John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (12-12-4) are in Ohio on Tuesday night to take on Dean Evason's Columbus Blue Jackets (12-12-3). Game time at Nationwide Arena is 7:00 p.m. EST.
The game will be televised on NBCSP. The radio broadcast is on 97.5 The Fanatic with an online simulcast on Flyers Radio 24/7.
This is the first of four meetings this season between the two Metropolitan Division clubs. The Flyers and Blue Jackets will play on Dec. 21 (Wells Fargo Center), January 14 (Nationwide Arena), and April 15 (Wells Fargo Center).
After rattling off a 4-0-1 run to conclude the November portion of the schedule, the Flyers have started December winless (0-2-1) through their first three games. On Sunday, the Flyers slogged through a 4-2 home loss at the hands of the Utah Hockey Club.
The Blue Jackets have already played five matches in December, going 2-3-0 thus far. Tuesday's tilt is the team's fifth match in eight nights and marks the start of a three-game homestand. Columbus is coming off an impressive performance on Sunday in a 4-1 road victory over the Winnipeg Jets. Kent Johnson tallied two goals, while goalie Elvis Merzlikins turned aside 24 of 25 shots on net.
Here are five things to watch in Tuesday's game:
1. Tippett heating up
When the Flyers hosted the New York Rangers on Black Friday, left winger Owen Tippett played with a lot of energy but had a rough afternoon. Pucks bounced on him. He also uncharacteristically fell down three times on plays where he had room to turn and attack with pace.
Just below the surface, the streaky forward appeared to be getting close to a breakout. For Tippett, the Black Friday game was the hockey equivalent of a slumping baseball player who is right on several pitches but smashing the ball foul rather than in play.
The very next night in St. Louis, Tippett scored a goal. Since then, he's tallied three more times -- four goals in his last four games -- and has been clicking in particular with linemate Matvei Michkov (three goals, five assists, eight points in his last four games).
Now that his fortunes have turned, Tippett is getting favorable bounces. For example, in the recent game against the Florida Panthers, he scored two goals on the same shift. The latter was a broken play in which Tippett attempted to make a cross-seam pass near the net. The pass attempt was broken up but the puck went right back to Tippett, who deposited it in the net.
2. Redemption for Frost?
The third player on the line with Tippett and Michkov, center Morgan Frost, is currently right about where Tippett was on Black Friday. Very little seems to be going his way but, if you look below the surface, he seems to be on the cusp of a breakout.
On Sunday, Frost had one of the most unfortunate plays of his NHL career. WIth the Flyers on a third period power play, trailing 3-2, the second unit was on the ice. Defenseman Jamie Drysdale left a drop pass for Frost to carry up the ice. However, Frost overskated the puck. Utah's Kevin Stenlund grabbed the puck, moved in and scored an insurance goal.
Tortorella sent Frost right back out on the ice. After the game, the head coach noted that the gaffe was a fluky play and that Frost -- who had three shots on goal, provided a screen on Tipppet's tally, and won 60 percent of his faceoff (12-for-20) in 16:24 of ice time -- played a good game overall.
After a stretch of being scratched, Frost has generally played well since returning to the lineup. He had a stretch of four points (2g, 2a) in five games. The points didn't come over the last three games but he's been involved on the front end in several Flyers goals and has been responsible defensively on his otherwise offense-oriented line.
For whatever reason, Frost has been a chronic slow starter the last few seasons. He has found grooves later in seasons.
In 2022-23, after struggling the first two months, Frost led the Flyers in assists (24) and points (40 in 56 games) over the latter two-thirds of the season. Last season, after being scratched on occasion, he led the Flyers in assists (22) and was three points (33 to 30) behind Travis Konecny for the team lead over the season's final 44 games.
The hopes that Frost would put it all together for the complete 2024-25 season have not played out. However, there is still two-thirds of the season left to be played and no reason why Frost -- in combination with Michkov and Tippet -- cannot surge in similar fashion to both of the previous two campaigns.
3. Building blocks for Drysdale
Drysdale, after a prolonged stint on Injured Reserve, returned to the Flyers lineup on Sunday against Utah. He looked understandably rusty early in the game, but settled in as the match moved along.
In the third period, Drysdale scored an apparent game-tying goal in the third period. Upon a coach's challenge by Utah's Andre Tourigny, the goal was disallowed due to goaltender interference by Konecny in the blue paint.
Nonetheless, Sunday's game was one from which Drysdale can potentially build his way toward finding a groove. For the season, the offensive minded defenseman has played in 16 games (1g, 2a, 3 points, -9). Moving forward, assistant coach Brad Shaw and bench boss Tortorella want to see Drysdale be assertive in using his legs to jump into the play and effective in his body and stick positioning defensively.
4. Flyers special teams
The Flyers penalty kill, which was such a core strength last season as well as the first quarter of the current campaign, has been in a funk lately. The PK has allowed at least one goal in each of the last four games, with a 1-for-5 showing against Florida representing the roughest PKing performance since the pandemic.
On the power play side, the Flyers have slowly started to work their way back to respectability after a swoon from the ninth game of the 2024-25 season until this past week.
The Blue Jackets have struggled on the penalty kill this season, ranking 30th leaguewide (71.6 percent). The Flyers power play ranks tied with the LA Kings for 27th leaguewide (16.9 percent). Columbus' power play ranks tied for 24th with the Dallas Stars (17.4 percent). Philly's PK, which had been 2nd leaguewide through Thanksgiving, has tumbled to 13th (80.5 percent).
5. Behind enemy lines: Werenski and Provorov
The Blue Jackets rely heavily on defenseman Zach Werenski to generate offense, whether by triggering the rush on breakouts, running point on the power play, or jumping into the play on the pinch. Overall, the 27-year-old blueliner leads Columbus with 28 points (8g, 20a, +9) while logging 26:10 of ice time on average.
Former Flyers defenseman and fellow 2015 first-round pick Ivan Provorov, plays a slightly different role in Columbus than he did during his years with the Flyers. In Philly, he was the team's primary all-situations blueliner. He still logs a lot of ice time (23:18 on average, second power play unit, first PK group) but is relied on a bit less offensively because Werenski is the No. 1 offensive trigger. Provorov has posted 10 points (1g, 9a).
