5 THINGS: Flyers vs. Red Wings

Starting the final 20-game stretch of the 2022-23 season, John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (23-28-11) are home on Sunday to take on Derek Lalonde's Detroit Red Wings (28-25-9) at the Wells Fargo Center. Game time is 6:00 p.m. ET.

GAME NOTES
The game will be nationally televised on NBCSP. The radio broadcast is on 97.5 The Fanatic with an online simulcast on Flyers Radio 24/7.
This is the second of three meetings of the season between the teams, and the first of two in Philadelphia. The season series will conclude back at the Wells Fargo Center on March 25.
On January 21 at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, the Flyers earned a 2-1 victory on the strength of 30 saves by Carter Hart and goals by Scott Laughton and Noah Cates. Lucas Raymond broke up Hart's shutout bid in the final minute of the third period, while Ville Husso stopped 23 of 25 shots for Detroit.
Heading into this game, the Flyers have gone 2-6-2 over their last 10 games. The Red Wings have gone 4-5-1. Philly is coming off a 3-2 overtime home loss to the New York Rangers on Wednesday. Detroit played yesterday, dropping a 4-1 road decision to the New York Islanders.
Here are five things to watch in tonight's game:
1. Rested Flyers vs. tired Red Wings
Neither the Flyers nor the Red Wings are factors in the Eastern Conference playoff chase. While have an on-paper "fatigue factor" edge or disadvantage heading into a game is unreliable predictor of how the match will turn out, the Flyers enter Sunday's game far more rested than Detroit.
The Flyers have been at home all week. They'd had several practice days but only one game: Wednesday's home game against the Rangers.
Meanwhile, the Red Wings have been a very busy team over the past week.
Tonight's game will be Detroit's third in the last four nights and fifth game in seven nights.
On Monday and Tuesday, the Red Wings had road games in Ottawa, losing by scores of 6-2 and 6-1. On Thursday, the Red Wings hosted the Seattle Kraken. The game went to overtime before Seattle prevailed, 5-4. After coming east, the visiting Red Wings lost the aforementioned game on Saturday to the Islanders.
When it's after the NHL trade deadline and a team is out of realistic playoff contention -- with 20 games left, Red Wings are seventh in the Eastern Conference wildcard standings with a seven-point (six standings points plus a tiebreaker disadvantage) gap to make up to catch lower wildcard Pittsburgh -- it can be tougher mentally to battle through "heavy legs".
The Flyers may have the fresher legs but they, too, face a mental grind to put forth focused and competitive efforts as a team when their only role in the playoff chase is that of spoiler. Players play for pride, contracts and/or being part of the organization's plans for next season. It helps as a motivation tool but only goes so far in sustaining team focus on a game-in and game-out basis when there's still a quarter-season left to play.
2. JVR's drought overlaps teamwide drought
One player who should have plenty of motivation for the rest of the season is veteran left winger James van Riemsdyk. When all was said and done at the NHL trade deadline, the Flyers were unable to trade the 33-year-old impending unrestricted free agent.
Now, the veteran of 920 NHL regular season games has 20 games remaining to play for his next contract. JVR, who is three goals away from scoring the 300th of his career, has nine goals and 23 points in 41 games played this season.
After on Dec. 7 from a 20-game absence due to a broken right index finger and corrective surgery, JVR got off to a good start. He had 13 points (5g, 8a) in his first 17 games following his return. During that time, van Riemsdyk's presence was a boon to much younger linemates Owen Tippett and Morgan Frost; both of whom surged offensively over the same stretch.
More recently, though, points have been much harder to come by for van Riemsdyk and for the Flyers team as a whole. Dressing in 18 of the Flyers' last 19 games, JVR has posted five points (3g, 2a). He has one goal and one assist in 10 games since Feb. 1.
In reality, this has been a team-wide issue, not just a matter of one player or one line. Since the All-Star break (11 games), Scott Laughton is the Flyers' scoring lead with six points. Tippett has five points. Kevin Hayes, Frost, Noah Cates and offensive defenseman Tony DeAngelo have four points apiece.
Joel Farabee has no goals and a single assist in the 11 games since the All-Star break. In fact, his drought goes all the way back to Jan. 16: one point in his last 19 games. His last goal was 22 games ago, in Buffalo on Jan. 9.
Young defenseman Cam York, another player whom the Flyers aim to see contribute offense on a more frequent basis, has one point in 10 games since the All-Star break. He recently sat out one game as a healthy scratch.
