One day after seeing a five-game winning streak come to an end, John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (25-15-6) will try to get right back on track as they host interim head coach Jacques Martin's Ottawa Senators (16-24-1) at Wells Fargo Center on Sunday afternoon. The puck drops at 1:00 p.m. ET.
The game will be 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 matches between the teams this season, and the first of two at the Wells Fargo Center. The season series will conclude back in Philadelphia on March 2. In the second game of the 2023-24 regular season, the Flyers lost a 5-2 decision at Canadian Tire Centre.
The Flyers enter this game coming off a home loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday afternoon. Ottawa lost at home in overtime, 2-1, against the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday.
Here are five things to watch on Sunday:
1. Between the Bluelines
There was a lot to unpack in what happened on Saturday against the Avalanche. Ultimately, it came down to this: for the third time in an eight-day span, the Flyers clearly carried the majority of the play against one the NHL's top teams. Philly outshot and out-chanced Colorado in all three periods.
However, unlike the Flyers victories over Winnipeg and the Dallas Stars (with a solid 4-2 win in St. Louis in between), the Flyers turned over a few too many pucks in dangerous areas. They had difficulty stopping Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Logan O'Connor.
Carter Hart stopped 10 of 15 shots in 40 minutes of action. However, two of the goals were on deflections: a double deflection that went in off O'Connor's skate and, later, a MacKinnon goal that went off Travis Sanheim's backside and changed trajectory just enough to squeeze through. Two other goals came off an unstoppable Rantanen one-timer from his favorite shooting spot and via a MacKinnon breakaway. The other came off a Colorado 2-on-1 from the blueline.
Samuel Ersson came in for the third period, stopping eight of nine shots. Rantanen scored via tap-in of a loose puck after a seemingly routine point shot dribbled through the pads on a Colorado power play. The Flyers had battled back from a 5-2 deficit to get within one goal -- and had a wave of momentum on their side. The goal that made it 6-4 halted the comeback bid.
For the vast majority of this season, the Flyers goaltending -- whether from Hart or Ersson -- has been a major strength. On Saturday, it was pedestrian. That happens to every goalie from time to time and is a mere blip on a big-picture radar screen.
2. Challenging Day for the "Scoring Committee"
Owen Tippett entered Saturday's game scorching hot offensively (six goals, seven points over his previous six games). He got on the scoresheet again versus Colorado, chipping in an assist on Travis Konecny's team-leading 22nd goal of the season.
Unfortunately, early in the third period of Saturday's match, Tippett got tangled up with Colorado's Jonathan Drouin during a routine board battle and went to the ice awkwardly. Tippett sustained a lower-body injury, and had to leave the game.
Hopefully, the injury is nothing severe enough to keep Tippett out of action for an extended period of time. More will be known over the next few days.
In the meantime, the Flyers are expected to work around the absence of Tippett size/speed combo and ability to score either on self-created chances off the rush or sometimes via snipes from distance.
The top candidates to step up if Tippett is missing from the lineup:
- Konecny (team-leading 41 points) is always the Flyers' number-one offensive focal point. He has four points in the last five games (1g, 3a) and may need to go on another run where he takes over a few consecutive matches offensively.
- Joel Farabee hasn't gotten as much attention the past two weeks as Tippett and Morgan Frost (see below) but he's continued to be a consistent producer for the team (16 goals, 36 points). That's been especially true at 5-on-5. "Beezer" brings a five-game point streak (4g, 2a) into Sunday's match and has posted at least one point in six of the Flyers' last seven games.
- Frost has been on a change-creating binge of late, using his feet and creativity very effectively. Over his past eight games, Frost has collected nine points (2g, 7a). Most of the apples have been of the primary helper variety where it's Frost who makes a play and then gets the puck directly to the goal scorer. He played into tough luck in that department for most of the first half the season -- Frost's assist totals were artificially low relative to the quality of chances he was involved in setting up -- but the pucks have mostly been going in the net lately.
- Cam Atkinson (12g, 25 points for the season) now has a four-game point streak (4g, 3a) since the Flyers' shutout victory over the Jets. He's getting to the net regularly of late and getting rewarded again. A streak scorer, the Flyers need Atkinson to stay hot. That would be true with Tippett in the lineup but especially without him.
