After a successful road trip, the Philadelphia Flyers are ready to enjoy some home cooking.
The Flyers will try to post their season-high fourth straight win Monday when they host the Pittsburgh Penguins in the opener of a six-game homestand.
Philadelphia began its recent road trip with a lethargic 3-0 loss against the Tampa Bay Lightning. However, the team bounced back with a 4-2 win over the Florida Panthers before heading north for victories over the New York Islanders and New Jersey Devils.
In the 5-3 win over New Jersey, Owen Tippett and Matvei Michkov each scored twice to help the Flyers improve to 5-1-0 in their last six games.
“I don’t want to say it’s a measuring stick for us because I think we deserve to be talked about with the teams we’re playing right now,” winger Travis Konecny said. “I think it just shows that we have some depth, we’re all contributing in different ways. … Everyone’s just stepping up. We love this group. It’s a lot of guys that just want to play for each other and do the right things.”
Dan Vladar made 29 saves against the Devils to improve to 10-4-1 with a 2.43 goals-against average. The offseason signee has given up three goals or fewer in 12 of his 15 games.
Another first-year Flyer, center Trevor Zegras, leads the team with 24 points (nine goals, 15 assists) through 24 games.
“The one thing I love with this group is they always want to learn,” Philadelphia coach Rick Tocchet said. “Win or lose or it’s a bad period or it’s a good period, they’re asking questions, they’re trying to learn. That’s what we’re doing every day — we’re trying to build some blocks here.”
The Penguins are opening a spacious three-game road trip that will go from Philadelphia to Tampa Bay to Dallas. They had registered at least a point in five of their previous six games before absorbing a 7-2 pounding at the hands of the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday.
Arturs Silovs allowed four goals on 10 shots before giving way to Tristan Jarry, who turned aside the final 10 of the 13 shots he faced.
“I thought we had the puck a lot,” Pittsburgh coach Dan Muse said. “Within the chances, I think we have to create more quality on some of those. There were opportunities there. … I don’t think our execution was there on a number of them, and then the chances we’re giving up, they’re just too loud. They’re too big.”
Sidney Crosby had a goal and an assist for Pittsburgh. Following the lopsided defeat, he concurred that the team needs to tighten up defensively after allowing a season-high seven goals.
“I think the quality of the chances we gave up were just too good,” Crosby said. “I thought we had the puck for a good chunk of it, but when we did have breakdowns, they were big ones and quality chances. So, we have just got to tighten up.”
Crosby, 38, is showing no signs of slowing down as he’s averaging better than a point per game with 27 (16 goals, 11 assists) in 24 outings.
This is the second of four matchups between the Penguins and Flyers this season. Philadelphia won the first battle of Pennsylvania, 3-2 on Oct. 28, as Bobby Brink had a goal and an assist before adding the decisive goal in the shootout.
–Field Level Media
