5 THINGS: Flyers vs. Hurricanes

GAME NOTES
Continuing the tradition of an annual Black Friday afternoon home game, Alain Vigneault's Philadelphia Flyers (8-6-4) will take on Rod Brind'Amour's Carolina Hurricanes (14-3-1) at the Wells Fargo Center. Game time is 3:30 p.m. ET (NBCSP, 97.5 The Fanatic).

This is the second of four meetings this season between the Metro Division teams. They will rematch at the Wells Fargo Center on Jan. 11 before the scene shifts to Raleigh to finish the regular season series on March 12.
On Nov. 12 at PNC Arena, the Flyers dug deep to overcome a one-goal deficit in the third period and defeat the Carolina Hurricanes, 2-1, at PNC Arena. Spectacular goaltending from Carter Hart was the biggest difference.
The Flyers were massively outplayed in the opening period but the game remained scoreless at intermission.Steven Lorentz (2nd goal of the season) broke the deadlock shortly past the midway mark of regulation. The Flyers caught a break when a would-be Carolina goal on the next shift was overturned on a challenge for offside.
The Flyers pulled even on a goal by Joel Farabee. Zack MacEwen (1st goal as a Flyer) then tallied a deflection goal for the game-winning tally.
Hart cranked out one of the best performances of his still-young NHL career. The Flyers netminder turned back 39 of 40 shots to earn the win. Carolina counterpart Frederik Andersen (26 saves on 28 shots) played well enough to win on most nights but Hart simply wouldn't allow his team to lose.
Since that time, the Flyers have gone 1-3-2 over their last six games. They are currently winless in their last four games (0-2-2). Friday's game is the Flyers third in less than four nights. On Wednesday, stellar goaltending from Martin Jones enabled the Flyers to capture one point, but they lost a road overtime decision, 2-1, to the Florida Panthers.
In the time since their loss to the Flyers (Carolina's only home defeat of the season), the Hurricanes defeated St, Louis the next day and then embarked on a six-game road trip. The first five games were played out west, with the Hurricanes winning the first three. Over the last two games, Carolina claimed one point from a 2-1 overtime loss in San Jose on Monday and then lost in regulation, 2-1, to the Seattle Kraken on Wednesday.
Here are five things to track in the Black Friday matinee:
1. Frost Watch.
With Derick Brassard unavailable on Wednesday due to a lower-body injury, the Flyers recalled Morgan Frost from the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms. The team scrambled all four forward lines and all three defensive pairs that started Tuesday's game in Tampa.
Frost played a decent game on Wednesday. He forechecked well, set up a couple of potential scoring chances and had a would-be breakaway whistled down by what turned out to be an erroneous off-side ruling. Joel Farabee scored the Flyers' only goal of the game.
Right now, with the Flyers struggling mightily to get goals from any source, the team needs Farabee to build off his goal from last game. The Flyers did not practice on Thanksgiving after back-to-back games. The Flyers recalled Connor Bunnaman on Friday and returned Max Willman to LehighValley. The lineup could look like this.
28 Claude Giroux - 14 Sean Couturier - 11 Travis Konecny
86 Joel Farabee - 48 Morgan Frost - 89 Cam Atkinson
25 James van Riemsdyk - 21 Scott Laughton - 17 Zack MacEwen
23 Oskar Lindblom - 44 Nate Thompson - 82 Connor Bunnaman
9 Ivan Provorov - 70 Rasmus Ristolainen
24 Nick Seeler - 6 Travis Sanheim
3 Keith Yandle - 61 Justin Braun
79 Carter Hart
[35 Martin Jones]
2. Reversing a Worrisome Trend?
Until recently, most of the Flyers' primary issues were confined to a tendency to have poor second periods along with a struggling power play. First periods were fine, and the team stepped up big in several third periods (including the victory in Carolina two weeks ago). More recently, the Flyers have been heavily outplayed in longer and longer stretches of games.
In Tampa, the Flyers played a good overall first period in Tampa but then got dominated over the final 40 minutes. In Sunrise, the Flyers got hemmed in for the first four or five shifts of the game but then stabilized for about 10 minutes after Farabee scored. The Panthers made another push near the end of the first period. In the second and third periods, the Flyers got out-shot and out-chanced by a wide margin, although they had a handful of good scoring chances of their own. Florida dominated overtime (7-0 shot total).
The Panthers caught a major break in overtime when Aaron Ekblad went unpenalized for chopping the stick out of Farabee's hands. Ekblad then scored the winning goal moments later. On the whole, though, the Panthers were the deserving winner of the game and Jones' play was the main reason the Flyers earned a point.
When was the last time the Flyers significantly outplayed an opponent for the majority of a game? Nine games ago. On Nov. 6, the Flyers got the better of the play against the Washington Capitals for the first 40 minutes. Ultimately, the Flyers had to withstand a huge push by the Caps in the third period to escape with a 2-1 victory.
3. Inside the Numbers
Right now, the Flyers are spending far too much time defending and not nearly enough time with sustained offensive zone possession. The team has dropped to 25th in five-on-five shot attempt differentials (47.71 percent). That's because the Flyers rank 31st among the NHL's 32 teams over Philly's last half-dozen games.
The Flyers are having major issues when trying to exit their defensive zone, navigate the neutral zone and gain offensive zone entry. The passing has deteriorated. Players too often stop moving their feet. The D-to-F gaps, which were much improved earlier in the season, have become problematic again. Too many one-and-done forays into the offensive zone. Too little forechecking pressure on a consistent basis. Too few chances developing below and between the dots.
In short, the team's 5-on-5 process that once seemed to be on the right track (especially in the first period of games) is in dire need of a reset. The Flyers' scoring problems -- ranking dead last in the NHL with a meager 1.62 goals per game dating back 13 games to Oct. 28 -- will not magically fix themselves until they get the underlying issues straightened out.
In the meantime, although the Flyers generated some puck movement on the power play last game in Sunrise, the team still added another 0-for-2 on the man advantage to fall to 9.5 percent (ranked 31st) over the last 13 games and 14.6 percent (26th-ranked) for the season.

4. Behind Enemy Lines: Carolina Hurricanes
Carolina ranks 10th in the NHL with an average 3.22 goals scored per game. In the meantime, their 2.00 team goals against average ranks 2nd in the NHL. Last time they played the Flyers, it took a spectacular goaltending performance by Hart and just enough opportunistic offense for Philly to scratch out a 2-1 despite being widely outplayed most of the game.
The Canes have been in a bit of a power play funk of their own this month, going just 4-for-28 (14.3 percent) with a shorthanded goal yielded over their 10 games played to date in November. Correspondingly, the team's scoring this month has dropped to an average 2.50 goals per game. Overall, the Canes have posted a 6-3-1 record this month.
5. Players to Watch: Konecny and Svechnikov
Travis Konecny played a high-energy game in Florida, and he was the one who sprung Farabee for what turned into the game's first goal. TK had some issues later in the game -- including a very lengthy OT shift where he struggled to get off the ice for a change -- but there was no faulting the effort level. In his last five games (1g, 0a), Konecny has recorded a combined 20 shots on goal.
Andrei Svechnikov has racked up eight assists in 10 games this month. However, after tallying seven times in October, he's still searching for his first goal of the month. Svechnikov's 19 points lead his team for the season; one more than Sebastian Aho's total (8g, 10a).