On Monday night, they'll face the Vegas Golden Knights, who are first in the Pacific Division. The Blue Jackets come to town on Thursday night in a game that could loom big for both teams. The Flyers end their week with a visit to Carolina on St. Patrick's Day.
The Flyers need to get off to a fast start against the Golden Knights tonight. They should set the tone early and be prepared to play with some energy from the beginning of the game. Philadelphia will want to establish the forecheck and cycle game early to get sustained offensive zone pressure to get some pucks on net and scoring chances. Petr Mrazek needs to have a stellar game and make saves. The Flyers should keep an eye on Jonathan Marchessault and William Karlson since they are the two top point producers for Vegas.
Vegas should get plenty of shots on goal in this game and test the Flyers goalie early, who has been inconsistent the past few games. The Golden Knights need to get the first goal of the game to take the home crowd out of the game. Vegas should try to win the battle of special teams with some power play goals. The Golden Knights want to play a solid road game and keep an eye on the Flyers top line since they have been playing well since being put together.
The Orange and Black will host the Blue Jackets on Thursday night and expect this game to be a close one. The Flyers need to be discipline because they have a poor penalty kill. The team is going to need to limit their mistakes and watch out for the speed of the Blue Jackets. Philly will need to get a ton of traffic around the front of the net for screens and deflections. The goaltending for the Flyers will need to come up big since Columbus has been playing good hockey of late and averages 34 shots per game.
Columbus will also want to play with some discipline even with the Flyers power play struggling of late. The Blue Jackets should try to win the special teams battle since the teams are both decent at even strength hockey. Columbus needs to get off to a fast start and get a goal early or make a play that gets the team energized. The Blue Jackets will want to have the lead after two periods since they are a much better team when leading heading into the third period then when trailing. Columbus should know where Claude Giroux and Jake Voracek are on the ice at all times ice since they have decent career numbers against them.
The Flyers end the week with another divisional foe in the Carolina Hurricanes. Philly needs to get the first goal of the game to take the home crowd out of the game. The Orange and Black want to play a solid road game and not make it easy for the Canes to do whatever they want on the ice. The Flyers need to win the battle at even strength since the opposition has outscored the Hurricanes 142-118 at even strength play this year; The Flyers will need to keep an eye on Jeff Skinner and Justin Williams since those two have not been kind to the Flyers in their careers.
The Hurricanes will want to play a team defense game with the forwards helping out. Carolina needs to get a good game from the starting goaltender. The Canes need to get the first goal of the game and keep attacking and not sit back. The Hurricanes should avoid the penalty box at all costs since their penalty kill has been an area of concern this season. Carolina will need to be aware of then defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere is on the ice since he has 10 points in 11 career games played against them.
No comments:
Post a Comment