5 THINGS: Flyers vs. Kings

GAME NOTES
Looking to end a 13-game winless streak in their final game of January, interim head coach Mike Yeo's Philadelphia Flyers (13-22-8) are home on Saturday afternoon to take on Todd McLellan's Los Angeles Kings (22-16-6). Game time at the Wells Fargo Center is 1:00 p.m. ET (NBCSP, 97.5 The Fanatic).

This is the second and final meeting of the season between the teams. Back on New Year's Day in LA, the Kings halted a Flyers' seven-game point streak (5-0-2) and dealt Philly their first regulation loss of their current (0-10-3) freefall to the bottom of the Metro Division standings.
Viktor Arvidsson needed just 12 seconds after the game's opening faceoff to give the Kings a 1-0 lead. Joel Farabee got the goal back only for Trevor Moore (4th) to put the Kings right back ahead.
Adrian Kempe scored a power play goal (12th) at the 47-second mark of the middle stanza, giving the Kings a 3-1 lead. Brendan Lemieux (7th) extended the lead to three goals later in the second period.
Early in the third period, Kevin Hayes scored on a rare 6-on-3 (two-man advantage plus an extra attacker) to narrow the deficit to 5-3. After a heavy push by the Flyers, LA scored a counterattacking 2-on-1 goal by Phillip Danault to restore a three-goal margin. Ivan Provorov got the Flyers back within 5-3 with just under four minutes left to play but Arvidsson's empty net goal (his second goal of the night) secured the final 6-3 margin.
Jonathan Quick earned the win in goal for LA, stopping 33 of 36 shots. Martin Jones absorbed the loss, making 28 saves on 33 shots.
The Flyers have had a three-night break on the schedule since back-to-back winnable games against Dallas (home) and the New York Islanders (away) slipped away late in the third period and resulted in 3-1 and 4-3 losses.
The Kings are playing the fourth game of a five-game road trip. On Thursday evening, the Kings earned a 3-2 road victory over the New York Islanders. Quinton Byfield, the second overall pick of the 2020 NHL Draft, tallied his first career NHL goal. Adrian Kempe's empty-net goal ended up being the game-winner after Casey Cizikas scored for the Islanders in the final 20 seconds. After playing the Flyers, the Kings will head west across Pennsylvania to play the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday afternoon.
Here are five things to watch in Saturday's tilt:
1. York on right defense
Flyers rookie defenseman Cam York has recently been playing on a pairing with veteran Keith Yandle. York has been playing on the right side of the pairing. Playing on his off-side is a new challenge for York, who played left defense almost exclusively with the University of Michigan, the Team USA under-20 national team and the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
Tweet from @NHLFlyers: Watch live as Flyers defenseman Cam York meets with the media from the @FlyersTCenter. https://t.co/0Iyt18hQzN
2. Ratcliffe's NHL debut
During the 2017 Entry Draft weekend, the Flyers traded three picks (selections in the second, third and fourth rounds) to move up in Round 2. With the draft's 35th overall pick, the Flyers selected 6-foot-6 Guelph Storm left wing Isaac Ratcliffe.
Ratcliffe has had a long journey since that time. He became a prolific goal-scorer at the Ontario Hockey League level, tallying 41 goals in 2017-18. The next season, he notched 50 regular season goals plus 15 more in the playoffs for an underdog Guelph club that wound up winning the OHL championships and going to the Memorial Cup.
There has been a long transition period for Ratcliffe since he turned pro. He has had to learn to better use his size to his benefit, make better use of his feet and work to further develop his all-around game.
In 2019-20, former Lehigh Valley Phantoms head coach Scott Gordon moved Ratcliffe down to the fourth line early in the season, and had the player focus on smoothing out some of the rough edges in his game. Ratcliffe also became a penalty killer for Lehigh Valley. At the end of the pandemic-shortened season, Gordon called Ratcliffe the team's most improved player from the beginning of the season to the end.
The 2020-21 season was more or less a lost year for Ratcliffe due to injuries including a collapsed lung. So far this season, his offensive stats have remained modest (four goals and 10 points) on a generally low-scoring Phantoms team. However, the player's forechecking game and physicality have noticeably been more consistent and he's shown flashes of offensive ability. New Phantoms head coach Ian Laperriere has praised Ratcliffe's recent play.
With the Flyers decimated by injuries, the Flyers recalled Ratcliffe on Wednesday of this week. He will make his NHL debut against LA, playing on the fourth line.
"I've been working hard for a long time to get this opportunity. I'm pretty excited for Saturday. It's going to be a big day. I'm going to go out there and prove I deserve to be there. Bring a big, strong game," Ratcliffe said.
"We've got to outmuscle them. Pretty much play in the offensive zone as much as we can. Contribute some offense on top of that. That's going to help us stay out of the D zone, which also helps the defensive game. We've had some success in Lehigh playing that way, sticking to structure."
Ratcliffe's parents and two of his four siblings will be in attendance for his NHL debut. The Flyers will line up as follows:
23 Oskar Lindblom - 28 Claude Giroux - 89 Cam Atkinson
25 James van Riemsdyk - 21 Scott Laughton - 11 Travis Konecny
20 Gerry Mayhew - 48 Morgan Frost - 71 Max Willman
76 Isaac Ratcliffe - 82 Connor Bunnaman - 17 Zack MacEwen
9 Ivan Provorov - 61 Justin Braun
6 Travis Sanheim - 70 Rasmus Ristolainen
3 Keith Yandle - 45 Cam York
79 Carter Hart
35 Martin Jones
3. Inside the Numbers
The Flyers and the Kings both rank in the bottom third of the NHL in special teams. Philly's power play, which has often scuffled to generate entries, checks in at a 15.7 percent success rate (27th in the NHL). LA is ranked just one spot ahead at 16.5 percent.
Meanwhile, the Flyers penalty kill, which had been a bright spot for the team prior to the Christmas break but has been in a freefall in January, comes in at 77.5 percent (22nd in the NHL). The Kings come in ranked 28th at 73.6 percent.
Both the Flyers and Kings have scored five shorthanded goals apiece this season. LA's Adrian Kempe and the Flyers Cam Atkinson and Scott Laughton lead their respective teams with two SHGs. Both the Kings and Flyers have coughed up sixth shorthanded goals to opposing teams (tied for 29th in the league).
The big separation point between the teams is their respective 5-on-5 performance. The Kings enter at a team +12 (81 GF/ 69 GA) while the Flyers are -21 (73 GF/ 94 GA).
The Metro division is much deeper and tougher than the Pacific Division, where the Kings are currently in third place (automatic playoff position). Nonetheless, the biggest single reason for why the Kings have a winning record and the Flyers' are at the bottom of the Metro can be found in their respective five-on-five results. Even with average to below-average special teams, a strong five-on-five team can often make up for the difference.

