Rick Tocchet’s Philadelphia Flyers (0-5-3) are in the Motor CIty on Thursday to play Todd McLellan’s Detroit Red Wings (1-3-2). The Flyers enter this game coming off their best overall performance of the young season, although Philly had to settle for one point in a 3-2 (2-1) shootout loss to the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday in Philly.
Game time at Little Caesars Arena is 7:30 p.m. ET. The game will be streamed on ESPN+, Hulu, and Disney+.
On Tuesday, third period goals from Christian Dvorak (2nd) and Trevor Zegras (1st) propelled the Flyers to a 2-2 tie after trailing by two goals entering the third period. Unfortunately, Matvei Michkov was the lone Flyer to convert his opportunity in the five-round shootout.
Detroit enters this match coming off a 0-0 tie through 65 minutes that turned into a shootout loss in Montreal on Saturday and then a 5-4 overtime home loss to the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday.
The Flyers hope to start getting some healthy defensemen back in the lineup in upcoming days. However, Cam York will miss his fourth game while Rasmus Ristolainen will miss his fifth. Neither player made the trip to Detroit. Young defensemen Oliver Bonk and David Jiricek have stepped into the starting lineup.
Meanwhile, the injured Travis Konecny still leads the team in scoring with three points (0g, 3a) despite missing the past two games. Michkov and Dvorak are the only Philadelphia players with more than one goal on the season to date.
Here are the RAV4 Things to watch on Thursday evening.
1. Score First
The Flyers have yielded the game’s first goal in seven of the eight games played to date. Philly needs to start quicker. The Flyers have been outscored by a 7-2 margin in first periods this season. That’s put them in trouble in the majority of the games to date.
In terms of goals by period, the Flyers have also been outscored in second (10-4) and third (11-4) periods.
2. Special Teams
Michkov and Porter Martone are the only Flyers players to score a power play goal this season. Overall, the club is 2-for-24 (8.3 percent). They rank 31st in the NHL. Detroit is 4-for-20 so far (20 percent).
The Flyers penalty kill has been a bright spot over the past week following a rough start. Overall they are 25-for-31 (80.6 percent, ranked 16th). The Red Wings, meanwhile, are 14-for-21 (66.7 percent, ranked 28th).
3. Attention to Detail
Whether it’s been a careless turnover, a missed offensive or defensive read, or things such as line change execution, the Flyers have hurt themselves with avoidable errors. Many have ended up in their net.
Detroit has been in the same boat, which has contributed to why McLellan’s team has just one win of their own. Plain and simple, the team is cleaner with the puck and makes fewer unforced errors will likely win this game. Neither team is outscoring its mistakes.
4. Trevor Zegras
By leaps and bounds, Zegras played his best game of the season in the Seattle match; not just because of the goal itself. He was around the puck most of the night and a feisty emotional catalyst for the team. It’s something from which Zegras needs to build and the team itself should emulate.
