Seeking to strengthen their hold on an automatic Stanley Cup playoff spot, the Philadelphia Flyers (34-24-8) will host Sheldon Keefe's Toronto Maple Leafs (37-19-4) on Thursday evening. Game time at Wells Fargo Center is 7:30 p.m. EDT.
The game will be streamed on ESPN+ and Hulu. The radio broadcast is on 93.3 WMMR with an online simulcast on Flyers Radio 24/7.
This is the second of three meetings this season between the Flyers and Maple Leafs, and the first of two games at Wells Fargo Center. The season series will conclude next Tuesday (March 19) with another game in Philadelphia.
On Feb. 15 in Toronto, the Flyers lost a hard-fought 4-3 decision in overtime. A pair of bad line changes by the Flyers and a natural hat trick in the second period by Toronto superstar Auston Matthews swung the game in the Leafs' favor. William Nylander tallied the winning goal in OT. Mitch Marner racked up three assists, all primaries. For the Flyers, Travis Sanheim (shorthanded), Garnet Hathaway and Travis Konecny (power play) scored in regulation.
The Flyers enter Thursday's game coming off a 3-2 home win against the San Jose Sharks. Morgan Frost earned First Star honors with a power play goal and a gorgeous long-range saucer pass assist on a Joel Farabee breakaway goal. Owen Tippett netted the game-winner in the third period. Konecny and Cam York produced two assists apiece. Samuel Ersson turned aside 27 of 29 shots to earn the victory.
Philly is 5-4-1 over its last 10 games. On home ice this season, the Flyers are 17-13-3. The Flyers are in third place in the Metropolitan Division, four points plus a tiebreaker advantage (26 regulation wins to 21) over the New York Islanders. The Islanders hold two games in hand.
On Thursday, Flyers head coach John Tortorella will serve the second and final game of his NHL suspension. Tortorella's associate coach, Brad Shaw, and assistant coach Rocky Thompson will once again work together behind the bench.
The Maple Leafs are 7-3-0 over their last 10 games, and 19-7-6 on the road to date this season. Toronto enters this game coming off a 3-2 road win against the Montreal Canadiens this past Saturday. John Tavares broke a 2-2 deadlock in the third period with the game-winning goal. Bobby McMann and Max Domi (1g, 1a) tallied in the second period as the Leafs pushed back from a 1-0 deficit to take a temporary 2-1 lead. Ilya Samsonov made 29 saves for the win.
Here are five things to watch in Thursday's game:
1. Lead the Way, TK
Flyers leading scorer, alternate captain, and All-Star Game representative Konecny (27g, 29a, 56 points, plus-15 in 60 games played) returned last Thursday from a six-game injury absence. He was sorely missed while he was away, as evidenced by his picturesque set up to Tippett for Tuesday's game-winning goal on a delayed penalty against San Jose.
If the Flyers are to be able defeat the Maple Leafs, Konecny is the No. 1 candidate to spark his team to success. He's the Flyers' deadliest player in transition -- although Owen Tippett also excels in that department -- and the most capable of suddenly turning a mundane play into a bonafide scoring chance. He is likewise the Flyers most dangerous penalty killer.
The Flyers will need to have more than just Konecny going -- the likes of Tippett, Frost, Farabee, Tyson Foerster, and/or defensemen Sanheim and York will also need to step up their game -- but a big night from "TK" would go a long way toward securing two points against a top-end opponent.
2. Make the Leafs Earn Their Offense
In the first meeting of the season series, the Flyers outplayed Toronto for most of the opening 30 minutes. Then, a combination of an unforced icing led to a hemmed-in shift and a poorly executed line change led to Matthews' first goal.
Before the Flyers could regain their equilibrium, Matthews fired home two more goals for a natural hat trick and a Toronto lead. The Flyers pushed back in the third period and Konecny re-tied the score to force overtime.
In OT, Scott Laughton lost the opening faceoff. The Maple Leafs maintained puck possession for the 54-second duration of sudden death. The Flyers attempted a very risky line change with Toronto reloading near their own blueline. Philly never got its coverage assignments set in the defensive zone and Nylander scored the winning goal.
In short, the last Philly vs. Toronto game underscored how deadly even momentary lapses of detail can be against the Maple Leafs' top weapons. Puck management, shift times, line changes, gap control and coverage assignments can be strong for long stretches of a game, but have to stay that way.
The other end of the equation: The Maple Leafs do not have a top-end blueline nor have gotten elite-caliber goaltending. The club ranks slightly below the middle of the pack in goals against average (3.13, ranked 18th). If the Flyers do not force pucks into dangerous areas but check diligently and relently, scoring chances will follow. Be patient but persistent.
