John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (16-10-3) will look to extend their seven-game point streak when they host Derek Lalonde's Detroit Red Wings (15-10-4) on Saturday evening. Game time at Wells Fargo Center is 7:00 p.m. ET.
The game will be televised on NBCSP. The radio feed will be on 93.3 WMMR with an online simulcast on Flyers Radio 24/7.
This is the first of three meetings this season between the teams and the lone game in Philadelphia. The Flyers and Red Wings will rematch at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit next Friday (Dec. 22) before the season-series concludes in Detroit on January 25.
Each of the last three season-series between the clubs has resulted in one team or the other winning all three games. The Flyers swept the 2019-20 season series. There were no games played between the teams in 2020-21 due the pandemic-driven schedule that entirely consisted of divisional games. The Red Wings swept the 2021-22 season series. Last season, the Flyers won all three games: 2-1 on the road, 3-1 at home and 3-0 at home behind a 29-save shutout by Carter Hart.
The Flyers are 5-0-2 over their last seven games. They enter this game coming off a 4-3 home shootout victory against the Washington Capitals on Thursday. Bobby Brink (5th), Joel Farabee (11th) and Owen Tippett (10th). Sean Couturier and Brink scored in the shootout. Morgan Frost had two assists. Samuel Ersson earned the win in goal.
Here are five things to watch in Saturday's game:
1. Third Straight Start for Ersson
With Hart (illness) unavailable for Saturday's game, Samuel Ersson will get the start in net for the third consecutive game. He stopped 19 of 22 shots on goal in a 3-2 overtime loss in Nashville on Tuesday and 30 of 33 in regulation and overtime (two of three in the shootout) in Thursday's home win against Washington.
For the season, Ersson is 6-3-2 with a 2.80 goals against average, .885 save percentage and one shutout. The numbers are deceptive. While Ersson struggled in October, he's been very good when he's seen action over the past six weeks.
Dating back to November 1, he's posted a 6-2-1 record, 2.10 goals against average, .910 save percentage and one shutout in eight starts and one relief appearance (Hart was injured in the first period of the Nov. 1 home game against the Buffalo Sabres). Counting only Ersson's eight starts, he's 6-1-1 with a 2.07 GAA, .919 save percentage and a 25-save shutout of the New York Islanders in a 1-0 (1-0) shutout road win on Nov. 25 in Elmont.
Hart did not practice on Friday. On Saturday, the Flyers are expected to make an emergency recall to the Lehigh Valley to enable Felix Sandström to back up Ersson against Detroit. Sandström was also the backup against Washington on Tuesday.
2. Will Poeling/Laughton Line Swap Carry Over?
Throughout the third period of Thursday's game against the Capitals, Tortorella employed one change from the lines that started the game: Ryan Poehling moved up from fourth line center to play in between Joel Farabee and Cam Atkinson. Scott Laughton moved to the fourth line.
"Laughts was one of the guys I thought was fighting it a bit [after the road trip]," Tortorella said after Friday's practice. "We moved Poehls there, and I think he brought some energy to that line."
The Flyers did not run lines at practice on Friday. They'll have a morning skate at the Flyers Training Center in Voorhees on Saturday morning. Couturier, who was a little banged up in Thursday's game but finished it and scored in the shootout, took a maintenance day on Friday. He should be ready to go against the Red Wings.
Laughton had been logging very heavy ice time during much of the recent road trip, including 20:40 in Arizona, 22:09 across 32 shifts in Colorado, and 19:00 in Nashville. The first game back in Philadelphia was a struggle to find energy, not just for Laughton, but for much of the lineup in the first period.
Whether Thursday's latter game line switch carries over to Saturday's starting lineup remains to be seen. However, it's fair to say that Tortorella won't hesitate to switch again within the game if he feels it's needed.
3. Flyers power play vs. Detroit penalty kill
The Flyers power play went 0-for-5 (including an unsuccessful 5-on-3 opportunity) in Thursday's game. The team went 0-for-4 against Nashville. What's hidden within the bottom line numbers is the fact that Philly's top power play unit generated several good looks at the net -- chances for Tyson Foerster from his left circle "office", loose puck scrambles near the net and a couple of rebounds in the slot that eluded Flyers' sticks -- without a payoff.
During Friday's practice, the team devoted a portion to special teams work. The units remained the same. PP1 consisted of Foerster, Couturier, Travis Konecny, Frost and Rasmus Ristolainen. The second unit featured Brink, Laughton, Tippett, Atkinson and Cam York.
