Game Preview: Ottawa Senators @ Philadelphia Flyers (12/18/21)

The Philadelphia Flyers (11-12-5) take on the Ottawa Senators (9-17-1) and have a chance to respond to the loss in Montreal. Joel Farabee is set make his return from injury and the Flyers had more updates this morning prior to this 7PM matchup (NBCSP).

Flyers Injury/COVID-19 protocol updates

The Flyers are still going to be without Brassard and Ellis for the foreseeable future and the updates remain very vague.

Morgan Frost is still in COVID-19 protocol and this morning forward Max Willman entered as well alongside a staff member.

Medical update: Flyers forward Max Willman and a staff member have been placed in the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol.

Flyers goaltender Carter Hart is unavailable for tonight’s game due to an undetermined illness.

— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) December 18, 2021

Carter Hart will not play tonight due to an undisclosed illness and him not entering protocol leads me to believe it could be different, but I don’t like to assume in these situations. Felix Sandstrom will be his backup.

Ottawa is no slouch of an opponent

The Ottawa Senators have been playing inspired hockey as of late winning 5 of their last 7 contests. 4 of these 5 wins are over juggernaut teams in Carolina, Colorado, Tampa Bay, and Florida. On Tuesday they ran the Panthers out of their own building and scored 8 goals in a blowout.

My point being you can’t judge Ottawa based on their record. They are a well-coached gritty team that will take the game to you if you let them. Drake Batherson has 10 points in his last 5 appearances with a whopping 8 assists.

Neither Forsberg or Murray have great in net for the Senators, but any team with Thomas Chabot and Brady Tkachuk needs to be taken seriously.

Flyers Lineup

With all of the injuries and illnesses in mind the Flyers’ starting lineup will be as follows:

Flyers lines and pairings tonight:

Farabee-Couturier-Konecny
Lindblom-Giroux-Atkinson
Laughton-Hayes-JvR
Cates-Brown-MacEwen

Provorov-Braun
Sanheim-Ristolainen
Yandle-Connauton

Jones

— Jamey Baskow (@JameyBaskow) December 18, 2021

Huge opportunity for the Flyers to get a response win at home. With Carter Hart out, the defense is going to need to put together a complete game to assist Martin Jones. Philadelphia always seems to have more success when their blue-line is involved and hopefully we see that tonight.

Mandatory Credit: Philadelphia Flyers