The Need to Knows
- The Time: 4pm PT
- The Place: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Place to Watch: ESPN+, SportsNet+ (Note: this is an ESPN+/Hulu exclusive game in the United States)
- Place to Listen: KJR 93.3-FM
- An Opposing Viewpoint: Broad Street Hockey
Know Your Enemy
The Flyers have not had a boring season, for better or for worse (and there’s plenty of both to go around).
Expected before the season to be a bottom-feeder, new coach John Tortorella has the team playing way above expectation and are currently holding a playoff spot in the Metro division. They had a five-game losing streak before the all-star break, but overall they’re a team that is doing much more damage than they have any right to behind good connected play and depth.
The Flyers have a terrific penalty kill, 2nd-best in the league.
The Flyers have a terrible power play, 2nd-worst in the league.
The big recent news is that starting goaltender Carter Hart is not with the team right now. He hasn’t played since January 20th and was charged with sexual assault and it looks very much like he’s not going to be returning to the team any time soon, if ever. Or if he plays in the NHL again.
The Goal Song
The Flyers have, for I think the fourth year in a row, a new goal song. Last year’s Celtic Invasion, an absolutely fantastic choice, has been jettisoned for a remix of Van Halen’s Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love, but the remix, at least on TV, sounds like it’s just generic stock music. But goal songs are for people in the arena, and maybe it comes across better there. It’s a good song, but it seems like it just got turned into a lazy “hey hey” vehicle, the type of goal song that exists only to get people to say “hey” a lot without any real imagination to it.
Game Preview
It’s been a very, very long time since the Kraken’s last game, a forgettable loss to the lowly Sharks. It seemed like Seattle was maybe a little checked out and went on vacation early, but they’re back now. The Flyers have been in action since the all-star break and played two days ago, while the Kraken are sitting on 10 days of rest. This could really go either way — being rested means that players are, well, rested, have energy, probably not fighting through as much injury, and feeling fresh. But hockey is also a game of connectedness, timing, and precision and you often see teams come out sloppy when they’re coming off a break.
Don’t be surprised if the Kraken look kind of out of sorts here, then pull it together as the road trip goes along.
But the best thing? The Kraken are back playing hockey. 32 games remain for the league’s 32nd team to make the playoffs.
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