The Battle of Pennsylvania renews this week. Rick Tocchet’s Philadelphia Flyers (4-3-1) are home on Tuesday to take on the arch-rival Pittsburgh Penguins (7-2-1).
Game time at Xfinity Mobile Arena is 6:00 p.m. EDT. The nationally broadcast game is on ESPN.
The Flyers are 4-1-0 on home ice to date. Tuesday’s match marks the start of a four-game week for the team. It’s the second tilt of a four-game homestand. On Saturday afternoon, the Flyers recovered from deficits of 2-0 and 3-2 to defeat the New York Islanders via shootout, 4-3 (3-2).
Dan Muse’s team is playing the second end of a back-to-back set. On Monday, the Penguins defeated the visiting St. Louis Blues, 6-3, at PPG Paints Arena.
Here are the RAV4 Things to watch on Tuesday.
1. Playing from ahead.
The Flyers have shown themselves to be a resilient club. In fact, the team has already captured five points (two wins and a regulation tie) from games in which Philly entered the third period trailing. That’s a testament to character and self-belief across the locker room.
Nevertheless, it’s a losing formula to have to chase the game too often. Of of the eight games played so far, the Flyers have scored first just three times. Eventually, those things matter as a season progresses.
2. Getting to the inside.
This is something Tocchet preached often: get to the high-danger areas below and between the dots on the offensive zone. The Noah Cates line does it consistently. Other lines have done it sporadically.
When players get to the high-punishment/ high-reward “home plate” area, teams eventually start to create their own puck luck. They also generate more quality scoring chances as well as causing havoc and screens. At the defensive end, the Flyers’ systems are aimed at taking away the middle of the ice, minimizing back-door scoring chances and generally making life easier on their own goalie.
3. Zegras and Drysdale.
Up front, Trevor Zegras is coming off his best offensive game to date as a Flyer: two goals, a nifty set-up pass on a Christian Dvorak goal and, later, a shootout conversion. Overall, Zegras has eight points to date (2g, 6a).
On the back end, Jamie Drysdale has posted excellent underlying numbers so far this season. He has used his feet effectively and driven play northward. It hasn’t shown much so far on the scoresheet (0g, 3a). The Flyers eventually need a bottom-line production uptick from him. Nevertheless, he’s played solid overall hockey so far and is a potential difference-maker against Pittsburgh.
4. Flyers special teams vs. Penguins special teams.
The Penguins’ power play tops the NHL in the early going this season, scoring once for every three opportunities (33.3 percent) on the man advantage. Meanwhile, the Flyers’ PK ranks in the top one-third so far at 87.1 percent.
Conversely, the Philadelphia power play has been sporadic so far (16 percent) and allowed two shorthanded goals. The unit with the Cates line, Zegras and Cam York has played better than the obstenstive first unit (Matvei Michkov, Travis Konecy, Sean Couturier, Owen Tippett and Drysdale).