5 THINGS: Flyers vs. Golden Knights

GAME NOTES
Wrapping up an eight-game homestand, interim head coach Mike Yeo's Philadelphia Flyers (17-28-10) will host Peter DeBoer's Vegas Golden Knights (32-21-4) on Tuesday evening at the Wells Fargo Center. Game time is 7:00 p.m. ET (NBCSP, 97.5 The Fanatic).

This is the second and final meeting of the season between the teams and the lone game in Philadelphia. Back on Dec. 10, the Flyers captured a hard-fought 4-3 victory at T-Mobile Arena to snap a 10-game winless skid and begin a seven-game point streak.
Special teams and spectacular goaltending were the keys to victory as Philadelphia halted a 10-game winless streak. The Flyers went 2-for-3 on the power play and 5-for-6 on the penalty kill.
A 4-on-4 goal by Kevin Hayes gave the Flyers an early 1-0 lead. William Karlsson got the goal back in the final minute of the first period.
The Golden Knights threw a heavy attack at the Flyers early in the second period but the Flyers scored to take a 2-1 lead. Max Willman (1st NHL goal) notched it off a somewhat broken play. In the final 90 seconds, Max Pacioretty made it a 2-2 deadlock.
Sean Couturier (PPG) and James van Riemsdyk (PPG) forged a 4-2 lead in the third period. Pacioretty (PPG) scored on a 6-on-4 power play to narrow the gap down to 4-3, but there were no late equalizers ime for Vegas.
Carter Hart was nothing short of brilliant in net for the Flyers. He earned the win with 41 saves on 44 shots. Hart had little chance of stopping any of the three Vegas goals.
The Flyers enter this game coming off a 4-3 home win over the Chicago Blackhawks. It was a physical game with seesawing momentum. The Flyers led 1-0 and then trailed by scores of 2-1 and 3-2 before coming back to pull out a regulation win. Martin Jones earned the win in net while Cam Atkinson scored twice, Joel Farabee provided a pair of key assists and both Oskar Lindblom (deflection goal) and Derick Brassard tallied once apiece.
The Flyers are 2-4-1 through the first seven games of the record-length homestand. The Golden Knights are opening a five-game road trip. There is a possible fatigue factor heading into this game because the Golden Knights will be playing their fifth game in eight nights (and fourth in the last six nights). The Philadelphia club, meanwhile, has had no travel yet this month and a two-night game schedule hiatus since Saturday afternoon's tilt.
Vegas enters this game coming off a 2-1 home victory against the Ottawa Senators on Sunday. Jack Eichel's goal in the final 5.3 seconds of regulation -- his third as a Golden Knight after being acquired from the Buffalo Sabres -- won the game for Vegas. Earlier, Jonathan Marchessault (24th goal of the season) broke a scoreless deadlock at 6:24 of the second period. Robin Lehner stopped 39 of 40 Senator shots to earn the win.
Here are five things to watch in this game:
1. Follow-up to an Emotional Win
The Flyers have not won back-to-back games since defeating the Los Angeles Kings (4-3 in overtime) and Winnipeg Jets (3-1) in the final two games prior to the All-Star break. For the 2022 calendar year to date, the Flyers are 4-16-4.
Most of the Flyers' recent games have been up for grabs entering the third period but the team struggled to step up in crunch time. After seeing four separate one-goal leads evaporate in a turnover-laden 5-4 loss the Minnesota Wild, Yeo called out his team both privately and publicly immediately following the game and again the next morning after what both the coach and players described as an uncomfortable but necessary team meeting before practice.
The core of Yeo's message: Not enough players were holding either themselves or their teammates accountable for their play. Mistakes in execution are one thing, Yeo said, but feeling sorry for oneself and accepting a less-than-totally-committed competitiveness level for the duration of games was unacceptable.
Last Saturday against Chicago, there were large-scale changes in the lineup with combinations changing on three of the four forward lines and one of the three defensive pairs. The team responded by banding together to pull out a win against the Blackhawks. Now the club faces the challenge of preventing the third-place team in the Pacific Division from winning its third consecutive game.
