PHILADELPHIA – If the Flyers were going to play their first back-to-back common opponent games on the same sheet of ice in nearly five years, the last team they wanted to see would have to be Tampa Bay.
Philadelphia was set to play the Lightning on home ice on Saturday night and then quickly turn around and face the same opponent again at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Monday night.
Not much to worry about there unless you consider the fact Tampa had won eight straight games and moved back into serious contention in the Atlantic Division.
In case you’re wondering, the Flyers hadn’t done this same-foe for two straight games thing in the same building since May 3-4, 2021 against the Pittsburgh Penguins and that was mostly due to the COVID pandemic.
At Saturday morning’s pre-game skate, Garnet Hathaway discussed the challenge of taking on a powerhouse team twice in about 72 hours.
“There’s a mindset,” Hathaway offered at XMA. “You look at it like it’s a playoff series. This game (start) is going to make a big impact on the next 120 minutes. How we prepare now is going to get our feet rolling.
“They’re a really good team and we know that. We have respect for them. Our best hockey is when we’re aggressive.”
Coach Rick Tocchet knew the Flyers would have their hands full with a team which still has some big pieces on board from its pair of Stanley Cup championships.
“That top line (Nikita Kucherov, Brandon Point, Gage Goncalves) is hard to shut down,” Tocchet said. “You have to pay attention. You have to be aware of changes because they use the weak side a lot. So you have to be aware of what is behind you going on.
“It’s almost like chess. You got to read the play two moves ahead. Because that’s what they do, they put you in those situations. They’re one of the better weak-side teams in the league.”
>Injury update
Jamie Drysdale and Bobby Brink took part in the morning skate but were still out of the lineup. Drysdale is on IR and will not be playing in either Tampa game. Travis Konecny did not skate.
“Quite honestly, I think ‘Drys-y’ and Brink felt better today,” Tocchet said. “I think that’s a real good sign. TK (Konecny) felt a little bit better but not good enough to play.”
>Short shots
Matvei Michkov skated on a line with Trevor Zegras and Christian Dvorak at the morning skate. . .Prior to the game, defenseman Emil Andrae had his plus-minus stat up to plus-13, tops for D-men on the team and just three behind Noah Cates for the overall team lead. . .Samuel Ersson played in goal for the Flyers on Saturday night and he had only one victory (at Chicago on Dec. 23) since a win at Buffalo on Dec. 3. . .Going into Saturday night’s game, the Flyers ranked fourth in the NHL in shots allowed per game at 25.5. That wasn’t too far behind NHL leader Carolina (24.6). . .In the aforementioned bookend series with Pittsburgh, the Flyers took to home ice to win the first game by a 7-2 score and then returned to home ice and dropped the second game by a 7-3 margin.
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