Philadelphia enters tonight’s matchup coming off a weekend sweep of New Jersey & Washington. The Flyers look to continue their hot start to the second half and extend their win streak to 4 games.
Detroit enters tonight’s matchup coming off a big road win in New Jersey last night. The Red Wings look to build off last nights win after a stretch of winning only once in five games.
Flyers Lineup (Projected 1/22)
Giroux – Couturier – Konecny
Raffl – Filppula – Voracek
Weal – Patrick – Simmonds
Lehtera – Laughton – Goulbourne
Provorov – Gostisbehere
Hagg – MacDonald
Manning – Gudas
Neuvirth / Elliott
Whose The Flyers Workhorse Now?
With the Flyers original workhorse struggling lately, the Flyers have used another face as of late. That guy is Michal Neuvirth.
Since returning from injury, Michal Neuvirth has been on a hot streak. Neuvirth, in 3 starts since returning, is 3-0-0 with a 1.33 GAA & .956 %.
Brian Elliott, the Flyers workhorse, hasn’t been playing good hockey as of late. Elliott, in 8 starts since Neuvirth returned, is 5-3-0 with 3.25 GAA & .861 %. In those 8 starts, Elliott has been pulled twice.
So, the question arises, who should the Flyers rely on now? The answer to that question is the reason the Flyers have both Elliott and Neuvirth.
With the Flyers having two NHL caliber starters, they have to ride the one thats hot. The Flyers vision for this season was a 1A / 1B situation with Neuvirth and Elliott.
Now, with both guys healthy, the Flyers should do just that. Therefore, if you have watched coach Dave Hakstol in his time in the NHL, he has a track record of playing the hot hand till he dies off.
Therefore, with Neuvirth playing well lately, he should be the Flyers workhorse. At least till he has a rough patch.
Power-Play Has To Break Out Soon, Right?
For the 4th game in a row, the Flyers power-play has been shut-out. After a stretch that saw the Flyers going 7 for 13, they have followed it up by going 0 for 12.
However, in the Flyers last game, they showed great progress to fixing this problem.
The Flyers went 0 for 3 in the game against Washington. But, the power-play’s had better movement and better scoring opportunities. Also, the Flyers went back to the 4-1 formation instead of a 3-2 formation on the 2nd unit.
During the last Flyers power-play against the Devils on Saturday, the Flyers put Travis Konecny on the 2nd unit instead of Brandon Manning. A move that has been long called for by Flyers fans with Konecny’s recent spike in play.
Tonight, the Flyers will have a chance to break out of this slump against the 23rd ranked PK unit in the league. When these teams met in Philadelphia back on 12/20, the Flyers went 1 for 1. Just 45 seconds into the power-play, Simmonds scored off of a tic-tac-toe passing display from Giroux to Voracek to Simmonds.
Travis Sanheim To The Phantoms
The saga of rookie Travis Sanheim has a new chapter. On Friday, during the Flyers practice, GM Ron Hextall said something will happen with Travis Sanheim soon.
“Something will break here at some point with Travis.” GM Ron Hextall said Friday during practice.
Yesterday, the Flyers sent Travis Sanheim to the Phantoms to get some playing time. It was a move that shocked some Flyers fans, but it was needed. Sanheim needs to play games and him sitting in the press box isn’t helping his development.
With Sanheim going down, the Flyers needed to make a move to get a 7th defenseman. They recalled Mark Alt to take Sanheim’s spot on the roster.
Game 48 – Detroit Red Wings, Detroit MI, 7:30pm NBCSports Philadelphia
Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports
