Flyers at Lightning
The Philadelphia Flyers resume their quest for a Metropolitan Division title Thursday night when they visit the Tampa Bay Lightning after seeing their nine-game winning streak come to an end last time out. The Flyers have crept within one point of first-place Washington in the Metro, but could not solve Boston goalie Tuukka Rask despite 36 shots in a 2-0 setback against the Bruins at home Tuesday.
“I liked our game,” Philadelphia defenseman Matt Niskanen told reporters after the loss. “I’d rather win, but we just went on a heck of a run, played pretty good hockey tonight. You can see how tight it’s going to be when you play only good teams in about a month here. So it was a good test for us.” The surging Flyers will try to continue their strong play and snap a seven-game losing streak against the Lightning, who blanked them 1-0 in Philadelphia on Jan. 11 and claimed a 5-3 victory in Tampa on Feb. 15. The Lightning knocked off Boston 5-3 to start a three-game trip before losing to NHL-worst Detroit in a shootout Sunday and getting outshot 17-6 in the first period Tuesday before suffering a 2-1 defeat at Toronto. “If you’re not going to compete hard, be physical and do things you need to have success, you’ll chase a team like that around the rink all night,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper told reporters after the loss, “and that’s what we did, especially in the first period.”
TIME: 7 p.m. ET. TV: NBCS Philadelphia, FS Sun, TVA, Sportsnet East, Sportsnet Ontario, Sportsnet Pacific
ABOUT THE FLYERS (41-21-7): Goalie Carter Hart took the loss Tuesday to end a personal seven-game win streak, but the 21-year-old allowed two or fewer goals for the seventh time in eight starts since giving up four against the Lightning. Leading scorer Travis Konecny (61 points), who is slated to play his 300th game Thursday, has cooled off with zero points in the last three games while right wing Jakub Voracek recorded 10 assists in the past six contests. Captain Claude Giroux had two points in the loss at Tampa Bay last month, giving him 38 in 37 career games against the Lightning, and scored twice in the 3-1 victory over Buffalo on Saturday.
ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (43-21-6): Andrei Vasilevskiy has won eight of his 10 career decisions with a .927 save percentage against the Flyers, including a 23-save shutout in January, and leads the league with 35 victories. Former Norris Trophy winner Victor Hedman (lower body) participated in the morning skate Tuesday but the 29-year-old defenseman missed his second straight game and is questionable. Right wing Nikita Kucherov had an assist Tuesday to make the scoresheet for the 23rd time in 24 games and leads the team with 85 points while left wing Ondrej Palat notched his 17th goal - most since 2016-17.
OVERTIME
1. Tampa Bay F Blake Coleman has one point (assist) in nine games since being acquired from New Jersey last month.
2. Philadelphia D Shayne Gostisbehere, a Florida native, needs one point to reach 200 for his career.
3. The Lightning have given up four power-play goals in their last three games, including both at Toronto on Tuesday.