Returning home from a two-game road trip, John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (3-2-1) will host Dean Evason's Minnesota Wild (3-2-1) at the Wells Fargo Center on Thursday evening. Game time is 7:30 p.m. ET.
The game will be streamed on ESPN+ and Hulu. The radio broadcast is on 93.3 WMMR with Tim Saunders and Todd Fedoruk on the call, and an online simulcast on Flyers Radio 24/7.
Thursday's game is the first of two meetings this season between the teams. The Flyers and Wild will rematch in St. Paul at the Xcel Energy Center on January 12, 2024.
The Flyers enter tonight's match coming off road games in Dallas and Vegas in which Philly played well -- outplaying two elite-caliber opponents for long stretches -- but coming away with only one of four possible points. After suffering a 5-4 overtime loss in Dallas, the Flyers were unable to protect a 2-1 lead in the third period of the Vegas game, and absorbed a 3-2 loss after yielding a goal in the final half-minute of regulation.
Noah Cates (1st goal of the season) and Cam Atkinson (4th) scored in the game against the Golden Knights. Carter Hart played well, stopping 25 of 28 shots.
Here are five things to watch in the game against Minnesota:
1. Generating high-grade scoring chances.
Over the six games the Wild have played, they've been scoring at a 4.17 goals per game clip but they've been allowing a lot of opposing chances and goals, too. The club's GAA (4.17) is identical to their scoring pace. At least based on their overall play so far, the Wild are a team whom the Flyers can find offensive time and space if Philly plays the right way.
The Flyers did many things well for the first 35 minutes of the game in Vegas. For most of the first two periods, the Flyers outshot the reigning Stanley Cup champs. Finally, the Golden Knights started to assert themselves in the final five minutes of the middle stanza and carried that momentum into the third period.
However, while Philly had a shot on goal edge for two periods and, at the defensive end, blocked 30 Vegas shot attempts, the Flyers were outchanced by Vegas in all three periods (8-5 in the opening stanza, 13-11 in the second and 9-5 in the third) according to Natural Stat Trick's calculations. The difference was even more pronounced in terms of high-danger chances. For the game, the Flyers generated a modest seven high-danger chances to 11 for Vegas.
While the Flyers benefited from a misplay by Vegas goalie Rob Thompson on a harmless looking backhanded goal by Atkinson from outside the left dot, the Flyers' overall scarcity of high-grade scoring chances had a direct effect on the final score of Tuesday's game. Against Minnesota, the Flyers will seek generate more opportunities from the "home plate" area between and below the dots.
One thing that the Flyers have done well so far this season has been to break out of their defensive zone with a good lead pass and then attack with good pace. Being able to do so, as well as establishing a forecheck once the puck goes into the Minnesota zone, is key to beating the Wild.
2. The learning curve
Head Coach John Tortorella warned during training camp that the learning curve for the team's young defensemen would likely contribute to some losses during the season. That was the case in the third period last game. As the Flyers were put under pressure both within and attempting to exit the defensive zone, Philly's younger blueliners made a couple of costly miscues.
First, rookie defenseman Egor Zamula misplayed a one-on-one coverage and was beaten by Paul Cotter on the goal that tied the game at 2-2. Later, in the final minute of the third period, Cam York tried to do a little too much in attempting to stickhandle past two opponents in exiting the defensive zone. The resulting turnover started the sequence that ended in Shea Theodore's game-winning goal for Vegas.
For Thursday's game, these factors are in play: Will the Flyers' young D be able to bounce right back from what happened in the final stanza of last game? Can the Flyers collectively get back to strong five-man-unit play and spend more time being attackers rather than defenders?
On a related note: The Flyers have sent rookie defenseman Emil Andrae to the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms to get more ice time. With Rasmus Ristolainen (unspecified) and Marc Staal (upper body) on injured reserve, the Flyers have recalled Victore Mete and Louie Belpediio from Lehigh Valley.
A speedster with good puck-moving skills, the 25-year-old Mete has 247 games of NHL experience to his credit. He's coming off an injury-plagued 2022-23 season but has played well overall in five AHL games with the Phantoms so far this year.
