Connor McDavid and the (29-21-3) Edmonton Oilers come into the city of brotherly love to take on the (16-26-10) Philadelphia Flyers. The line combinations and defensive pairings will be the same for the Flyers as they were on Saturday, as they look to build on the tiny bit of momentum they gathered from a 2-1 win against the Washington Capitals. Carter Hart will get the nod from Mike Yeo after an impressive 27 save performance against the Capitals. You can catch the game at 7 pm on NBCSP. 

Carter Hart

Carter Hart gets back-to-back starts in the net after missing two games with an eye infection. In his return against Washington, Hart saved 27 of 28 shots and was extremely solid in the net, giving his team an opportunity to end their 6-game losing streak. 

It was beginning to feel like they were about to go on another 10+ losing streak, so seeing the efforts of Hart and Patrick Brown (diving block at end of the game) was nice, even during one of the worst seasons I have ever personally seen as a Flyers fan.

Derrick Brassard

After bouncing in and out of the lineup since November 23rd after leaving a game against the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first couple minutes, Derrick Brassard finally returned against Washington and played 11:48 TOI (18 shifts). 

Morgan Frost was sent back to the Phantoms due to Brassard’s return and Kevin Hayes’ looming return on the horizon, raising questions about what exactly they’re doing with the 22-year old kid. I’m not going to start screaming about how they’ve dealt with his development until March 21st (trade deadline) passes. If Frost is still in the AHL, or in the NHL playing 9 minutes a game, the yelling will quickly follow. 

In reality, the Flyers might be trying to “showcase” Brassard and show playoff teams that he’s indeed healthy and good to go to be a nice little addition to a team looking for C/W depth for the playoffs. Brassard has 4G-7A-11P in 21 games this season. 

In addition to all of this back and forth with Brassard, according to Jordan Hall on Twitter, Derick was not at morning practice this morning. According to Mike Yeo, Brassard took the option of not participating and is “saving it for the game”. 

Whatever that means. 

Joel Farabee

After suffering a shoulder injury on Jan. 20th that scared the living shit out of me and half of Philadelphia, Joel Farabee also returned to the line up on Saturday against the Capitals and even assisted on Claude Giroux’s 17th goal of the season. 

Even with the time missed, Farabee is still tied for third on the team with James van Riemsdyk with 11 goals, despite James having 18 more games played over him. Speaking of JVR, he has 11G-9A-20P this season and has been held without a point in six of his last seven games. 

The entire JVR situation is a total joke and if Chuck Fletcher really plans on completing an “aggressive rebuild” this offseason, JVR needs to be the first thing Chuck looks to move.

Flyers Lineup vs the Edmonton Oilers

Joel Farabee – Claude Giroux – Cam Atkinson 

Oskar Lindblom – Scott Laughton – Travis Konecny 

James van Riemsdyk – Derick Brassard – Gerry Mayhew

Isaac Ratcliffe – Patrick Brown – Zack MacEwen

Ivan Provorov – Justin Braun

Travis Sanheim – Rasmus Ristolainen

Keith Yandle – Nick Seeler

Carter Hart

Stopping Connor and Leon

There’s only so much you can do against these two guys. I feel like the words “generational” and “superstar” are thrown around way too loosely in today’s world, but these two are the true definitions of generational talents. 

McDavid has 5G-10A-15P in the last 10 games for Edmonton, with Leon right behind him with 4G-7A-11P in the same amount of games. With these two monsters, you can only simply hope to contain them because you’re not going to stop them. 

Edmonton owns the third-best power play in the league this year, converting at a 26.6 rate. In their last four games, they’ve scored on three of their nine attempts, so I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t absolutely terrified for tonight’s game. 

The Flyers have the 27th overall penalty kill in the league, but in the last 10 games, they’re 30th in the league, killing off 69.2 of power plays.

Parx Sportsbook

Connor McDavid scoring two points is the biggest lock I have ever seen, and it seems like Parx Sportsbooks agrees with me putting the odds he does that at -107. 

If you like the underdog pick tonight, the Flyers to win back-to-back games for the first time since they beat the Kings on January 29th, and then the Jets the next game, is at +130 right now.

Mandatory Credit: Zack Hill/Flyers PR - Flyers Twitter