Looking for their first win in January, John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (17-20-5) will host Greg Cronin's Anaheim Ducks (17-19-5) on Saturday evening. Game time at Wells Fargo Center 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.
Saturday's game is the second and final meeting of the season between the Flyers and Ducks. In Anaheim on December 28, goals by Noah Cates, Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee (empty net) elevated the Flyers to a 3-1 win. However, in that game, the Flyers did not play particularly well until the third period. The contest was up for grabs until Farabee exited the penalty box to steal the puck and tally the empty netter at 17:40 of the third period.
The Flyers went 2-2-1 during their post holiday break road trip. Since that time, the Flyers played well overall but suffered a 3-2 home loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs. That was followed by a poor performance on Thursday in a 4-1 home loss to the Dallas Stars. Dallas picked the Flyers apart in transition to build a 3-0 lead before tacking on a late empty net goal with the Flyers trying to get back within one goal.
The Ducks, meanwhile, have fared a bit better (4-2-1) since their post-Christmas home game against the Flyers. Anaheim had a three-game winning streak immediately following the Flyers' visit. However, Anaheim has lost back-to-back games entering Saturday's match in Philly. The Ducks suffered a 6-2 road loss on Thursday to the St. Louis Blues.The Blues scored four times in the first period to quickly put a stranglehold on the game.
Here are five things to watch on Saturday.
1. Lycksell in the lineup
Swedish forward Olle Lycksell, 25, has had various NHL cups of coffee over the last three seasons. This season, he dressed in the Flyers' 5-4 overtime win against the Columbus Blue Jackets on December 22.
In that game, Lycksell had three shots on net in 10:58 of ice time. At 14:20 of the second period, Lycksell scored a goal. However, the Blue Jackets issued a coach's challenge for an offside re-entry at the attacking blueline. Lycksell's would-be tally came off the board.
Selected to the 2025 American Hockey League All-Star Classic, Lycksell has posted 24 points (nine goals, 15 assists) in 25 games for Ian Laperriere's Lehigh Valley Phantoms. He notched a hat trick against the Toronto Marlies on Dec. 20 to bring a point streak to four consecutive games (four goals, four assists). He has not played in a game since his Dec. 22 appearance with the Flyers. The Flyers brought along Lycksell for their post-Christmas road trip but he has not dressed in any of the NHL team's last seven games.
For his NHL career, Lycksell has appeared in a total of 27 games so far (one goal, five assists). He dressed in eight games in 2022-23, 18 games last season and the aforementioned Dec. 22 game this season. At practice on Friday, Tortorella indicated that Lycksell would be in the lineup against Anaheim on Saturday. Another player would exit the lineup although Tortorella said he had not yet decided which player would come out. Since Laughton is just as comfortable playing center (his original position, where he still sometimes returns) as he is at left wing, it's not a mortal lock that a winger will come out for Lycksell. However, it seems likelier that a winger will exit for this game with Lycksell slated to play.
Tortorella added on Friday that Lycksell nowadays seems capable of holding his own when given an opportunity to play in NHL games. He has come a long way, year by year, since Tortorella first saw him play. Lycksell, who is a mainstay in the AHL on the Phantoms' top power play unit, has also seen a bit of NHL power play time while with the Flyers. Tortorella said that he thinks Lycksell may also be a candidate for a penalty killing unit experiment at the NHL level.
2. Forward line combinations in flux
For most of the Flyers' games since Christmas, there has been a fairly strong level of predictability and continuity in the line combinations that Tortorella has deployed. One recent change saw team captain Sean Couturier swap line assignments with fellow center Ryan Poehling. Another saw left winger Owen Tippett bump up a line to play with team leading scorer Travis Konecny. Overall, though, once combinations were assembled, they mostly stayed together.
That stretch came to an end in Thursday's ugly game against Dallas. Tortorella stayed with the trio of Noah Cates centering Tyson Foerster and Bobby Brink because they've been the team's most consistently strong 200-foot and momentum-generating line for the last six weeks. However, the other three forward lines were "put in a blender" over the latter 40 minutes of the game. Additionally, the Flyers juggled their defensive pairings a bit as the game progressed.
One revised line that clicked a bit in the third period against Dallas had Frost centering Tippett and Konency. That line generated the game's only goal for the Flyers as Frost potted the carom of a deflected Konecny shot that went off the end boards and came out near the left post. Tippett and Frost have played together frequently the last few years and have had some hot streaks together. They've also played as a trio with Konecny for brief stretches, often getting off to a quick start but then getting separated when there's an energy dip or a defensive struggle.
At Friday's practice, Frost centered Tippett and Konecny. The Foerster-Cates-Brink line stayed intact, too, although Tortorella confessed that he even gave thought to separating that line during the Dallas game but ultimately decided to stay with something that has been working so consistently since the latter part of November. As such these two line combinations seem the most likely to start Saturday's game together. Whether and how long it stays that way remains to be seen.
Also on Friday, Poehling centered a line with Laughton and rookie winger Michkov. Couturier centered Garnet Hathaway (a regular linemate over the last week or so) with Joel Farabee rotating shifts with Lycksell. This is not a telltale sign that Farabee's streak of playing in 216 consecutive games will come to an end via a coach's decision. However, with Lycksell tabbed to play on Saturday, Farabee may be one of the candidates that Tortorella has considered not dressing against the Ducks. As with most of the team, Farabee had a tough night against Dallas and it has been a frustrating season for him in terms of trying to get in a groove in converting chances into points.
