Concluding a four-game homestand, John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (18-20-5) will host Paul Maurice's defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers (25-15-3) on Monday evening. Game time at Wells Fargo Center is 7:00 p.m. EDT.
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.
Monday's game marks the finale of the 2024-25 season series between the Flyers and Panthers. The Flyers are 0-1-1 thus far against Florida.
On November 9 in Sunrise, the Flyers lost a 4-3 (2-1) shootout in five rounds. On December 5 at Wells Fargo Center, Florida prevailed in a 7-5 goal-a-thon after the Flyers battled back from deficits of 3-0 and 4-2 to take the game into the third period knotted at 4-4.
The Flyers are 9-11-1 on home ice this season and 4-5-1 over the last 10 games. Philly enters this game coming off two polar opposite performances: a flat 4-1 home loss on Thursday to a very good Dallas Stars team and an emotional and rollicking 6-0 blowout win on Saturday over the struggling Anaheim Ducks in front of a charged-up Wells Fargo Center crowd.
The Panthers, meanwhile,are 13-7-1 on the road and 5-4-1 in the last 10 games. They enter this game coming off a 4-3 overtime home loss to the Boston Bruins. Florida controlled long portions of the game, especially in a downright dominant first period, but had to come back from deficits of 1-0 in the first period and 2-1 entering the third. Sam Reinhart bagged his 24th and 25th goals of the season but Florida ultimately had to settle for one point.
Here are five things to watch on Monday night.
1. Stay on an even keel
While Saturday's game was all about feeding off crowd energy and earning redemption from playing poorly on Thursday -- both of which were accomplished successfully -- Monday's game against Florida is more about maintaining attention to detail. Florida will make its share of plays happen to their benefit regardless of what most opponents do to slow them down.
For the Flyers the biggest key is to take away the middle of the ice, maintain consistent puck support and try to attack with pace in transition: this is an area where Florida (ranked tied for 17th in the NHL with a team 3.07 goals against average) can sometimes be vulnerable.
Another key: be relentless in puck support and make quick and confident decisions. Florida will come straight at other clubs in waves when they get cranking. The Panthers rank in the top one-third of the NHL offensively (3.26 goals per game average, one spot behind the Edmonton Oilers) for a reason.
Lastly, if and when adversity strikes, Philly must stick with the program. Ideally, of course, the Flyers would strongly prefer to play from ahead on Monday. However, they are a resilient comeback team when that is needed. In both games against Florida this season the Flyers have pushed back and erased deficits before ultimately failing to secure a win.
2. Ersson coming off a shutout
If one were to list the biggest issues that have caused the Flyers to two wins below hockey .500 midway through the 2024-25 season, goaltending would be at or near the top of the chart.
Three separate injury-related absences for No. 1 goaltender Samuel Ersson has destabilized the Flyers at the game's single most important position. So have Ersson's sometimes rocky returns from his lower-body issues and the general inconsistency of fellow Flyers' goalies Ivan Fedotov and Aleksei Kolosov.
On Thursday against Dallas, Ersson's play in a losing cause was one of the promising signs in his first game back from his latest injury recurrence. On Saturday, Ersson notched his second shutout of the season.
The Ducks game wasn't an especially tough one on the goalie from either a shot quantity or difficulty of save opportunities standpoint. Most of the 22 shots Ersson saw were clear-sighted or from low-danger to maximum moderate danger spots.
Nonetheless, Saturday's game was exactly what Ersson needed to restore his confidence and work back toward the form he's shown previously when healthy.
Keep in mind that Monday's match is the first of a back-to-back set, the second game of a three-in-four and the third in a stretch of six games in 10 nights. The Flyers will likely have to deploy at least two of their three goaltenders -- Ersson plus one of Fedotov or Kolosov -- during this current jam-packed segment of the schedule. Having Ersson stay healthy and in rhythm is vital if the team is to pull back up in the wildcard picture.
3. Tippett vs. his former team
On Saturday night, ex-Ducks defenseman Jamie Drysdale had a stellar night against his old club after a frustrating performance two nights earlier against Dallas. Drysdale notched a power play goal and assist. (Note: More on Drysdale will follow in the next section).
Now it may be former Panther winger Owen Tippett's turn to inflict damage on his original NHL club. The streaky forward built off a solid third period against Dallas in conjunction with linemates Travis Konecny and Morgan Frost. On Saturday, Tippett notched a goal and assist against Anaheim.
The last time the Flyers played against the Panthers, Tippett scored two goals on the same shift to temporarily turn a two-goal deficit late in the second period into a 4-4 tie through two periods.
When Tippett gets hot, he often tends to score in bunches. Hopefully for the player and his club, Saturday marked the start of one of Tippett's multi-game stretches in which the offense flows for him.
Florida will try to force Tippett and linemates Frost (nine points in his last 11 games, goals in back-to-back matches) and Konecny (four primary assists against Anaheim, 13 points in his last 11 games) to play on the defensive. When able to attack regularly, the line can do damage either when set up in the attack zone or in transition.