- Tyson Foerster ended a six-week goal drought during the Minnesota game that started Philly's recent road trip. A few additional frustrating games followed -- good scoring chances but no payoff, several unnecessary penalties taken -- before Foerster sniped a goal from the left circle against Colorado on Saturday. Now he, too, needs to get hot offensively in similar fashion to the rookie's run in late November to the first two games of December.
- Sean Couturier's steady all-around presence is more or less a given when he's reasonably healthy. Now, the Flyers need the offensive part of Couturier's game (10g, 20a) to rise to the forefront. Despite missing two recent games due to a minor injury, Couturier has posted an assist in three of his four matches. With the exception of a shootout goal against Montreal (which does not count in personal stats), Couturier has just one tally in his last 11 games. A few more goals from the former two-time 30-goal scorer would come in pretty handy if Tippett misses a stretch of time.
- The Flyers blueline corps -- Travis Sanheim (4g, 22a), Jamie Drysdale (2a in four games since joining the Flyers), Cam York (5g, 10a), Sean Walker (5g, 11a), Egor Zamula (2g, 6a in his last 14 games, regular power play duty) and even Rasmus Ristolainen (a former four-time 41+ point getter) -- can step up with a timely offensive contribution on any given night. Drysdale, Sanheim, Walker and York are all adept at jumping into the play when they set their minds to it.
- Bobby Brink has become something of a forgotten player -- frequent scratches, limited ice time when he does play -- in recent weeks. If Tippett misses time, Brink may start to play more regularly again with some of Philly's more skilled forwards and to receive power play time. While Tortorella had become unhappy with Brink's checking and pace of play in the weeks leading up to his lineup demotion, there's no doubting Brink's ice vision or hands. Strictly from a production standpoint, Brink has posted as many points (7g, 11a apiece) as Foerster but in seven fewer games played.
Between these seven forwards and the blueline corps, the Flyers have sufficient depth to compensate for Tippett being out. Ryan Poehling, Noah Cates or Scott Laughton can also step up on a given night. Make no mistake, though. Tippett would absolutely be missed if he's out for any substantial period. He and Konecny are the Flyers' only true game-breakers in the goal scoring department.
3, Daytime Games Are Often Oddities
For whatever reason -- it's not just with the Flyers -- afternoon NHL games often seem to be strange contests: unusually feisty or exceptionally high-scoring or ones decided by freak bounces. It's more anecdotal than anything proveable with hard evidence.
That said, some of the most incongruous and physical games the Flyers in particular have been involved in this season have been in matinee games: the 5-2 loss in Ottawa on Oct. 14, a 7-4 home loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Oct. 28, a seesaw 4-3 overtime home win against Vegas in which Philly saw 2-0 and 3-2 leads slip away before rescuing a victory in sudden death, a comeback win over Calgary in an especially ornery game on Jan. 6, and then Saturday's 7-4 loss to Colorado despite four Flyers even strength goals and a 40-26 5 shot on goal edge.
Whatever form that this game against the Senators takes, the Flyers need it to be a winning formula before the homestand wraps up against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday. A six-point homestand is still within reach, but Philly will have two win back-to-back matches to do it.
4. Flyers special teams vs. Ottawa special teams
The Flyers have tallied a power play goal in six of their last eight games. There were, however, 0-for-3 against the Avalanche. Two of the three power plays produced at least one Grade A chance or loose puck scramble around the net, but nothing went in on that afternoon.
For the season, the Flyers are 12.3 percent (18-for-146, ranked 32nd, two shorthanded goals allowed) on the man advantage. Since the Christmas break, Philly are tied for 22nd at 16.7 percent (7-for-42).
The Ottawa penalty kill has struggled this season, ranking 28th in the NHL at 73.3 percent (opponents are 36-for-135). In the first game of the Flyers-Sens season series, the Flyers went 1-for-6 with a Konecny tally on a 5-on-3 advantage. The Senators have scored two shorthanded goals this season, with Parker Kelly notching a pair. Since Christmas, the Sens' PK has picked up a bit (27-for-34, 79.4 percent, ranked 15th).