3. Flyers Need to Snap PK Back on Track
Even the best special teams' units in the NHL, whether it's on the power play or the penalty kill, will have some hiccups during the course of the regular season marathon. The Flyers went into Saturday's game in Tampa with the NHL's No. 1-ranked penalty kill. However, over the last two games, the Flyers have been burned for five opposing power play goals (three by the Lightning and two by San Jose).
As a result, the Flyers power play has dropped from first to third (84.8 percent) in the NHL. Heading into Thursday's game, getting the PK back on track -- and minimizing the number of times shorthanded in the first place -- is an absolutely indispensable element in the Flyers' game plan to beat Toronto.
The Maple Leafs rank second in the NHL in power play success rate -- trailing only the Lightning -- at 27.2 percent. Last time the Flyers' played the Maple Leafs, Matthews scored a power play goal on a scorching one-timer from the right circle.
The Maple Leafs have allowed eight opposing shorthanded goals this season, including Sanheim's in the February 15 game. Only four NHL teams (Montreal, Calgary, Pittsburgh and Buffalo) have allowed more than eight shorthanded goals against this season.
With 14 shorthanded goals scored, the Flyers remain tops in the NHL in that department: five by Konency, three by Ryan Poehining, two by Laughton, two by now-former Flyers defenseman Sean Walker, one by Hathaway and the aforementioned Sanheim goal at Toronto's expense.
4. Power Play: Can Flyers Build off Tuesday's Game?
Thompson, in Tuesday's postgame press conference, gave a withering assessment of how his own team has performed overall on the man advantage this season. Mincing no words, Thompson said, "Our power play stinks."
The Flyers rank last in the NHL on the power play, at 12.9 percent (31st-ranked Columbus is at 13.9 percent). However, a little further analysis is in order.
Through New Year's Day 2024, the Flyers power play was at 10.5 percent (12-for-114),: on a pace to tie the 1999-2000 Buffalo Sabres for the 5th-worst power play season by any NHL club since the League officially started tracking team power play statistics in 1977-78.
From early January through the Stadium Series game, the Flyers power play showed significant signs of improvement. Philly connected on 20.7 percent of its power plays in 18 games between January 6 and February 17). Despite still being ranked for the season near the bottom of the NHL power play rankings, things seemed to finally be trending the right way.
On Tuesday, however, the Flyers had a strong night on than Jose, the NHL's 31st-ranked PK club, the Flyers generated a lot of attack zone time, strong puck movement and quite a few scoring opportunities.
Some notable aspects of from last game:
1. Personnel adjustments: The PP1 unit on Tuesday consisted of York, Konecny, Frost, Tippett and Farabee. The second unit contained Denis Gurianov, Bobby Brink, Laughton, Foerster, and Egor Zamula. That's likely to continue on Thursday.
2. Strategic tweaks: Normally a distributor from the half-wall (more often the left side, but he's also played on the right), Frost was deployed in the bumper against San Jose. Additionally, at times, the Flyers threw a layered double-screen look at the Sharks.
These adjustments worked against the Sharks. Will they work, too, against Toronto? The Maple Leafs enter Thursday's game ranked in a tie for 22nd on the penalty kill at 77.4 percent success (opposing power plays are 40-for-177). Toronto has scored six shorthanded goals: three by Nylander, one apiece by Marner, Calle Järnkrok, and Noah Gregor.
5. Behind Enemy Lines: Toronto Maple Leafs
The Flyers won't have to contend with Marner in this game. One of the NHL's top playmaking forwards (51 assists among his 76 points in 62 games), Marner is not expected to be available to play on Thursday. He is officially day-to-day with a lower-body injury suffered last Thursday against the Bruins. Marner missed Saturday's game against Montreal.
Even without Marner, though, the Maple Leafs have a formidable if top-heavy attack: between Matthews (54 goals, 26 assists, 80 points), Nylander (34 goals, 50 assists, team-leading 84 points), veteran star Tavares (20g, 26a, 46 points) and top offensive-minded blueliner Morgan Rielly (7g, 39a). Rielly missed the previous game against the Flyers while serving an NHL suspension.
Beyond that deadly top-five overall group and fearsome top-two forward line threat, there's a steep dropoff in the depth of the Maple Leafs' lineup. Even so, opponents overlook at their own peril the likes of Domi (34 points), Tyler Bertuzzi (12 goals, 29 points), rookie Matthew Knies (11g, 26 points but dealing with a recent slump), veteran role player Järnkrok (10g, 11a) or late-emerging Bobby McMann (10g, 18 points in 40 games).
The Maple Leafs are, of course, not yet mathematically locked into third place in the Northeast Division. However, Toronto trails second-place Boston by nine points in the battle for a home ice edge in the first round. Meanwhile, the fourth-place Lightning are eight points behind Toronto.
