The 2-1-1 Flyers start out their 3-game road trip in Edmonton, looking to take down McDavid’s 5-0-0 squad. McDavid is terrifying to begin with, add in the fact that he doesn’t like the Flyers (more Brandon Manning), and I’m instantly more nervous than I already was.

The game is on at 10pm Eastern on TNT, with Kenny Albert on the call.

Unfortunately, no Ryan Ellis again tonight, as he’s still day-to-day with an undisclosed injury. He’s been practicing and taking part of drills and power play work, but has sat out when the more physical side of things started picking up. There’s something still obviously bugging him, so I’m glad the Flyers are taking the more cautious approach. Whether he enters the line-up during the back-to-back on Thursday is still to be determined.

Carter Hart gets the nod tonight, a homecoming for the 23 year old. The last time Hart was in Edmonton was the 2019-2020 season, where he was pulled after allowing 4-goals on 14 shots. It wasn’t a very fun showing for the young goalie, so I’m sure he’s looking forward at getting the chance to play better in-front of what I’m sure will be a big crowd of family and friends. Hart currently has a 2.64 GAA and a .914sv% in 3 games with a record of 1-1-1.

Without Ellis, the Flyers will look on Nick Seeler and Justin Braun to jump into action again. For Seeler, he’ll be paired with Yandle on the 3rd pairing, giving them a more defensive and physical element. Braun will jump up next to Provorov, where he looked fine against FLA.

Not having Ellis was one thing against FLA, but not having him against Edmonton with their speed, worries me. I’m genuinely concerned with Edmonton’s speed through the neutral zone with slower defensive in the line-up. Oilers feed off the transition with their speed and while I don’t think Braun can’t handle the responsibility, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous.

Maybe they can get away with it for a couple games and not get torched, but the more games Ellis continues to miss the more worried I become.

I hope I eat my words and Braun hands in a 2-point game with 5 hits and 2 blocked shots.

Projected Line-ups @ Oilers at 10pm on TNT

Giroux – Couturier – Konecny

Farabee – Brassard – Atkinson

Lindblom – Laughton – JVR

NAK – Thompson – MacEwen

Provorov – Braun

Sanheim – Ristolainen

Yandle – Seeler

Hart

Special Teams

Special teams will be the story of the game for me. The Oilers currently have the best PP in the league, with a percentage of 47.1%. McDavid, Draisaitl and Nugent-Hopkins are terrifying, the Flyers really need to avoid the box tonight. Against FLA, they actually played pretty well 5v5, but when they started giving them power plays is where they messed up.

The Flyers currently have the 3rd best PP in the league right now with a percentage of 36.4%, so the Oilers need to be weary of us. The 2nd unit of Farabee, Brassard, Atkinson, Provorov and (now) Ristolainen has been the best unit of the two and it really isn’t close. Every-time they take the ice I personally sit up in my chair.

Expecting a big push from the Oilers to start the game. As long as we survive that push and stay out of the box this game should be very entertaining. What’s better than Flyers after dark? Nothing, so grab your beverages and snacks, we have late night hockey.

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