4. Behind Enemy Lines: LA Kings
Anze Kopitar, at age 34, remains a vital piece of the puzzle for the Kings. The two-time Selke Trophy winner as the NHL's top defensive forward still shoulders a 21:04 TOI average workload for LA. He leads his team in scoring (13g, 38 points). He's also still one of the best faceoff men in the NHL (56.24 percent won).
The addition of Phillip Danault to the LA roster, rather than creating a redundancy down the middle, has played an important role in why the Kings are a strong five-on-five team. Danault has also chipped in 10 goals and 22 points this season.
Kempe's 18 goals this season lead the Kings and he is one point behind Alex Iafallo (13g, 14a) for second on the team's overall points leaderboard. Speedy little forward Arvidsson (10g, 25 points) can still burn a team that loses track of him, as the Flyers can attest firsthand.
Andreas Athanasiou was activated off injured reserve on Jan. 27. For the season, the fleet-footed but somewhat enigmatic former Detroit forward has scored four goals and added four assists in 12 games.
In net, Jonathan Quick has had a resurgent season (2.53 GAA, .914 save percentage, two shutouts). The 35-year-old churned out a vintage performance against the Flyers at the start of this month, reminiscent of the prime of the netminder's career .
Quick has dominated the Flyers in his career, with an assist from the team in front of him. Quick boasts a 11-3-1 career record against the Flyers, 1.79 GAA and .942 save percentage.However, with a red-hot Penguins team awaiting the Kings on Sunday, McLellan has a choice to make as to whether roll with Quick on Saturday or go with Cal Peterson (10-6-2 this season with a 2.65 GAA, .901 SV% and one shutout) against Philly and start Quick in Pittsburgh.

5. Players to Watch: Giroux and Doughty
In 20 career games against Los Angeles, Flyers captain Claude Giroux has posted 19 points (5g, 14a). In the Flyers' last few games, the club's "Phantoms Line" of Gerry Mayhew and Max Willman flanking Morgan Frost has been the Flyers' most energetic and effective line.
The 34-year-old Giroux, who leads the Flyers with 34 points (15g, 19a), opened the scoring last game against the Islanders on a shot from the right corner that caught goalie Ilya Sorokin unprepared.
At age 32, Kings No. 1 defenseman Drew Doughty has accumulated a lot of miles in the NHL. He may not be a perennial Norris Trophy candidate (one-time winner) at this stage of his career. Make no mistake, however: Doughty is still a formidable opponent and a workhorse (25:17 TOI) atop the LA blueline. He reached the coveted 1,000 games played milestone in Thursday's game.
Limited to 25 games played this season, Doughy has posted four goals (three on the power play) and 22 points. For his career against the Flyers, Doughty has scored four goals and chipped in 11 assists in 21 meetings.