The Flyers were 1-for-2 on the PK against Colorado on Saturday. An iffy penalty on Laughton -- called shortly after an apparent penalty by MacKinnon in direct sight of the officials was let go -- ended up as Rantanen's momentum-crushing PPG.
Overall, though, the Flyers still rank second in the NHL with an 86.0 percent PK (opponents are 20-for-143). With Dallas' Roope Hintz tallying a shorthanded goal in Saturday's 6-2 road blowout win over the New Jersey Devils, the Stars moved past the Flyers for tops in the NHL with 11 shorthanded goals scored this season. The Flyers are now tied with Calgary for second in the league. Philly's 10 SHGs: five by Konecny, two by Walker, and one apiece by Poehling, Laughton, and Garnet Hathaway.
It's also notable that three of the 20 opposing power play goals the Flyers have allowed this season all happened in a single game: the Oct. 14 match in Ottawa. On that day, Jakob Chychrun, Jake Sanderson and Brady Tkachuk struck for goals on the man advantage.
On the whole, the Senators' power play has been one of the team's disappointments this season. Ottawa checks in ranked 24th in the NHL at 15.9 percent (24-for-151) with four shorthanded goals yielded. It's been especially bleak since Christmas: 3-for-32 (9.4 percent, ranked 31st).
5. Behind Enemy Lines: Ottawa Senators
To put it bluntly, the No. 1 reason why Sunday's game is an opportunity the Flyers cannot afford to let slip away is that Ottawa has struggled mightily on the road all season. The Senators drag a 4-13-0 away record (12-11-1 at home) into this game. Secondly, the Sens have had a brutal weekend travel schedule, home against the Jets in Saturday's overtime loss and then a flight to Philadelphia.
The Senators are 3-6-1 over their past 10 games: 2-2-0 over their last four after a nightmarish post-New Years road trip saw Ottawa drop all five games by multi-goal fial scores (including three by three-goal margins).
It's a club that has been through a pre-Christmas coaching change:head coach D.J. Smith and assistant Davis Payne were dismissed on Dec. 18, with veteran coach Martin taking over on an interim basis. At least so far, the switch has not produced the hoped-for winning bump: 3-3-0 through New Year's Eve, 2-6-1 so far in January.
There's been other upheaval, too. Shane Pinto's 41-game NHL suspension for a gambling-related violation of league rules was completed on Saturday. Pinto showed a lot of promise last season, especially during a red-hot run in October 2022. The player recently signed a one-year contract for the prorated NHL minimum over the rest of the 2023-24 campaign: a far cry from the long-term and lucrative contract extension scenarios discussed before the season prior to the suspension.
With the Senators, it's not a question of a team that lacks talent. In fact, there are quite a few gifted young players and veterans alike: Tim Stützle (team leading 43 points with eight goals and 33 assists), longtime Flyers captain Claude Giroux (13g, 25a), Tkachuk (19g, 36 points, 95 PIM), big-framed winger Drake Batherson (16g, 35 points), veteran winger Vladimir Tarasenko (11g. 30 points), defensemen Chychrun (26 points) and 21-year-old Jake Sanderson, among other bonafide talents.
We haven't even gotten into some of the other drama that's surrounded the club, most notably including the conclusion of a long-running ownership saga that finally got resolved when the team's sale was finalized back in September. With the Sens' on-ice struggles this season, there have unsurprisingly been a slew of trade rumors swirling around much of the roster. It's been exhausting for everyone involved.
Of course, from a Flyers standpoint all that matters is this: Sunday's opponent, while offensively capable, gives up a lot of goals. The Sens enter with a team 3.68 goals against average (ranked 30th).
It's been a turnover-prone, coverage breakdown-prone team that has been unable most of the season to get clutch goaltending. In fact, allowing stoppable goals against has been a regular problem this season. However, Jonas Korpisalo had good overall games on Thursday's win against Montreal and Saturday's OT loss to the Jets. He'll likely be rested on Sunday, in all likelihood. With Anton Forsberg out indefinitely with a groin injury, 23-year-old Danish goalie Mads Sogaard is the probable starter against the Flyers.
Both the Flyers and Senators are in the second game of a back-to-back and playing their third game in four nights. However, the Flyers have been at home all this time.
