Mired in a five-game winless streak, the Philadelphia Flyers will try to turn their season around when they visit the Buffalo Sabres on Friday.
The Flyers (36-29-11, 83 points) are 0-3-2 in their last five games and 2-5-3 in their last 10. This slump has jeopardized Philadelphia’s playoff chances and kept several teams in the running for both third place in the Metropolitan Division and the last Eastern Conference wild-card berth.
The Sabres (36-35-5, 77 points) are one of those clubs still mathematically alive, though Buffalo has only six games remaining to leapfrog multiple teams in the standings. Buffalo hasn’t helped itself with an inconsistent 4-4-0 record in its last eight games.
Tuesday’s 6-2 home win over the Washington Capitals was indicative of how dangerous the Sabres can look. The Capitals are one of the teams standing between Buffalo and a playoff berth, yet the Sabres held a 35-26 shots edge and scored three unanswered goals in the third period to seal the victory.
The line of Tage Thompson, JJ Peterka and Alex Tuch again carried the offense with nine combined points. Over the Sabres’ last six games, Thompson has 10 points (six goals, four assists), Peterka eight points (seven goals, one assist) and Tuch eight points (one goal, seven assists).
Buffalo was also 2-for-2 on the power play, ending an 0-for-18 drought on the man advantage over the previous seven games.
“We’ve had a lot of talks (about the power play) and it finally trickled in,” defenseman Rasmus Dahlin said. “We’ve been having a lot of chances the last (seven games), but we haven’t scored. That can create frustration, but we just stayed with it and … we’ve just got to continue to build.”
For the Flyers, Monday’s 4-3 overtime loss to the New York Islanders marked the end of a stretch of 16 games in 32 days. Three full days of rest could benefit the struggling team before beginning a four-game road trip in Buffalo.
Despite the Flyers’ recent issues, coach John Tortorella described the situation as “such a great spot to be in” and “a great challenge” for his young team.
“It’s not fading and trying to stay away from it, it’s about getting to another level … a level you don’t even think you know about,” Tortorella said. “That can be taught. That’s part of my job. So that’s what I want to happen and whether we succeed or not, at least we can look ourselves in the mirror at the end and say we tried. And we’re not there now. And we have time to get there, but we’re running out of it.”
Philadelphia captain Sean Couturier will miss at least two games after leaving Monday’s game with an upper-body injury.
Since the Flyers also play Saturday against the Columbus Blue Jackets, Samuel Ersson and Ivan Fedotov will likely be splitting the two starts in some order.
Fedotov stopped 19 of 21 shots in his NHL debut on Monday, as Ersson was replaced at the first intermission after allowing two goals on six Islanders shots. Ersson has struggled to an .844 save percentage over his last eight games.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen will likely again be minding Buffalo’s net. Luukkonen has played in 31 of the Sabres’ 38 games since Jan. 1, one of the heaviest workloads of any goalie in the league.
–Field Level Media
