The Flyers host the Blue Jackets and hope to end their losing streak

The game: 7 p.m. on NBCSports Philadelphia & 97.5 The Fanatic

With Thursday’s loss to the LA Kings, that means the Flyers have lost three games in regulation – officially a losing streak. They have a record of 4-5-1 in their last 10 games and are one point ahead of the New York Islanders and Columbus Blue Jackets in last place in the Metropolitan Division. Not great!

Today offers a unique opportunity to get back a win against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Less than two weeks ago, the Flyers beat the same team, and they should be able to do the same tonight. Funnily enough, the Flyers were also on a three-game losing streak before the last game – it would be nice to win twice!

Not much has changed for Columbus since the last time these two teams met: after the loss to the Flyers, they lost four more in a row, but picked up a win against the New Jersey Devils earlier this week. The Blue Jackets field essentially the same team as last time, although their roster is plagued with injuries throughout – most notably their captain Boone Jenner and promising young Yegor Chinakov.

This is an important game for the Flyers: a win puts them right back in the playoffs, and a loss puts them in the top ten lottery odds. According to Moneypuck, they are 60% favorites to win tonight, but we all know how this team can surprise – both good and bad.

Storylines to watch

Emil Andräe out

The big news yesterday was Emil Andrae’s return to the Phantoms. At first glance, this is a confusing move, but there are cap and roster implications as well: If the Flyers were to lose a forward to injury, for example, they would have a full 23-man roster with Andrae here due to the roster freeze. Now the team has flexibility during the Christmas break.

Still, Torts will be Torts.

John Tortorella on Emil Andrae: “It’s gotten too rich for him… He has to get back down and play.” #Flyer #LetsGoFlyer

— Kevin Durso (@kevindurso.bsky.social) December 21, 2024 at 10:22 am

Cam York’s reaction to the scratching

With Andrae out, Cam York obviously moves back into the lineup. York completely failed against the Kings on Thursday, completely throwing the blue line off balance and likely costing the Flyers the game. To be fair, however, York has struggled in his last two games, with a glaring mistake against Detroit that resulted in him being benched for the rest of the game. We’ve seen a healthy scratch work for other players under Torts, and York once spent half a season with the Phantoms after a lackluster camp, so he’s no stranger to this kind of treatment. Still, York’s performance today is definitely worth keeping an eye on.

Top 6 in a new look

Lines and pairs in the morning skate:

Tippett – (Couturier) – Konecny
Farabee – Frost – Michkov
Foerster – Cates – Brink
Laughton-Poehling-Hathaway

York-Sanheim
Seeler – Ristolainen
Zamula-Drysdale

Couturier is not on the ice, but he will play. Laughton runs in his seat

— Charlie O’Connor (@charlieo_conn) December 21, 2024

It’s not a huge change, but it looks like Tippett will move up to the top tier while Farabee moves down to skate with Morgan Frost and Matvei Michkov. This is not an unexpected move: Michkov has not had a point in three games, and Tortorella had recently expressed his dissatisfaction with the performance of the Farabee-Couturier-Konecny ​​​​line. A little shakeup could bring some players back to life and help them rediscover their scoring potential.

Planned lineups

Philadelphia Flyers

Owen Tippett – Sean Couturier – Travis Konecny
Joel Farabee – Morgan Frost – Matvei Michkov
Tyson Foerster – Noah Cates – Bobby Brink
Scott Laughton – Ryan Poehling – Garnet Hathaway

Cam York-Travis Sanheim
Nick Seeler – Rasmus Ristolainen
Egor Zamula – Jamie Drysdale

Sam Ersson
(Aleksei Kolosov)

Columbus Blue Jackets

Dmitri Voronkov – Sean Monahan – Kirill Marchenko
JvR – Adam Fantilli – Kent Johnson
Zach Aston-Reese – Cole Sillinger – Mathieu Olivier
James Malatesta – Sean Kuraly – Mikael Pyyhtia

Zach Werenski-Damon Severson
Jake Christiansen – Ivan Provorov
Jack Johnson-Jordan Harris

Elvis Merzlikins
(Daniil Tarasov)

Game day tunes

Philadelphia had its first decent snowfall last night and there were still a few flakes today. Not enough to stick, but it still looked pretty falling past the street lights in the dark. This album is as good as it gets on a snowy day.