(Kate Frese/Sports Talk Philly)
By Jesse Larch, Sports Talk Philly staff writer 
The Flyers needed a win desperately to stay in the wild card hunt and they got it with a huge road victory over the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night at Xcel Energy Center.
Now the Flyers have another tough road matchup in a matinee against John Tortorella's Columbus Blue Jackets, who currently hold the third best record in the Eastern Conference.
Puck drop is scheduled for 2 p.m.
| Flyers Leaders | GP | G | A | P | Blue Jackets Leaders | GP | G | A | P |
| Jake Voracek | 73 | 18 | 38 | 56 | Cam Atkinson | 73 | 33 | 27 | 60 |
| Claude Giroux | 73 | 14 | 39 | 53 | Alexander Wennberg | 72 | 12 | 42 | 54 |
| Wayne Simmonds | 73 | 29 | 20 | 49 | Brandon Saad | 73 | 21 | 28 | 49 |
| Brayden Schenn | 70 | 22 | 26 | 48 | Nick Foligno | 70 | 24 | 24 | 48 |
| Valtteri Filppula | 70 | 8 | 29 | 37 | Zach Werenski | 73 | 11 | 36 | 47 |
| Player to Watch | |
| 14 Sean Couturier | 3 Seth Jones |
| Last 5 Games: 2 G, 4 A, 6 P, +6 | Last 5 Games: 1 G, 0 A, 1 P, -1 |
Sean Couturier has arguably been the Flyers best player over the last couple of weeks, and he continued his strong play with an incredible goal late in the first period against Minnesota on Thursday night to tie the game. When Dave Hakstol juggled the lines prior to the game against Minnesota, the only line he did not change was Couturier's line flanked by Brayden Schenn and Dale Weise. Couturier appears to be hitting his stride after his early season momentum was halted by an injury. The Flyers will need the Couturier that they have been seeing lately if they want to make the playoffs.
Seth Jones is on a bit of a cold streak, but he has killed the Flyers this season. He assisted on the game-winner in overtime the first time these two teams met, and in their last meeting on March 13, Jones contributed two more assists. With a heavy shot from the point and a physical brand of defense in his own end, expect Jones to continue to be a thorn in the Flyers side.
| Goalie Matchup | |
| 35 Steve Mason | 35 Sergei Bobrovsky |
| 22-21-7, 2.73 GAA, .906 SV% | 39-13-5, 2.02 GAA, .932 SV% |
If anyone has been better than Couturier over the past few weeks it has been Steve Mason. Hakstol continued to ride the hot hand in the victory over Minnesota, and will again in Columbus.
Sergei Bobrovsky is making a strong case to win his second Vezina trophy since being traded away by the Flyers in 2012.
Flyers Projected Lineup
Scratches: Roman Lyubimov, Michael Del Zotto, Nick Cousins (upper-body injury, day-to-day), Michael Raffl (lower-body injury, out 6-8 weeks)
| Left Wing | Center | Right Wing |
| 24 Matt Read | 28 Claude Giroux | 93 Jake Voracek |
| 40 Jordan Weal | 51 Valtteri Filppula | 17 Wayne Simmonds |
| 10 Brayden Schenn | 14 Sean Couturier | 22 Dale Weise |
| 76 Chris VandeVelde | 78 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare | 11 Travis Konecny |
| Defense | ||
| 9 Ivan Provorov | 47 Andrew MacDonald | |
| 53 Shayne Gostisbehere | 55 Nick Schultz | |
| 23 Brandon Manning | 3 Radko Gudas | |
| Goalie | ||
| 35 Steve Mason |
Game Notes
- Power Play: Flyers (14th, 14th on road), Blue Jackets (T-9th, 11th at home)
- Penalty Kill: Flyers (22nd, T-24th on road), Blue Jackets (10th, 8th at home)
- Recent History vs. Blue Jackets
- Jan. 8, 2017 – The Flyers lost in overtime the first time these two teams met, with Brayden Schenn scoring the lone goal for the Orange and Black. Nick Foligno had the overtime winner.
- Mar. 13, 2017 – The Flyers lost again in the second meeting against Columbus when Cam Atkinson, Brandon Saad, Zach Werenski, and Seth Jones all had multi point nights for the Blue Jackets.
- Flyers leaders vs. Blue Jackets
- Claude Giroux – 19 games, 6 goals, 11 assists, 17 points
- Brayden Schenn - 15 games, 6 goals, 5 assists, 11 points
- Jake Voracek - 15 games, 4 goals, 10 assists, 14 points
- Wayne Simmonds - 28 games, 9 goals, 5 assists, 14 points
- Steve Mason - 11 games, 3-4-4, 2.62 GAA, .914 Sv%
- Milestone Watch
- Matt Read needs one assist to reach 100 in his career.
- Claude Giroux needs two goals to move into 15th all-time in Flyers history.
Where to Watch
TV: CSN
Radio: 97.5 The Fanatic