Afterwards, Tortorella said that assistant coach Rocky Thompson -- who coaches the power play -- asked him to leave the personnel untouched for a while in order to give them time to gel. Tortorella noted that he sometimes has had a tendency to make quickly personnel changes and he'd defer to Thompson on this one. He did add, however, that at some point, he expected that the team's leading five-on-five scorer, Farabee, would return to power play deployment.
Entering Saturday's game, the Flyers are 10-for-92 on the power play (10.9 percent), ranking 29th in the NHL. They've allowed one shorthanded goal.
Detroit ranks 21st on the penalty kill at 78.2 percent. Opposing power plays are 24-for-110. The Red Wings have scored four shorthanded goals this season: one apiece by Dylan Larkin, J.T. Compher, Michael Rasmussen and Christian Fischer.
4. Flyers PK vs. Detroit power play
The Flyers came into Thursday's game against Washington's bottom-ranked power play on a run of having killed off 43 of their most recent 45 penalties. A favorable bounce of a Dylan Strome rebound directly to Tom Wllson at the doorstep produced a power play goal for Washington. Overall, the Flyers went 2-for-3 on the PK against the Capitals.
For the season, the Flyers PK ranks fifth in the NHL at 86.0 percent. Opposing power play are 13-for-93. The Flyers have scored seven shorthanded goals this season: three by Konecny, two by defenseman Sean Walker, and one apiece by Poehling and Laughton.
The Red Wings' power play enters Saturday's game ranked 13th in the NHL at 22.3 percent. The team is 27-for-121, having generated the most power play opportunities of any team in the NHL. On the downside, Detroit has given up five shorthanded goals.
5. Behind Enemy Lines: Detroit Red Wings
The Red Wings bring a 7-5-1 road record and a 5-4-1 mark in their last 10 games overall into Saturday's match. Detroit enters this game coming off a 2-1 home loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday evening. Rasmussen talled from outside the right faceoff dot in the second period for the lone Detroit goal.
The Red Wings remain without the services of their team captain, speedy center Dylan Larkin (11g, 14a, 25 points in 24 games). He remains on injured reserve with an upper-body injury suffered against the Ottawa Senators on Dec. 9. He has resumed practicing in a non-contact jersey. It is possible that Larkin could be back for the Red Wings' rematch with the Flyers in Detroit next Friday.
Left winger David Perron (7g, 6a, 13 points in 26 games) will serve the fourth game of a six-game suspension by the NHL. In the immediate aftermath of Larkin being briefly knocked unconscious at the hands of Ottawa's Mathieu Joseph, Perron delivered a cross-check to the head of Ottawa's Artem Zub. Perron will be eligible to return next Friday when the Red Wings host the Flyers.
In the absence of Larkin, Alex DeBrincat (13g, 13a, 26 points) has re-taken the Red Wings' scoring lead. Four of his goals have been scored on the power play. DeBrincat, a streak scorer, has two points (0g, 2a) in the last five games. He started the season with nine goals and 13 points in the first seven games. In the latter part of November, DeBrincat rattled off a five-game point streak (2g, 3a). and then a three-game run (1g, 3a) at the tail end of the month into first two games of December.
Former Flyers offensive defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere has posted 21 points (5g, 16a) in 28 games this season. Among his 21 points, 11 have come on the power play (2 PPG, 9 PPA). His explosive shot from the point to the top of the circle remains a dangerous weapon. On the downside, "Ghost" is a traditional minus-six this season between five-on-five play and being on the ice for opposing shorthanded goals. Since a four-point (1g, 3a) outburst against the Minnesota Wild on Nov. 26, Gostisbehere has chipped in three points (0g, 3a) in the last nine games.
J.T. Compher (6g, 13a) is officially a game-day decision for Saturday but it appears likely the left winger will be ready to return from injury to play his first game since Dec. 5. Compher has practiced in full for several days.
Veteran star Patrick Kane has produced two points (1g, 1a) in his first five games since joining the Red Wings. Young winger Lucas Raymond has 24 points (10g, 14a) to date this season, while defenseman Moritz Seider has 18 points (5g, 13a) and has logged an average of 22:11 of ice time to pace the team in that category. Fellow defenseman Jake Walman (6g, 7a) is second on the club with an average 19:58 TOI.
In goal, Ville Husso (16 GP, 9-5-2, 3.52 GAA, .891 SV%) stopped 37 of 39 shots in a losing cause against the Hurricanes on Thursday. Veteran James Reimer (8 GP, 2-3-2, 2.58 GAA, .911 save percentage, one shutout) got roughed up in his last outing, yielding five goals on 34 shots in a road loss in Dallas on Monday evening. Last season, as a member of the San Jose Sharks, Reimer authored a late October shutout of the Flyers at Wells Fargo Center.