2. Hart Stars, Mayhew Returns
Carter Hart turned in back-to-back excellent performances in his return from an eye infection: a 2-1 win over the Washington Capitals and a 3-0 loss (the third goal was an empty netter) against Edmonton. He was not as sharp in the loss to Minnesota, although only a five-hole goal that tied the score at 4-4 was one that could be characterized as leaky.
Jones turned in a workmanlike performance in the win over Chicago. Now it will be Hart's task to force the Golden Knights to earn any goals that they score. For the season, Hart had among the least goal support on front of him of any regular starting goalie in the NHL and the team defensive in front of him has often been spotty. He enters the game with a respectable .910 save percentage (dragged down at least by .010 percent by the play in front of him) but a 10-18-6 record.
Gerry Mayhew was a healthy scratch in Saturday's game against the Blackhawks. Yeo stated after Monday's practice that Mayhew had very recently fallen into the trap (after an offensive hot streak in which he'd racked up six goals in 10 games) of making too many low-percentage plays with the puck. Yeo acknowledged that Mayhew had continued to play with admirable energy and forechecking aggressiveness. Max Willman started against the Blackhawks. Mayhew will be back in the lineup for this game but has been moved down from the third line to the fourth.
A healthy scratch on Saturday, defenseman Nick Seeler will rejoin the lineup, in place of Kevin Connauton. Yeo said that Connauton, who needed assistance off the ice after a questionable high hit from Chicago's Kirby Dach, is now feeling much better two days later. Connauton may resume skating as soon as Tuesday.
The Flyers projected lineup is as follows:
28 Claude Giroux - 21 Scott Laughton - 11 Travis Konecny
86 Joel Farabee - 19 Derick Brassard - 89 Cam Atkinson
23 Oskar Lindblom - 13 Kevin Hayes - 25 James van Riemsdyk
20 Gerry Mayhew - 38 Patrick Brown - 17 Zack MacEwen
9 Ivan Provorov - 61 Justin Braun
6 Travis Sanheim - 70 Rasmus Ristolainen
3 Keith Yandle - 24 Nick Seeler
79 Carter Hart
[35 Martin Jones]
PP1: Giroux, Farabee, JVR, Atkinson, Yandle
PP2: Brassard, Hayes, Ristolainen, Konecny. Provorov
The Flyers' power play units from Saturday remained the same at Monday's practice, including defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen played a netfront forward role on the second power play unit (a role he'd often played while in Buffalo). However, Yeo acknowledged that there is consideration being given to putting Travis Sanheim on the point of one of the power play units.
3. Inside the Numbers
"Sixty-minute performance" is a cliché but the Flyers will need to avoid to avoid the pitfalls that have too often plagued the team this season: giving up a goal almost immediately after scoring or yielding one, a tendency to have poor second periods, a lack of both offensive opportunism and sustained puck possession time, and a struggle to close out games with strong third periods. One or more of these issues have popped up again in recent Flyers' losses, and have turned winnable games into losses.
Additionally, the Flyers are a team that has struggled mightily when playing from behind: 3-24-4 when an opponent scores first, 2-23-4 when trailing after two periods including Saturday's regulation win over Chicago. The Golden Knights are a plus-16 in first period goal differential (58 GF- 42 GA) but the differentials decline with each successive period. The team is plus-three (60 GF- 57 GA) in the second period and minus-four (60 GF - 64 GA) in the third period. Philly is in the red in all three periods but most dramatically in second periods (43 GF - 63 GA).
If the Flyers do manage to get the game into the latter third period with a lead, they will have to bear down on the closeout. Between delayed penalties on opponents and late-game pushes with their goalie pulled for an extra attacker, the Golden Knights have scored a half dozen goals this season while allowing eight empty-netters. The Flyers, conversely, have scored only two times at 6-on-5 and have given up 15 empty net goals.

