Game 34 Preview: Flyers vs. Penguins

Mike Yeo's Philadelphia Flyers (13-14-6) begin a three-game homestand with a game on Thursday against Mike Sullivan's Pittsburgh Penguins (19-8-5). Game time at the Wells Fargo Center is 7:00 p.m. ET (ESPN+/Hulu, 97.5 The Fanatic).

This is the second meeting of the season between the teams. On Nov. 4 at PPG Paints Arena, the Flyers dropped a 3-2 overtime decision decided by a Kris Letang wraparound goal that just barely crossed the goal line at 1:57 of 3-on-3 sudden death.

The Dec. 23 game scheduled between the Flyers and Penguins in Pittsburgh was postponed by the NHL. A makeup date for that game is TBD. After this game in Philadelphia, the teams will rematch at the Wells Fargo Center again on April 24.

The Flyers are returning home from a four-game road trip that saw the team claim three of four possible points from games in Seattle and San Jose but then lose 6-3 in Los Angeles and 4-1 in Anaheim. The Penguins have won nine straight games and have points in 10 of their last 11 (9-1-1) matches. The Penguins earned a come-from-behind 5-3 home victory against the St, Louis Blues on Wednesday night.

On Wednesday, the Flyers announced that Travis Konency and Travis Sanheim have had to be placed in COVID-19 protocol. As a result, the Flyers are now down six players due to protocol: Claude Giroux, Ivan Provorov, Konecny, Sanheim, Nick Seeler and Jackson Cates. Additionally, there are three veteran starters on Injured Reserve (Sean Couturier, Ryan Ellis and Nate Thompson).

Last season, the Flyers were compelled to play in Lake Tahoe despite having six regulars in COVID protocol. Due to the combination of COVID cases and injuries this time around, the Flyers will have to recall two more players from the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms -- one forward and one defenseman -- in order to dress a lineup of 12 forwards and six defensemen.

Due to NHL recalls, injuries and COVID protocol, the Phantoms themselves are severely depleted. Yesterday, Isaac Ratcliffe, Maksim Sushko and Cal O'Reilly entered COVID protocol. In order to have enough bodies to play against the Hershey Bears, the Phantoms had to dress nine natural forwards and eight natural defensemen (with defensemen Mason Millman and Ryan MacKinnon moving up front to play forward). Somehow, the Phantoms managed to claim a point from a 4-3 overtime loss to the Bears in Hershey last night after trailing 3-0. Lehigh Valley has posted an eight-game point streak (6-0-2) despite the increasingly depleted lineup.

The Penguins have dealt with extensive absences throughout the 2021-22 season -- including multiple key players being out at different junctures -- but are finally starting to get healthy. Jeff Carter could return to the lineup for this game. Evgeni Malkin is close to playing for the first time this season after undergoing knee surgery in June.

For a five-facet preview of this game, see today's Five Things on the Flyers' official website. A significant portion of the preview examines how the Penguins have been able to withstand so many key absences this season while the Flyers have found themselves in dire straights in the Eastern Conference standings. The short answer is that the Penguins have played with much better adherence to structure on a game-in and game-out basis and have had various other players step up offensively when the big names have been out.

The Flyers will hold a 10:30 a.m. morning skate at the Wells Fargo Center. The Penguins are in the second half of a back-to-back, so they are unlikely to skate this morning. Projected lineups will be posted later today.


Projected lineup:

FLYERS

86 Joel Farabee - 21 Scott Laughton - 89 Cam Atkinson
19 Derick Brassard- 48 Morgan Frost- 25 James van Riemsdyk
82 Connor Bunnaman - 13 Kevin Hayes - 71 Max Willman
23 Oskar Lindblom - 38 Patrick Brown - 17 Zack MacEwen

45 Cam York -61 Justin Braun
54 Egor Zamula -70 Rasmus Ristolainen
3 Keith Yandle - 8 Kevin Connauton

79 Carter Hart
[35 Martin Jones]

PP1: Yandle, Hayes, JVR, Atkinson. Farabee.
PP2t: York, Frost, MacEwen, Lindblom, Brassard.

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