Michkov may be an alternative candidate. He has had two excellent performances among the team's last 10 matches -- Dec. 29 in LA and January 7 against Toronto -- but it's mostly been a struggle for him since mid-December. Dating back to Dec. 12, he has just two points (one goal, one assist) in the last 13 games. Both points came in the road game against the Kings. The tally in LA is Michkov's only goal since scoring twice against Boston on Dec. 7.
There are many reasons for the points slump. It hasn't been just one easy-to-pinpoint cause. Several games without a point have been due to simple bad puck luck, such as the Dec. 12 home win over Detroit and especially this Tuesday's game against Toronto. In the latter, Michkov fired eight shots on goal and also directly created two golden scoring chances for Frost and Tippett.
Assuming Michkov stays in the lineup on Saturday, the Flyers will hope that the combination of Poehling's speed and Laughton's tenacity could open up some time and space for Michkov to find the seams. Laughton had been together on a line with Michkov and Frost for several games including the earlier part of Thursday's match against Dallas.
3. Tippett due for next hot streak?
Throughout his career with the Flyers, Tippett has tended to be exceptionally streaky for stretches of roughly eight to 12 games at a time. When he gets hot, Tippett scores in bunches. When he runs cold, Tippett struggles to put shot attempts on net except when taking the puck directly to the net himself. Often, right before he goes off on a tear, Tippett has a game or two where he's playing with very strong pace but pucks are either hopping on him or he wipes out a few times and promising sequences go awry.
For example, the Flyers matinee win over the Rangers on Black Friday was a quintessential game that Tippett often plays right before going on a hot streak. In that game, Tippett's energy level was extremely high but a combination of wipe-outs, pucks bouncing at inopportune moments and shot attempts that either got blocked or fired wide of the net, he did not record a point. He had just two points (1g, 1a) in a 10-game span. However, that game was a precursor to Tippett's hottest offensive spell of the season to date.
Immediately, over the next 10 games, Tippett rattled off a stretch of 11 points (seven goals, four assists). He and the entire team had a rough night in Pittsburgh in the final game before the holiday break. Since then, he's been in a cold spell in terms of scoring goals but did execute a couple of very nice cross-seam passes that resulted in two Philadelphia goals (a third was taken away via coach's challenge on a power play entry nearly 20 seconds before the goal).
The home-and-home set against Toronto was typical of Tippett at the end of one of his rough spells. In the January 5 road game, Tippett attempted eight shots but only put one on net (five got blocked and two missed the net). Two nights later at Wells Fargo Center, Tippett had a golden opportunity to tie the game late in the third period. Unfortunately, his shot missed the net from the bottom of the left circle.
In the Dallas game, Tippett had a performance that was somewhat similar to the Black Friday match against the Rangers. The energy was there. There were several "almost" plays, including Tippett hitting the post on a shot attempt off a transition rush in the third period. He finished with eight shot attempts (three on net, three that were blocked, the one that pinged off the post and another that went wide).
There is no guarantee that Tippett's inevitable next run of goals and points will start on Saturday against Anaheim. However, the ingredients seem to be coming together again when one digs just below the surface of the frustrations of the last three games. It would not be surprising if Tippett gets hot again starting with Saturday's game or Monday's match against the New Jersey Devils.
4. The Drysdale vs. Gauthier storyline
The Flyers themselves are focused on putting aside Thursday's performance against the Stars. The aim is to get back structurally to how well they played overall in the two previous games against Toronto and the first two-plus periods in Los Angeles and Vegas.
The team, from Tortorella to the players, is not caught up in the fact that Ducks rookie left wing Cutter Gauthier (five goals, 13 assists) will play his first game in Philadelphia.
Likewise, neither Flyers players nor Tortorella have any interest in parsing a game-hype narrative that pits Gauthier against Flyers defenseman Jamie Drysdale. A calendar year ago, of course, Philadelphia traded Gauthier's NHL rights to Anaheim in a an exchange for Drysdale.
Drysdale's own focus is on finding a groove and staying healthy. He was one of the many Flyers who struggled against Dallas on Thursday. In the 15 games since being activated from Injured Reserve, he has four assists. On Dec. 8 against Utah, Drysdale lost a would-be goal to a coach's challenge for goaltender interference by Konency.
Gauthier has one point (0g, 1a) over his last five games. He did not record a point in his first career game against Philadelphia but had three points (1g, 2a) against Edmonton and New Jersey in the next two matches.
5. Behind enemy lines: McTavish and Carlsson
Anaheim has focused its long-term rebuilding plan around having Mason McTavish and Leo Carlsson center the team's top two lines. This is one of the main reasons that the Ducks immediately put Gauthier on left wing (his original position) after he played center for two seasons at Boston College.
McTavish, drafted third overall in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft, has posted 17 points (6g, 11a) in 35 games this season. He scored a goal against Calgary in Tuesday's 3-2 overtime home loss.
Carlsson, selected with the second overall pick of the 2023 Draft, has 15 points (8g, 7a) in 35 games this season. Over the last five matches, he's posted three points (1g, 2a).
McTavish, Carlsson and Gauthier (originally chosen 5th overall by the Flyers in 2022) are all going through the growing pains that the vast majority of players experience early in their NHL careers. All three are players with very high ceilings in the long-term picture. For now, they still have ups and downs.
