The Chicago Blackhawks continue their three-game road trip with a stop in Philadelphia to face the Flyers on Saturday night.
The Flyers surprised many by being a playoff quality team this season, but a recent three-game skid is happening at the worst time possible for them in trying to secure the best place in the standings possible for the postseason. They currently sit third in the Metropolitan by points (82), but the Washington Capitals sit one point back with two games in hand. There are other challengers for wild card spots, too: the Detroit Red Wings are four points back with a game in hand and the New York Islanders are five points back with two games in hand. With around 8 to 10 games left, it seems unlikely either of those two teams can make the jump over Philadelphia, but it will depend on whether or not the Flyers can stop their current slide in time. Either way, there is definitely some urgency for the Flyers as they face the Blackhawks on Saturday.
It’s important to note that the Flyers have still been playing some pretty good hockey during their recent losses, owning 62.64 percent of the shot attempts and 65.19 percent of the expected goals at 5-on-5. And most impressively, they owned a majority share in all but one of the nine periods in those shot categories, so score effects wasn’t the driving force behind those numbers — the Flyers just dominated puck possession, quantity and quality. Instead, it was seemingly small breakdowns, bad goaltending (all three games below .900 save-percentage, two below .800), and bad luck. The breakdowns were especially apparent on the penalty kill, where they had two goals scored against them shorthanded while the bad luck (despite being a top-three PK) stemmed from having three goals go into the Flyers’ net after deflecting off of Flyers players. Officialls also disallowed three Philadelphia goals that would have helped swing momentum for the orange team, so talk about a streak of everything just working against them.
In terms of players, Travis Konecny still has the team lead in points firmly in hand with 64 (31 G, 33 A) in 68 games. After him, there are six players with 0.5 points-per-game or better on the roster: forwards Owen Tippett (0.70), Joel Farabee (0.66), Morgan Frost (0.63), Sean Couturier (0.53), and Scott Laughton (0.5) as well as defenseman Travis Sanheim (0.56). The team offense is a lackluster 2.89 goals per game (24th in the league), but they’ve been able to score by committee and control the puck defensively enough to be one of the better teams overall in the East.
The biggest issue — as noted above — is the goaltending. They have the fifth worst save percentage at 5-on-5 at just .899 and fourth worst in all situations with .888. The Flyers were so desperate for help in net that they brought over Ivan Fedotov from Russia on Friday, a 27-year-old goalie who has never played in North America. Now, he could be their savior — he most recently went 21-22-1 with a 2.37 GAA and .914 save percentage in 44 regular-season games for CSKA in the KHL — but it’s a major gamble on a guy who’s never played on smaller ice.
However, it’s Samuel Ersson, who has been their primary starter this season and has just a .895 save percentage in 44 games, who will start against the Blackhawks Saturday:
Additionally, Nick Seeler will be back in the lineup after missing a few weeks with a lower-body injury. Otherwise, there’s nothing much different than the lineup that lost 4-1 to the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday:
As for the Blackhawks, things have been a bit more positive as the schedule softened lately and they’ve won five of their last 10 games, the best win percentage they’ve had all season. Some fans will be upset at the recent surge (if you can call it that), especially as three of those victories came against the San Jose Sharks and Anaheim Ducks, two teams the Blackhawks are battling for the best odds in the Race to the Lottery. And that’s understandable when some of those wins weren’t particularly good performances, so they felt very much for naught — but there’s no use worrying about it now when the Blackhawks are seven points up on the Sharks with less than 10 games remaining. Their fate will be their fate at this point.
Also, seeing a lackluster win is still better than seeing a lackluster loss, like the one the Blackhawks suffered most recently against the Ottawa Senators. That 2-0 affair was the 12th time this season the Blackhawks were shut out and the 30th time they’ve scored one or fewer goals. It was also tied for the fourth lowest shots on goal and he fifth lowest expected goals generation by the Blackhawks this season.
The Blackhawks aren’t expected to change the lineup much from the one they rolled with in Ottawa. The only known change will be Jarred Tinordi in for Nikita Zaitsev, the latter of which left Thursday’s game after the first period with what coach Luke Richardson described as “as the combination of an illness and a nagging upper-body injury. “Not good enough to compete in the NHL tonight.”
Arvid Soderblom will start in net.
For those on Frank Nazar Watch, he and Michigan beat North Dakota 4-3 on Friday night and will face Michigan State in the Regional Final on Sunday — and Nazar scored the opening goal for Michigan in the win over UND. It’s still unknown if Nazar will sign with the Blackhawks after the conclusion of his sophomore season, but that decision could be known early next week if the Wolverines lose on Sunday.
Tale of the Tape
Blackhawks — Statistic — Flyers
44.49% (31st) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 51.53% (10th)
43.20% (31st) — 5-on-5 Expected goals for — 52.31% (9th)
2.18 (t-32nd) — Goals per game — 2.89 (24th)
3.53 (29th) — Goals against per game — 3.07 (17th)
46.5% (29th) — Faceoffs — 49.4% (T-20th)
16.1% (28th) — Power play — 13.2% (32nd)
77.3% (22nd) — Penalty kill — 83.8% (3rd)
How to Watch
When: 6 p.m. CT
Where: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia
TV: NBC Sports Chicago
Webstream: NBC Sports App
Radio: WGN 720