John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (30-22-7) are back home on Tuesday to take on Jon Cooper's Tampa Bay Lightning (32-23-5) on Tuesday evening, Game time at Wells Fargo Center is 7:00 p.m. ET.
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 of three meetings between the teams this season and the second and final one in Philadelphia. The season series wilk conclude at Amalie Arena in Tampa on March 9.
On Jan, 23, 2024, the Lightning defeated the Flyers, 6-3, at Wells Fargo Center. In a losing cause, Cam Atkinson had a goal and an assist, Jamie Drysdale tallied on a power play, Morgan Frost collected two primary assists and Cam York scored on the opening shift of the third period to cut the deficit to 4-3. The Lightning added a pair of empty net goals in the last minute of the game for a final three-goal margin.
The Flyers are coming off a pair of frustrating losses last weekend. On Saturday, the Flyers dropped a 2-1 at home decision against the New York Rangers. Despite a wide edge in shots and scoring chances plus a strong game in net from Samuel Ersson, the Flyers lost due to a pinballing New York goal in the third period and a phenomenal game by New York goalie Igor Sheshkterkin. On Sunday in Pittsburgh, the game was the polar opposite in a 7-6 Flyers loss. The bright side for the Flyers was their determination in battling back from 2-1 and 4-2 deficits before running out of time to find another equalizer after the Penguins took a 7-6 lead.
Tampa enters this game coming off a successful weekend, The Lighting earned back-to-back road victories, defeating the New York Islanders by a 4-2 score on Saturday and the New Jersey Devils on Sunday in a 4-1 final.
There is no on-paper "fatigue factor" at play coming into this game. Both the Flyers and Lightning are playing their respective third games in four nights with an off-day on Monday.
Here are five things to watch in Tuesday's match:
1. Laughton on a Heater
Flyers center Scott Laughton has had a roller coaster 2023-24 campaign by his standards. Now that the season is past the All-Star break and the start of the stretch drive is looming, the Flyers alternate has recently been playing some of the best hockey of his career.
Laughton brings into Tuesday a career-high streak of notching at least one point in seven consecutive games (four goals, six assists, 10 points). He has a six-game assist streak. On Sunday in Pittsburgh, Laughton had a four-point afternoon, with even strength and shorthanded goals, two assists and a plus-four.
Laughton's shorthanded goal late in the second period temporarily tied the score at 4-4 after the Penguins had controlled most of the play. It was his second shorthanded goal and seventh shorthanded point of the season, tying him with the Islanders' Simon Holmström (5 SHG, 2 SHA) for the NHL lead in the latter category.
With Travis Konency on a day-to-day basis with an upper-body injury sustained at practice last Friday, Laughton is one of main players who has so far risen to the challenge of stepping up in the team-leading scorer's absence. On Sunday, rookie winger Tyson Foerster (three goals in his last two games) tallied two goals while Travis Sanheim chipped in with a goal and an assist.
2. Flyers Need More Contributors
Team captain Sean Couturier collected a pair of assists in Pittsburgh on Sunday but has just two goals since Christmas. He averaged north of 20 minutes of ice time per game over the first half of the season but has seen some of heavy minutes burden alleviated over the last six weeks (17:25 TOI in his last 15 games).
Cam Atkinson's multi-point performance the last time the Flyers played the Lightning are his most recent points. After rattling off a six-game (5g, 5a) point streak in late January, Atkinson has cooled off. He has not recorded a goal or an assist in his last 11 games and is minus-seven in that span.
Joel Farabee has arguably been the Flyers most consistent player on a game-in and game-out basis for the first three-and-a-half months of the season. In the last 11 games, Farabee has posted just three points (0g, 3a) and is minus-11 while averaging 17:55 of ice time.
Over the Flyers last 21 games, Frost is the Flyers' second-leading scorer with 16 points (4g, 12a, minus-one, 49.1 percent on faceoffs, 16:18 TOI). However, he's gone pointless in his last three games and drawn criticism from the head coach for ongoing inconsistency. Along with Atkinson, Frost was benched in the third period on Sunday against Pittsburgh.
Owen Tippett had a two-goal night in a losing cause in the Stadium Series game against the New Jersey Devils. However, his overall play since the All-Star break has been inconsistent, especially on the defensive side of the puck. Offensively, Tippett has posted six points (3g, 3a) and a minus-eight in nine games this month.
Of late, the Flyers most reliable two-way line on a shift-by-shift basis has been the trio of Noah Cates, Ryan Poehling and Garnet Hathaway. They've also been chipping in some points. Since the All-Star break, the Flyers have gotten five points from Cates (1g, 4a, plus-four), four for Poehling (two SHG, 2a, plus-three) and three from Hathaway (2g, 1a, plus-five).
Recently, Tortorella has often started periods with the Poehling line on the ice for the first shift. He's also used Poehling or Laughton rather than Couturier or Frost in several four-on-four situations.
3. Solving Vasilevskiy
The play of goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy has been one of the key reasons the Lightning have dominated the Flyers in recent years. For his career, the star netminder has posted a 13-3-0 record, 2.29 goals against average, .929 save percentage and three shutouts in matches against Philadelphia.