The aggressive Belpedio, 27, spent the first four seasons of his pro career in the Wild organization after Minnesota drafted him the USNTDP/ Miami of Ohio University product in the third round of the 2014 NHL Draft. He's appeared in four NHL games, all with Minnesota. In the AHL, Belpedio plays a top-four role and is a power play regular in addition to bringing some feistiness.
3. Flyers power play vs. Wild PK
The Flyers only one had one bonafide and one very abbreviated power play in the Vegas game. Not much happened during the lone two-minute power play. All the same question marks the Flyers took into Vegas in terms of sparking the power play will carry over into their return home to play the Wild.
As noted before the Vegas game, the Flyers have shown some modest process-related improvement on the power play but they still need to generate better and more consistent shot opportunities and to get more pucks on net when there is such an opportunity.
The Flyers have not yet scored a goal on a 5-on-4 power play. Philly's lone power play marker so far was a 5-on-3 tally by Travis Konecny against Ottawa.
Last season, the Wild ranked in the top-one of the entire league -- 10th overall -- on the penalty kill with a PK success ratio of 82.0 percent. So far this year, the Wild's opponents are 4-for-19 on their power play; a PK rate of 79 percent (ranked 16th) for Minnesota. The Wild have scored a pair of shorthanded goals so far: one by Connor Dewar and one by Brandon Duhaime.
4. Flyers PK vs. Wild power play
Philadelphia's aggressive penalty killing style has been very effective so far. The Flyers enter Thursday's game tied for 10th in the NHL on the PK at 85% (17-for-20).
The Flyers have already racked up four shorthanded goals in the first two-plus weeks of the young season: two by Konecny and two by defenseman Sean Walker. In the Flyers' 5-4 overtime loss in Dallas, the team tied a single-game franchise record with three shorthanded goals.
It's just a six-game sample size and would be unsustainable for any team, but it's nevertheless notable that the Flyers are a net positive (4 GF to 3 GA) on their own penalty kills so far. In addition to the four pucks that have gone in for shorties, the Flyers have had a pair of shorthanded breakaways that did not result in goals. Scott Laughton as well as Konecny are particular threats to burn an opponent for a shorthanded goal, and both Sean Couturier and Atkinson can also step up for a shorthanded marker.
The Wild, who have yielded one shorthanded goal against thus far, are off to a so-so start on the power play so far. Minnesota has started out 4-for-23 (17.4 percent, ranked 16th) on the man advantage. Last season, the Wild ranked 15th at a 21.4 percent success rate on the power play.
5. Behind enemy lines: Minnesota Wild
The Wild will open a three-game road trip tonight in Philadelphia. It's the front end of a back-to-back set with a measuring-stick coming up on Friday in Newark against the New Jersey Devils. Overall, Thursday's game is the second game of a three-in-four set across three cities.
The Wild opened the season with a home 2-0 shutout win over the reigning Eastern Conference champion Florida Panthers, courtesy of a 41-save performance from Filip Gustavsson in net. Since that time, however, Minnesota has had a hard time keeping the puck out of their own net. In four of the last five games, the Wild have yielded four or more goals. The bright side for the Wild is that they've scored at least four goals in every game in that span.
Veteran center Mats Zuccarello, who started his NHL career on the New York Rangers under Tortorella, shares the early season scoring lead for Minnesota with Kirill Kaprisov and Joel Eriksson Ek. All three players have racked up nine points to date with Eriksson Ek collecting five goals and both Kaprizov and Zuccarello collecting seven assists apiece. Ex-Flyer Ryan Hartman, a 34-goal scorer for Minnesota two seasons ago before an injury-plagued 2022-23 campaign, has four goals so far on the young season.
Longtime Minnesota blueline fixture Matt Dumba is now a member of the Arizona Coyotes. But fellow veteran Jonas Brodin (1g, 5a, +6, 22:21 TOI average) is still there and remains a workhorse on the Wild's blueline.
In net, veteran Marc-Andre Fleury has struggled in two starts to date. Gustafsson has also had a rough time in three outings since his stellar opening-night shutout. It should noted, though, that the team play in front of the two goalies has left a lot to be desired.
The Wild have averaged nearly eight charged giveaways per game thus far and have had some egregious breakdowns.
