From Boston to Philly: Previewing the Lightning vs Flyers Matchup

The Tampa Bay Lightning continue their road trip as they head over to Philadelphia to take on the Philadelphia Flyers. The Lightning played against the Boston Bruins on Saturday night, taking a close 3-2 overtime victory, and head to Philly just the day after. Philadelphia last played the New York Rangers, where Igor Shesterkin kept the Flyers to just one goal allowed the entire night.

The Lightning, who currently sit at a ninth in the league, have a 14-5-4 record. They have played exceptionally with the loss of Kucherov, Point, and Joseph, but the offense’s ability to keep the puck away from the defensive zone has struggled. The Flyers, who sit at twenty-fourth in the league, have a disappointing 8-9-4 record to finish off the first quarter of the season.

Top Players:

At this point, it seems like the Lightning will only have the same three players in the top three for points, so instead of that, we will go over the best players from the last few games. It will be based on not only individual performance but also team performance.

Taylor Raddysh: After one of the nicest first NHL goals fans have seen, he had to be on this list. The fact it was also shorthanded just shows that it was such an amazing goal by Raddysh, and his ability to get that puck and go past the Bruins defense made for an amazing highlight.

Andrei Vasilevskiy: Especially on Saturday night against the Bruins, it’s pretty obvious that the main reason the Lightning have won a lot of games where the offense struggled heavily is because of his amazing play in net. He has arguably been the best goalie in the league in the last month.

Steven Stamkos: Stamkos never fails to amaze us. Many people have been down on Stamkos and believed he would be traded. He has had a big bounce back season to silence his critics. He has been amazing this season and is top 15 in points for the entire league.

The offense for the Lightning has been good despite the loss of three key players, two of those players being two of the best in the league in their play styles. Most teams would struggle horribly under such tough times with injuries, but Tampa is still proving to be a top team in the league.

The defense has been very good as well, with Mikhail Sergachev and Victor Hedman stepping it up as the Lightning’s offense has had more trouble playing consistently in the offensive zone. Without these two, the Lightning would not have won as many games as they have.

Now for the Flyers, who have been very disappointing this season as most of their fans expected them to be a cup contender. These will be the top three players based on points.

Claude Giroux: 7G 11A 18P
Sean Couturier: 5G 9A 14P
Cam Atkinson: 7G 5A 12P

The offense for the Flyers has not been good. With only 50 goals scored, which is seven less than the Ottawa Senators, there have been obvious struggles that the Flyers need to fix to make sure they don’t contend for the first overall pick.

The defense has had to rely on Carter Hart and Martin Jones to keep them from looking too bad. Hart and Jones both face way too many shots per game because the Flyers’ defense is just plain bad at this point.

Brian Elliot (3.16GAA, .887sv%) is most likely starting between the pipes for the Lightning. Hart (2.70 GAA, .919sv%) will very possibly be up against Elliot, but it wouldn’t be surprising if Jones (2.87 GAA, .921sv%) starts as well.

Predictions:

Score: 4-2 Lightning
Shots: 29 Lightning/22 Flyers

Top Performer: Corey Perry (1G 2A 3P)
Overall Performance: A+

Reasoning:

It seems like a Corey Perry night, and it also seems like a night that the Lightning will win another game against the Philadelphia Flyers. If the offense plays better than they did against the Bruins, there’s a good chance the Lightning walk away with the win.