Wrapping up a five-game road trip, John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (29-35-9) are in Ontario on Tuesday night to take on Craig Berube's Toronto Maple Leafs (42-25-3). Game time at Scotiabank Arena is 7:00 p.m. EDT.
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 third and final meeting of the season series between the Flyers and Maple Leafs and the second game in Toronto. The Flyers are 0-1-1 against the Leafs this season: 3-2 road overtime loss at Scotiabank Arena on Jan. 5 and a 3-2 regulation loss at Wells Fargo Center two nights later in the back half of the home-and-home set.
Coming off a 7-4 loss in Chicago on Sunday afternoon, the Flyers are 0-3-1 on the current road trip and 1-9-1 over their last 11 games. On Tuesday, the Flyers will try to salvage a win to conclude the road swing.
The Maple Leafs, 5-5-1 through their first 11 games in March, won three games in a row last week before suffering a 5-2 road loss on Saturday against the struggling Nashville Predators. Toronto is in second place in the Atlantic Division. Currently, Berube's team is working toward securing home ice advantage in a probable first-round playoff series with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Here are the RAV4 Things to watch on Tuesday plus an x-factor heading into the game.
1. Sarge on the other side
There has been a more subdued atmosphere in the Flyers' dressing room since the NHL trade deadline. The team is still adjusting to the departure of longtime team leader Scott Laughton -- arguably the most unifying presence among the players themselves -- in the March 7 trade that sent Laughton to Toronto for prospect Nikita Grebenkin and a 2027 first-round draft pick.
Laughton is still in an adjustment period himself with his new club. He's dressed in eight games to date, splitting time between center and left wing while averaging 12:32 of ice time. He will look for his first point as a Maple Leaf on Tuesday against the Flyers.
Most recently, Laughton has been skating the left wing of a line with Maxi Domi and Nicholas Robertson. "Sarge" has also been part of Toronto's penalty killing rotation, paired with Matthew Knies. Laughton and Knies will try to capture the sort of "power kill" chemistry that Travis Konecny had with Laughton for several seasons.
Prior to Tuesday's game, it will be a little strange for Laughton and the Flyers' player to see each other on the opposite side of the ice. Once the puck drops, it'll be business as usual until there's time to chat after the game. That's just the nature of pro sports.
In a game against the Calgary Flames last week, Laughton found himself paired off with former longtime Flyers teammate Joel Farabee during a post-whistle scrum between the two teams. There was no animosity or altercation between the two players but it was a reminder that they're wearing different crests now.
2. TK tries for three
Travis Konecny broke a goal-scoring drought on Saturday in Dallas that had lasted since just before the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament. In Chicago on Sunday, Konecny made it back-to-back games in which he's tallied.
Entering Tuesday's tilt, Konecny leads the Flyers in scoring with 68 points (24 goals, 44 assists) in 72 games. The Flyers have 10 games remaining in their 2024-25 schedule.
3. 20 for Tippett?
Owen Tippett recorded 27 goals (49 points) in his first full season as a Flyer in 2022-23. He followed it up with 28 tallies (53 points) last year. This season, Tippett remains one goal away from his third straight 20-plus goal season with the Orange and Black.
Tippett is a streaky scorer, tending to rattle off multi-game goal binges but also prone to somewhat lengthy droughts. Currently, Tippett is among the Philadelphia players mired in a slump: one point (0g, 1a) in the last eight games, one goal (two points) in the last 13 games.
During Saturday's game in Dallas, Tippett was moved down to the fourth line during the latter part of the match and did not skate a shift in crunch time (8:31 of total ice time). He also started Sunday's game in Chicago on the fourth line before being moved back up (12:38 ice time across 16 shifts, two shots on goal, minus-one at even strength).
Hockey confidence is fickle. As with Konecny until this past weekend, Tippett just needs for one puck to go in for him -- snipe, deflection off an opponent, bounce off his shinpad, solo effort powering to the net, or anything in between -- to relax and start to recoup his game. Get his 20th goal of the season out of the way and then work toward a strong finish.
4. Flyers power play drought
The stats aren't pretty but cannot be ignored. The Flyers are 0-for-30 on the power play in March. They've dropped to 30th in the NHL in power play ranking (13.8 percent).
The 2024-25 season started out promisingly with the Flyers going 8-for-34 (23.5 percent) on the man advantage during the first eight games of the season to start out in the top one-third of the league after ranking 32nd in each of the three previous seasons. Unfortunately, over the Flyers last 64 games, the Flyers' power play is 11.4 percent (18-for-158).
X-factor Between the pipes
Samuel Ersson made 15 saves on 15 shots over the final 40 minutes of regulation in Dallas on Sunday after replacing Ivan Fedotov at the start of the second period. A puckhandling miscue by Ersson resulted in an overtime goal for the Stars in the opening nine seconds of sudden death.
Ersson backed up Fedotov in Sunday's game in Chicago. On Tuesday, the Swedish goalie could get his first start since the March 20 game in Washington.