Vasilevskiy's big frame (6-foot-4, 220 pounds) takes up a lot of net. He is very positionally sound but also very athletic and can come out of his structure when needed to make saves. He wasn't a great puck-handling goalie when he first entered the NHL but he's improved considerably over the years.
Many times over his career, the only way to generate a few goals against Vasilevskiy has been to "take his eyes away" by generating layered screens and deflections. Even then, he's a very good puck-tracking netminder.
Vasilevskiy missed time early this season due to injury. It has taken a while to recover his form, and the team in front of him has not been especially good at minimizing high-danger chances this season. As such, Vasilevskiy's overall season numbers (20-14-0, 2.95 GAA, .897 save percentage, one shutout) are not up to his normal standards.
Backup goalie Jonas Johansson (11-7-5, 3,43 GAA, .888 save percentage) started and won Sunday's game against the Devils. Vasilievskiy is the expected starter against the Flyers.
For Philly, Samuel Ersson (16-11-4, 2.56 GAA, .900 SV%, three shutouts) is the expected starter. Backup goalie Cal Petersen (2-2-0, 3.90 GAA, .864 SV%) struggled with short-side shots and with committing too early to the ice in his start against the Penguins on Sunday.
4. Flyers Special Team vs. Tampa Special Teams
Sunday's game in Pittsburgh was a bizarre afternoon in many regards, including special teams.
On the PK, the Flyers came into the game ranked in a tie for the top spot in the NHL. Pittsburgh entered ranked 30th on the power play. Without Konecny in the lineup and with Ersson having tracking issues, the Flyers gave up two PPGs to the Penguins on
four PK opportunities. The Flyers dropped back to second on the NHL on the PK at 86.1 percentage.
Even so, Laughton's shorthanded goal on the rebound of a Cates wraparound attempt, was a pivotal moment in turning what looked to be a Pittsburgh romp into a goal-a-thon the rest of the game. The Flyers' 14 shorthanded goals this season are the most in the NHL by a three-goal margin over Dallas and St. Louis.
Philly's shorthanded goal breakdown: five by Konecny, three by Poehling, two apiece by Laughton and defenseman Scott Walker and one apiece by Hathaway and Sanheim.
There are, however, a small number of teams against whom even an elite PK like the Flyers' are much better off not being put to work in the first place. Back on January 23, the Lightning went 2-for-3 on the man advantage against the Flyers. Overall this season, the weapon-laden Bolts power play is tied for No, 1 in the NHL at a staggering 29.3 percent efficiency (53-for-181, four shorthanded goals yielded).
In Pittsburgh, the Flyers went 1-for-5 on the power play. Most of the power plays were momentum-killers, especially a very poor four-minute opportunity that ended with Frost taking a slashing penalty to impede a shorthanded scoring chance after a turnover high in the attack zone.
Later, however, Foerster scored a 6-on-4 power play goal to bring the Flyers back within 7-6 with 2:03 left on the clock. Notably, power play regulars Frost and Atkinson were on the bench and players such as Olle Lycksell (1a) and Poehling saw PP time in their place.
For the season, the Flyers rank last in the NHL on the power play at 13.2 percent (25-for-189, three shorthanded goals allowed). The PP has actually trended the right way overall in the last 21 games (19.4 percent, ranked 16th in that span) but it has been inconsistent from game-to-game and power play opportunity to opportunity.
Tampa's PK ranks 13th in the NHL this season at an 80.4 percent success rate. The Bolts have scored two shorthanded goals: one apiece by Tyler Motte and Luke Glendening.
5. Behind Enemy Lines: Tampa Bay Lightning
With the major exceptions of the Feb. 6 match in Florida and Saturday's game against the Rangers, the Flyers have had major problems recently trying to contain other clubs’ top players.
Many of the league's top players have had their way with the Flyers, posting huge offensive games against Philly over the last two months (Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, Claude Giroux, David Pastrnak, Sidney Crosby and others). The single most impressive game against the Flyers in recent weeks was turned in by Tampa's Nikita Kucherov (hat trick and an assist) on Jan. 23.
The Flyers, of course, are far from the only team that Kucherov has picked apart this season, but he's the Flyers' problem to deal with right now. For the season, the Russian superstar leads the Art Ross Trophy race with 102 points (38g, 64a) in 59 games played.
Kucherov is a different type of player than someone such as McDavid or MacKinnon. He's not a go-go-go speedster but is nothing short of deadly with his super-fast hands and ice vision to find the seams.
The familiar cast of Tampa stars beyond Kucherov are still in place and still very dangerous in their own right: Brayden Point (30g, 32a in 60 games), defenseman Victor Hedman (10g, 49a), and veteran captain Steven Stamkos (23 goals including 12 on the power play, 27 assists). Additionally, Brandon Hagel has posted 58 points to date (22g, 36a) and Nicholas Paul (16g, 15a) and two-way center Anthony Cirelli (12g, 19a) have chipped in 31 points.
Tampa is not as deep or defensively consistent as they were in winning back-to-back Stanley Cup championships and three straight Eastern Conference championships to start the 2020s. Make no mistake, however: The Lighting are still an extremely tough matchup for the Flyers.
