Rick Tocchet’s Philadelphia Flyers (7-5-1) are in Music City on Thursday evening to take on Andrew Brunette’s Nashville Predators (5-6-4). The Flyers enter this game coming off their first road victory of the season: a 5-4 (1-0) win via shootout over the Montreal Canadiens on Monday.
Thursday’s game in Nashville will wrap up the two-game interconference season series between the clubs. Last Thursday, the Flyers earned a 4-1 home victory against the Predators. Since then, the Flyers have gone 1-2-0. The Preds are 1-0-2 and coming off back-to-back overtime defeats by the Vancouver Canucks (home) and Minnesota Wild (away).
Game time at Bridgestone Arena on Thursday is 8:00 p.m. EST. The game will be televised on NBCSP.
Here are the RAV4 Things to watch.
1. Replicate Monday’s process.
The Flyers’ players heard Tocchet loud and clear over the weekend: they needed to show more hunger and will to get to the inside and to not pass up open shots when there’s a shooting lane. Philly did just that against the Canadiens and it showed up on the scoreboard as well as in the underlying numbers (20-9 high danger chance edge across all game situations, 5.09 expected goals, 42-20 shots on goal advantage).
Tocchet’s team proved itself capable of successfully playing the type of game he believes is vital to winning games. Now the task is to replicate the process against the Predators. When the clubs met in Philadelphia last week, it was the Predators who put lots of rubber to the net. It took a tremendous goaltending performance by Dan Vladar and some clutch goals to prevail despite being outplayed for much of the game.
2. Zegras the catalyst.
Trevor Zegras has been on fire offensively lately. Excluding his shootout goals, which do not count toward a player’s official season stats, Zegras has 10 points (four goals, six assists) in the team’s last six games. He’s had several dazzling assists and has been the team’s biggest threat to make things happen on the power play. He’s even shown a surprisingly feisty streak on the ice.
Overall this season, the 24-year-old winger/center leads the Flyers with 15 points through the first 13 games of the season.
3. Key game for Michkov.
Matvei Michkov played by far his best game of the season last week against the Predators. Not only did he provide a pair of perfect setups on goals by Zegras and Jamie Drysdale, he also showed the blend of hockey sense, skill and creativity he possesses when he’s on top of his game. Michkov seemed to be right on the cusp of a true breakout performance.
Unfortunately, Michkov took a backward step over the weekend in the games against Toronto and Calgary. In Montreal, however, he made several high-end plays without getting rewarded on the scoresheet. The return game against the Predators is an important one toward getting his game definitively on track. Not only would it relieve pressure and scrutiny, it would also be a boon for the team as a whole.
Overall this season, Michkov has posted six points (one goal, five assists) in 13 games. He’s played more on the second power play unit than the top unit and averaged 15:01 of ice time. His lone goal of the season came late in a home loss against the Winnipeg Jets on Oct. 16.
4. Discipline and special teams.
The Flyers saw a streak of 22 consecutive successful penalty kills come to an end in Montreal on Monday. The Habs scored twice on four power plays, negating the Flyers own two power play goals (2-for-6). The Flyers ultimately won the game, so special teams were a wash on that night.
However, Tuesday’s second period marked the first time this season when the Flyers paid for some ill-timed penalties that the opponent parlayed into a big momentum swing on the scoreboard. The Flyers rank 28th in the NHL in terms of shorthanded time per game.
Meanwhile, the Flyers’ power play has shown steady improvement over the last couple weeks. The absence of Tyson Foerster (IR, lower-body injury) required the team to juggle power play lines as well as 5-on-5 units. The team didn’t skip a beat offensively on Tuesday.
Entering Thursday’s game, the Flyers rank 14th on the power play (20.9 percent) and sixth on the penalty kill (87.0 percent, down from 90.2 percent prior to the Montreal game). By contrast, the Predators rank 27th on the power play (15.2 percent) and 14th on the PK (81.6 percent).
