Are the Blackhawks on the verge of another losing streak or is the return of Connor Bedard going to spark a stretch of better results? All that and more to be answered on Wednesday night at the United Center when Chicago hosts the Philadelphia Flyers.
Last season, Philadelphia was with Chicago down in the NHL’s basement on the path towards Bedard, a journey which was only successful for one of those franchises. But the Flyers are a much, much different story this season as they’re firmly entrenched in a playoff position with a 29-20-7 record, good for 65 points and third place in the Metropolitan Division — a five-point lead over both the New York Islanders and New Jersey Devils, although those two teams do own a game in hand.
It’s a fairly young core of players leading this turnaround, too. Travis Konecny turns 27 next month and has a team-high 53 points (26 G, 27 A) in 56 games, ahead of 42 (17 G, 25 A) in 56 from 23-year-old Joel Farabee, who’s already set a new career-high in points with that amount. Third is Owen Tippett with 35 points (21 G, 14 A), who turned 25 last Friday. The team’s also benefitted from a healthy Sean Couturier, who was awarded the “C” one week ago. Couturier missed all of the ’22-23 season with a back injury but has played in 52 already this season, again looking like one of the top defensive forwards in the game.
Speaking of defense, there’s youth on this blue line as well. The ice time leaders are 27-year-old Travis Sanheim (23:51) and 23-year-old Cam York (21:44), with 21-year-old Jamie Drysdale (19:06) working his way up the list since being traded to Philadelphia from Anaheim. The goaltending position is a bit murkier, with Carter Hart named in the lawsuit against Canada’s 2018 World Junior Team, which would seemingly mean the end of his Flyers’ tenure. Samuel Ersson, a 2018 fifth-round pick by the Flyers, has taken over the No. 1 reins in his first full season and has posted roughly average-at-best marks with a 15-10-4 record, .898 save percentage and 2.64 goals-against average. He’s just 24 as well, though, so there could be room for improvement there.
The long-term question with this team is whether or not it will have the top-end talent necessary to be considered a true contender in future seasons. They do have Matvei Michkov in the system — the 2023 No. 7 overall pick — but he’s several years away from leaving Russia and cannot do all of this heavy lifting by himself. Where the Flyers find other key contributors will be interesting to watch because their current spot in the NHL standings will make it difficult to do so through the draft. In the present, though, this is an extremely difficult team to play against which is going to work hard as hell for every inch of the ice — a reflection of their demanding coach. Philly has above average possession numbers and the No. 2 penalty kill in the league, part of the factors that will make them a formidable challenge for these Blackhawks.
The Flyers are riding the hockey roller coaster of late, though, winning five in a row, then losing five in a row, then winning four in a row and now losing their last two, including a 6-3 loss to the Devils in a Stadium Series game on Sunday.
Here were the Flyers’ lines at Tuesday’s practice:
As for the Blackhawks, errant pucks have suddenly become the biggest problem. One hit Louis Crevier in the mouth at Tuesday’s practice, sending him to the dentist. Then, at Wednesday’s morning skate, another caught Seth Jones up high — although he appears to be OK.
Jones is expected to play as is Isaak Phillips, who’ll replace the aforementioned Crevier. Petr Mrazek will get the night off after facing a deluge of shots against the Carolina Hurricanes on Monday night:
Other than those changes above, the lineup will probably be awfully similar to what skated in that aforementioned game against the Hurricanes on Monday night:
Two other items of note to mention: Andreas Athanasiou continues skating and seems to be progressing towards a return from the groin injury that’s kept him out since early November, while Zach Sanford was placed on waivers on Tuesday afternoon with word coming later in the day on whether or not he’ll clear.
Oh, and Bedard’s still back. So that’s cool.
Let’s go Hawks.
Tale of the Tape
Blackhawks — Statistic — Flyers
43.83% (31st) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 51.01% (13th)
42.01% (32nd) — 5-on-5 Expected goals for — 51.75% (9th)
2.09 (t-31st) — Goals per game — 2.91 (t-22nd)
3.54 (29th) — Goals against per game — 2.91 (12th)
45.7% (31st) — Faceoffs — 49.1% (t-21st)
13.1% (32nd) — Power play — 13.3% (31st)
77.5% (23rd) — Penalty kill — 86.4% (2nd)
How to watch
When: 6:30 p.m. CT
Where: United Center, Chicago, IL
TV: TNT
Webstream: Max
Radio: WGN 720