Meanwhile, the team's runaway leading scorer, Travis Konecny (27 goals and 5is out for at least a few more weeks -- possibly for the rest of the season -- with an upper-body injury sustained in Calgary on Feb. 20. Even Konecny experienced a 13-game goalless spell with an eight-game pointless stretch interspersed before a five-point outburst in three games leading up to the injury.
Bringing this discussion back to van Riemsdyk, it's frankly unfair to view his individual offensive doldrums as if they exist in a vacuum. The Flyers as a team have averaged a meager 2.22 goals per game (31st in the NHL) in their last 19 games dating back to Jan. 17.
3. Debut for Lemieux
Tonight, 26-year-old winger Brendan Lemieux will make his Flyers debut. Along with a 2024 fifth-round pick, Philadelphia acquired the impending free agent at the deadline on Friday in exchange for fan favorite and locker room favorite rugged winger Zack MacEwen (himself an impending free agent).
Flyers general manager and president of hockey operations Chuck Fletcher said on Friday that Lemieux would get a 20-game audition with Philadelphia to determine if he will be offered a new contract. The Flyers are his fourth NHL organization.
Lemieux had a tough season for the LA Kings prior to the trade to the Flyers. He was on IR for 18 games with a lower-body injury. He's otherwise been in and out of the lineup. In 27 games played this season, Lemieux has three points (0g, 3a) and 53 penalty minutes.
For many years, Claude Lemieux was one of the most hated opponents among Flyers' players and fans alike. It didn't matter which uniform he wore (but was especially true during his Montreal Canadiens and New Jersey Devils years), only a smattering of visiting players drew more boos and jeers in Philadelphia than Lemieux, year in and year out.
Claude's son, Brendan, has followed in his father's footsteps in terms of being one of the NHL's most-despised opponents. The Flyers can attest first-hand.
The younger Lemieux was the 31st selection (first pick in the second round) of the 2014 NHL Entry Draft and had been touted for much of his draft year as a potential first-rounder. The 6-foot-1, 215-pound left winger was projected as a future power forward with a good touch around the net as well as a very aggressive style. Long-term expectations for Lemieux, initially, were fairly similar to the path taken by Washington Capitals' forward Tom Wilson. As his career has evolved at the pro level, the younger Lemieux has been primarily a fourth-line player. In his first practice with the Flyers, Lemieux worked with Cates and Laughton.
For his career, Lemieux has 31 goals and 63 points in 257 career games to go along with 463 penalty minutes. He draws a lot of opposition penalties as a counterweight to his own penalty-prone tendency.
Lemieux will wear No. 22 for the Flyers. That was the same number his father (in)famously sported.
4. Flyers line play
The Flyers returned to practice on Saturday at the FTC in Voorhees. Tanner Laczynski was activated from IR (lower-body injury) on Friday after a 36-game absence. Both Laczynski and Lemieux were on the ice for Saturday's practice. The team will not hold a morning skate today.
Potential starting lines against the Red Wings, subject to change are as follows:
86 Joel Farabee - 48 Morgan Frost - 74 Owen Tippett
25 James van Riemsdyk - 13 Kevin Hayes - 57 Wade Allison
21 Scott Laughton - 49 Noah Cates - 22 Brendan Lemieux
44 Nicolas Deslauriers - 58 Tanner Laczynski - 20 Kieffer Bellows
9 Ivan Provorov - 45 Cam York
6 Travis Sanheim - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
24 Nick Seeler - 77 Tony DeAngelo
79 Carter Hart
[32 Felix Sandström]
5. Behind Enemy Lines: Detroit Red Wings
On Saturday, the Red Wings took a 1-0 lead into the third period against the host Islanders. Unfortunately for Detroit, the Islanders erupted for four unanswered goals. It was the Red Wings' first regulation loss this season when leading at the second intermission.
Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin scored Detroit's lone goal on a power play tally at 18:59 of the second period. Magnus Hellberg stopped 32 of 36 shots in a losing cause. Acquired at the trade deadline, Alex Chiasson made his debut with the Red Wings. Detroit dealt Filip Hronek, Tyler Bertuzzi, Jakub Vrana and Oskar Sundqvist for draft picks. Also on Friday, the Red Wings recalled Alex Nedeljkovic from the Grand Rapids Griffins under emergency conditions.
The Red Wings will not hold a morning skate today. Below are the lines that started last night's game against the Islanders.