The Philadelphia Flyers will look for their season-best fifth consecutive victory when they host the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday night.
The Flyers are coming off a 6-2 win over the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday, thanks in large part to four assists from ever-improving Morgan Frost.
Frost has 13 points in his past 11 games.
“He seems more confident with the puck,” Flyers coach John Tortorella said. “From a coach’s point of view, I just think he’s fighting harder for pucks. (And) that is part of the game he needs to continue to work at.”
Whatever Frost has been doing clearly seems to be working. His confidence appears to be at an all-time high after he was criticized by Tortorella earlier this season.
“It is growing for him,” the coach said. “The line has been good, and I think they are playing off one another very well.”
Frost has been paired on a line mostly with James van Riemsdyk and Owen Tippett for the past 11 games.
“For a little while here, we’ve had the same lines, and I think that definitely helps,” Frost said. “I think just in general, the D are doing a much better job of moving the puck up and holding gaps. A lot of little stuff goes into it. It’s nice that we’ve been putting some pucks into the net.”
Travis Konecny, who leads the Flyers with 20 goals, has scored six times in the past five games.
Goaltender Carter Hart, who made 21 saves against Arizona after recovering from a concussion sustained Dec. 23 against the Carolina Hurricanes, is expected to be in net once again.
The Maple Leafs will look for their second win in as many nights on Sunday.
Toronto scored twice in each the second and third period to defeat the Detroit Red Wings 4-1 on Saturday.
Mitch Marner had one goal and one assist to hit the 500-point mark for his career. He did it in his 467th game, just four days after Auston Matthews reached the milestone in 445 games. Not surprisingly, Marner earned a berth in next month’s NHL All-Star Game.
“With his consistency, and leading this team at a time when we certainly needed it, it’s well deserved,” Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said.
John Tavares also scored twice and Pontus Holmberg added the other goal for the Maple Leafs.
Though Ilya Samsonov played a stellar game against the Red Wings, Keefe said Matt Murray will be the starting goaltender against the Flyers.
“I thought from the morning right through to the game tonight, (Samsonov’s) focus was really, really solid,” Keefe said. “He looked destined to have a great night here tonight, and I thought he did.”
The win against the Red Wings got Toronto back on track after the Maple Leafs suffered consecutive losses to the St. Louis Blues and Seattle Kraken to start the new year.
After falling behind 1-0 to the Red Wings, the Maple Leafs were dominant. They’ll aim to bring that momentum into Philadelphia.
“The second period was the best I’ve felt behind the bench in quite a while in terms of our pace and how it was coming together from one shift to the next,” Keefe said.
–Field Level Media
