On Tuesday, the Edmonton Oilers blanked the Philadelphia Flyers. Lacking offensive zone pressure and being unable to convert on the powerplay buried an otherwise solid effort. Carter Hart played well, citing a good play by Leon Draisaitl for the game-winner:
“He waited for our guy to skate in front of me as a screen and shot to the far side. It was a good play by him.”
Carter Hart; 3/1/2022
Tonight, the Flyers host the Minnesota Wild. Faceoff is at 7pm.
Let’s take a look at the two franchises going head-to-head:
Minnesota Wild (31-17-3; 65pts)
The Wild will be without Matt Dumba (lower body) and Jordan Greenway (upper body.) If Minnesota wants Claude Giroux, you know Chuck Fletcher and Daniel Briere will be paying close attention to Calen Addison and Matthew Boldy.
Here’s the projected lineup for the Wild:
Kaprizov-Hartman-Zuccarello
Fiala-Gaudreau-Boldy
Duhaime-Eriksson Ek-Foligno
Dewar-Sturm-Bjugstad
Goligoski-Spurgeon
Brodin-Kulikov
Merrill-Addison
Talbot
(Kahkonen)
Cam Talbot (19-12-1, 90.8%SV, 2.98GAA) will start. Talbot allowed four goals on Tuesday to the Calgary Flames. He’s 4-3-1 in his career against the Philadelphia Flyers, with a 94%SV and 1.88GAA.
Kirill Kaprizov (24G, 40A) is a sight to behold. He’ll lace his skates for the first time at the Wells Fargo Center. Debuting last season, he’s never played against the Flyers. He’s an incredible talent and, on a fundamental level, deserves the player spotlight ahead of his NHL game against Philadelphia.
A Philadelphia Fly-By
Though they skated yesterday, Wade Allison (MCL,) Nate Thompson (shoulder,) and Kevin Hayes (lower body) remain out of the lineup with Sean Couturier (back) and Ryan Ellis (lower body.) Max Willman re-enters the lineup over Isaac Ratcliffe, who played a team-low 6:09 versus the Edmonton Oilers.
Here’s the projected lineup for the Philadelphia Flyers:
Farabee-Giroux-Atkinson
Lindblom-Laughton-Konecny
van Riemsdyk-Brassard-Mayhew
Willman-Brown-MacEwen
Provorov-Braun
Sanheim-Ristolainen
Yandle-Seeler
Hart
(Jones)
Hart (10-17-6, 91.2%SV, 2.87GAA) will start tonight versus the Minnesota Wild. In his career, he’s 1-1-0 with an 89.2%SV and 3.53GAA versus the Wild. The story all season with Hart is that his record doesn’t reflect his numbers.
Giroux (17G, 22A) will go head to head with Kaprizov. Tonight writes itself for any spotlight around the Flyers’ captain. Minnesota could be interested in making a play for him at the trade deadline. If Giroux has an impactful performance tonight, it’s sunny in Philadelphia.
Props/Predictions
Tonight, the over/under is 6.5, and the Philadelphia Flyers are +170, per DraftKings. I would not take the Flyers moneyline and would bet the under.
Philadelphia has an outside chance to win if they can be opportunistic. They cannot continue to strike out with a 5v3 advantage. If the Flyers can possess the puck in the offensive zone at their pace, they’ll compete versus the Minnesota Wild.
Flyers 2, Wild 3
(Photo by Kyle Ross/Icon Sportswire)