4. Behind Enemy Lines: Vegas Golden Knights
Relative to their lofty preseason expectations, the Golden Knights have been an inconsistent club for much of the 2021-22. However, they are also a deep team and have won back-to-back games despite a 4-5-1 mark over the last 10 games and a 10-9-4 record dating back to Jan. 1. Injuries havebeen a big factor for the club this season.
Marchessault, who figured into both goals in the win over Ottawa, has 24 goals and 42 points on the season. He's tied for the team scoring lead with Chandler Stephenson (14 goals, 28 assists, 42 points), followed by Reilly Smith (16 goals, 38 points). Eichel has posted six points (3g, 3a) across his first nine games for Vegas.
The Golden Knights do not have players contending for Art Ross or Rocket Richard trophies but they have enviable firepower depth that includes the big-name likes of Pacioretty (15g, 28 points in a season limited by injury to 26 games played) and Mark Stone (currently on IR, 28 points in 28 games). Overall, the team has six players with double-digit goals and 10 players with 20 or more points.
Alex Pietrangelo leads the Golden Knights blue line with an average 25:09 of ice time per game. He's posted 30 points (7g, 23a) and blocked 123 opposition shots. The defense corps is co-anchored by Shea Theodore, who logs an average 23:15 of ice time and has produced 36 points (8g, 28a).
The Golden Knights have several players who have been credited with 100 or more hits this season. Forward Keegan Kolesar leads the club with 148, followed by William Carrier at 114. Placed on IR on March 6, defenseman Brayden McNabb has been credited with 113 hits and a team-leading 141 blocked shots.
The Golden Knights currently have five players on injured reserve: Stone, McNabb, Alec Martinez, Mattias Janmark and former Flyers center Nolan Patrick (18 games played, 2g, 4a).
In 37 games played this season, Lehner has posted a 21-14-2 record, 2.79 GAA, .909 save percentage and one shutout. Backup Laurent Brossoit has appeared in 21 games, posting a 10-6-4 record, 2.76 GAA, .900 save percentage and one shutout.
Based on last game and subject to change, the Golden Knights' could line up this way against the Flyers:
67 Max Pacioretty - 9 Jack Eichel - 10 Nicolas Roy
81 Jonathan Marchessault - 71 William Karlsson - 19 Reilly Smith
28 William Carrier - 20 Chandler Stephenson - 22 Mike Amadio
63 Evgenii Dadonov - 15 Jake Leschyshyn - 55 Keegan Kolesar
14 Nicolas Hague - 7 Alex Pietrangelo
27 Shea Theodore - 2 Zach Whitecloud
17 Ben Hutton - 52 Dylan Coghlin
90 Robin Lehner
39 Laurent Brossoit
PP1: Pacioretty, Eichel, Marchessault, Dadonov, Theodore
PP2: Roy, Stephenson, Smith, Karlsson, Pietrangelo
5. Players to Watch: Hayes and Eichel
For the first time since early in the 2020-21 season, Kevin Hayes is reasonably close to being at 100 percent health. After the on-ice ordeals of suffering a core-muscle tear, undergoing surgery in May 2021, suffering a reinjury and having another surgery in September 2021, and developing a severe infection throughout his groin that required a cleanout procedure in January 2022, Hayes finally feels pain-free. His skating was noticeably less labored in his return to the lineup on Saturday, and Hayes played one his most effective games of the season. However, given his precarious health over the past year, this is a situation that requires monitoring for the rest of the season.
After a public falling out with the Sabres organization and a trade to Vegas, Eichel underwent neck surgery in Nov. 2021 and has played nine games since joining the Golden Knights lineup. For his career, Eichel has posted eight goals and 14 points in 15 games against the Flyers.
Two other players worth tracking in this game: Cam Atkinson and Jonathan Marchessault. A streak scorer, Atkinson's two goals against Chicago brought his team-leading total to 20 for the season along with a team-high 42 points. Atkinson has five points (3g, 2a) over the past five games. Meanwhile, Vegas leading scorer Marchessault brings in a three-game goal streak and five-game point streak (4g, 3a).