The 4-1-1 Philadelphia Flyers look to go undefeated in the West Canada road trip tonight against the Calgary Flames. The Flames are 5-1-1 and are on a five game winning streak. Calgary’s only regulation loss came in the season opener and they’ve gotten some impressive victories (WSH, DET, NYR, PIT) over teams that have been playing well.

An update was given out on Ryan Ellis and he remains out with a shoulder injury, he is still day-to-day.

The projected starting lineup for the Flyers is:

Giroux-Couturier-Konecny

Provorov-Braun

Hart

Starting Goalies

Carter Hart will be in net for Philadelphia tonight and looks to build on his huge win in Edmonton. Through four games this season, Hart is posting a 2.73 GAA and a .915% with a record of 2-1-1. After his first game against Vancouver he’s made multiple clutch game-winning saves most notably against Seattle and Edmonton.

The Flames will be giving Jacob Markstrom the start and he’s been nothing short of phenomenal through 5 games. Markstrom is 3-1-1 with a 1.59 GAA and a .952%. Thankfully the Flyers are scoring goals in bunches this season averaging 4.17 per game and have gone toe-to-toe with some of the best offenses in the league. The Flames netminder has posted 2 shutouts already so a fast start for the Flyers would be ideal.

Both clubs are starting their number one goaltenders as they look to keep the hot streaks going early.

Top Performers

Calgary is coming into this game with two 7 goal scorers in Elias Lindholm and Andrew Mangiapane who have been electric. Johnny Gaudreau has 10 points (1G,9A) through seven games and is the team leader in production. There’s no question about it the Flames are clicking on all cylinders right now and this is going to take a complete game from the Flyers to come away with the two points.

For Philadelphia everything is clicking as well; Cam Atkinson has 6 goals through 6 games and is fitting in perfectly. The first line of Giroux-Couturier-Konecny has produced at a rapid rate and their stats are:

Giroux: 4G, 4A, for 8P in 6GP

Konecny: 3G, 3A, for 6P in 6GP

Couturier: 3G, 6A, for 9P in 6GP

The Sanheim-Ristolainen pairing has their best game to date in the previous matchup against Vancouver so look for them to hopefully build upon that. Justin Braun has been an absolute menace to start the season and is skating better than ever. Braun has 5 points so far and that’s incredible for a player that is known for being a stay-at-home defenseman. He also has filled into Ryan Ellis’ first pairing role quite beautifully and that has been much needed.

Special Teams

Special teams could be a key storyline in this game as both teams’ powerplay units are in the top 10 leaguewide thus far, while the penalty killing units are in the middle of the pack. The Flyers penalty kill has been effective on this road trip and we’re able to stop Edmonton in key moments and they completely stymied Vancouver.

Where it goes south for the Flyers is the amount of penalties they have committed. Every game is seems like they are constantly taking penalties and it’s making games much closer than they should be. The Flyers took 5 penalties against Vancouver, 4 (3 in the first period) against Edmonton, and 7 against Florida. Unacceptable.

I’d like to see the Flyers play a well disciplined game tonight as it might be needed against the Flames powerplay which Johnny Gaudreau is running like a machine right now.

Quick Hits

• This is a heavyweight bout, two teams that have it rolling early going at it.
• Carter Hart found a rhythm towards the end of the Edmonton game and I hope he can carry it over.
• Going 3-0 on this historically annoying road trip would be so amazing.
• Look for the first line to continue their hot start; I’m predicting a Konecny goal tonight.
• ICYMI, the Phantoms also play tonight but they are 0-5-1 and very boring to watch.
• Let’s get this win and go home against a lackluster Arizona team

10PM on NBCSP+, let’s go 5-1-1.

Mandatory Credit: Philadelphia Flyers