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The Flyers are red-hot, as they are 3-0-1 in their last four outings. They have beaten some good teams, as well, to include the Pittsburgh Penguins, and the Colorado Avalanche. The Detroit Red Wings, the NHL’s worst team, and front runners (At the moment depending on the ping-pong balls) to land Alexis Lafrenière with the top pick at the 2020 NHL Draft stand in the Flyers way tonight.
Yes, the Red Wings only have 28 points on the season, but what the team has is pride. They still have some guys that know how to score with the likes of Dylan Larkin, Todd Bertuzzi, Anthony Mantha, Andreas Athanasiou, and Valtteri Filppula. The Flyers just have to play their game, and come out of the gate strong.
It’s no secret the Flyers have been bad on the road this season. They are just a completely different team, at times, away from the Wells Fargo Center, as they own a 10-13-3 road record. Surely not anything to write home about. Sometimes it takes a period, or a period and a half for the Flyers to get their feet underneath them. What this does it places them behind the eight ball more often than not. One key for the Flyers in tonight’s game is getting off to a fast start, and don’t let things spiral out of control if things go South at one point.
Joel Farabee is just on fire (7g,11a on the season), and has four goals, and two assists in his last five games played. He almost had a hat trick this past Saturday night against the Avalanche. Farabee has beaten the “Rookie Wall” and for his efforts has been moved up to the second line with Sean Couturier and Jake Voracek. This young man is just so talented, and he is playing with so much confidence right now.
Voracek has been one of the Flyers best defensive forwards for the past few months, of course, Couturier is amazing, but Voracek has played well defensively since around the middle of November. Voracek also has three goals, and three assists in his last seven games played. Couturier is elite, and has been playing like a Selke Trophy winner all year. He puts his team on his back, like Couturier did against the Avalanche this past Saturday, where he tallied three assists.
All in all this victory lies with Brian Elliott. The “Moose” should be able to stand strong between the pipes tonight for the orange and black. He has one win on Monday games this year, and this one should be his second. The Flyers just have to remain focused at the task at hand to not fall victim in a trap game.
Flyers Notes:
Shayne Gostisbehere will not return to the lineup tonight. Target date is Thursday.
Expected Flyers lines and D pairings:
JVR-Giroux-Konecny
Farabee-Couturier-Voracek
Laughton-Hayes-Pitlick
Raffl-Bunnaman-NAK
Provorov-Niskanen
Sanheim-Myers
Hagg-Braun
Elliott
(Lyon)
