Nikita Kucherov
In Saturday’s game against the red-hot Tampa Bay Lightning, the Flyers fell behind early and fell into a 3-0 hole again. Instead of erasing the deficit, the Flyers were down by two in the third and challenging to cut into the deficit further before they made the one mistake that did them in. The Flyers got two goals in short order after falling behind 4-1 with under eight minutes to play in the third, but were not able to complete the comeback in a 5-3 loss to the Lightning.
The Flyers final game of a three-game road trip comes against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Much like the first meeting against the Lightning, Tampa enters as the hottest team in the league, currently on a nine-game winning streak, just as they were when they paid a visit to Philadelphia on Jan. 11.
The Flyers next opponent was one of the bigger disappointments in the NHL a month ago, but since then, the Tampa Bay Lightning have risen to second place in the Atlantic Division and sixth in the league in points, due in large part to a current nine-game winning streak that they will bring to Philadelphia on Saturday night.
An updated look at the playoff race, Nikita Kucherov’s impressive MVP season, the new St. Louis Blues under Craig Berube and Jordan Binnington and Columbus’ struggles since the trade deadline.
Flyers defenseman Radko Gudas was suspended for two games for high-sticking Nikita Kucherov in Tuesday’s game against Tampa Bay.
The Flyers kept things rolling with back-to-back wins over the Detroit Red Wings over the weekend to improve to 12-2-1 in their last 15 games. They get a tough task on Tuesday at home, facing the NHL-leading Tampa Bay Lightning.
In almost a carbon copy of the first meeting between the two teams in November, the Flyers somehow managed a frantic rally to get the game tied after trailing by three goals and earn a point. But, yet again, they coughed up the chance at the second point almost immediately, as Alex Killorn scored 18 seconds into overtime to give the Lightning a 6-5 win on Thursday night.
The Flyers gave the Tampa Bay Lightning a run for their money in November, erasing a 5-1 lead in under seven minutes to force overtime, before ultimately suffering the defeat. Tampa has some help back in netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy and is also fresh off the break.
The opponent in this final game of the homestand is the Tampa Bay Lightning, the team atop the Eastern Conference standings and they bring a wealth of scoring into Philadelphia. Game time is at 1 p.m.
Erik Karlsson is finally traded, Tyler Seguin signs mega-deal and Steve Yzerman steps down as Lightning GM. More about these stories in Around the NHL.
