Rinse & Repeat

Tuesday night’s game against the Devils was a big deal. Claude Giroux became the longest-tenured captain in Flyers history. Jakub Voracek earned his 400th assist as a Flyer. Shayne Gostisbehere made his season debut. And Philadelphia handed New Jersey a loss, bouncing back effectively after last weekend’s awful games against Boston. The question now is: can they do it again?

Last game (January 26, 2021): PHI 5  NJD 3  F

For a complete game recap: Flyers – Devils: Ghost Sighting

Players to Watch

• Carter Hart
  The young star Flyers goaltender had a rough night on Saturday, leaving him visibly taking out his frustrations as he left the ice. He’s cooled off, apologized, and even taken some ribbing from his teammates about it since then. Tonight is his chance to show he can shake it off and backstop this team to a win, in the face of adversity.
• Mark Friedman
  On Wednesday, Alain Vigneault admitted that he has higher expectations of Friedman than he’s seen thus far, stating he needs to see more “urgency” from the defenseman’s game. With Philippe Myers seemingly on his way back from injury soon, Friedman will need to show that he can step up and perform the way his coach and his team need him to.
• Connor Bunnaman
  If you watched Bunnaman on Tuesday night, you saw a young forward who is not afraid to get his nose dirty. Although he didn’t register a point and only had one shot on goal, his compete level was top-notch. He goes hard to the net and battles fiercely along the boards. He could have a break-out moment any day now.

Keys to Victory

• Stop Chasing
  The Flyers did a better job of puck possession in the neutral zone, but still struggled to maintain offensive zone pressure and found themselves chasing the play way too much. Build on the decent NZ play, and don’t get pinned in the defensive zone.
• Play Simple
  The third line had some good moments on Tuesday, and those were typically during the shifts where they played simple hockey. The Flyers work best when they don’t try to do too much, so if they can simplify their game and rely on the system they should be rewarded.
• Get Net-Front
  There’s no question that a solid net-front presence is a necessity these days. Both power play goals in the last game were a result of deflections at the goal mouth. Bunnaman came very close to a goal of his own during a scramble near the crease. Philadelphia needs to keep doing that, and then do it some more.

2020-21 statistics

• “He’s everything. Without him, this ship doesn’t go anywhere.”

Alain Vigneault on Philippe Myers

• “He came to see me today. He’s feeling better and wants to play. After watching him today, I don’t think he’s quite there yet but he’s real close. He wants to get back in the lineup and help his team.”

Bottom Line

Hart needs to have a strong night in net, Philadelphia needs to control the puck more, and if they can’t stay out of the box, the power play units need to keep stepping up. If they can do that, contain Bratt, and put pucks on Scott Wedgewood, the Flyers have a good chance of handing New Jersey their first back-to-back loss this season.