2B and their second game of a 3-in-4. For Anaheim, it's the second match of a six-game road trip. After an off-day on Wednesday, the Ducks will visit the Columbus Blue Jackets come Thursday evening.
On Monday in Pittsburgh, the Ducks held a 3-2 lead entering the final minute of regulation. Unfortunately for Anaheim, they were unable to close out of the game. Bryan Rust scored at 19:35 to tie the game and force overtime.
In the opening shift of 3-on-3 sudden death, Zegras had a breakaway on Casey DeSmith. Rather than shooting as he neared the net, Zegras elected to backhand a pass to the trailing Cam Fowler for a potential game-ending slam dunk. Instead, the pass missed connections and Sidney Crosby countered on a 2-on-1 with Jake Guentzel. From the left circle, Guentzel fired a shot past John Gibson to end the game in a 4-3 Pittsburgh win.
In a losing cause, the Ducks received goals from Adam Henrique (PPG, 14th), John Klingberg (PPG, 6th) and Zegras (14th). Gibson stopped 41 of 45 shots. Anaheim generated 29 shots on DeSmith.
With the Ducks playing the second game of a B2B and Gibson (whose net has been under siege all season by opposing attackers) being bombarded with rubber again on Monday, it is likely there will be a change in starting goalie for the game against the Flyers. Former Flyers/Phantoms netminder Anthony Stolarz has appeared in 15 games this season, posting a 3-5-0 record, 3.88 goals against average and .893 save percentage.
Entering Tuesday's game, Troy Terry leads the Ducks with 36 points (12g, 14a). He's followed by Zegras (14g, 20a, 34 points), Mason McTavish (9g, 18a, 27 points), Henrique (14g, 10a, 24 points), and Strome (10g,11a, 21 points).Fowler leads the blueline corps with 19 points (4g, 15a), followed by Klingberg (6g, 8a, 14 points).
The Ducks will not hold a morning skate on Tuesday. Based on Monday's lines -- and subject to change -- a potential starting lineup is:
14 Adam Henrique - 37 Mason McTavish - 19 Troy Terry
44 Maxime Comtois - 22 Trevor Zegras - 16 Ryan Strome
77 Frank Vatrano - 39 Sam Carrick - 33 Jakob Silfverberg
49 Max Jones - 7 Jayson Megna - 20 Brett Leason
4 Cam Fowler - 29 Dmitry Kulikov
13 Simon Benoit - 3 John Klingberg
5 Urho Vaakanainen - 22 Kevin Shattenkirk
41 Anthony Stolarz
36 John Gibson