Game Preview: Philadelphia Flyers @ Pittsburgh Penguins 3/11/2023 - Lines, how to watch

The Penguins look to collect two points against the struggling Flyers in the first game of a back-to-back weekend.

Who: Philadelphia Flyers (24-30-11, 59 points, 7th place Metropolitan Division) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (32-22-10, 74 points, 5th place Metropolitan Division)

When: 3:30 p.m. EST

How to Watch: National broadcast on ESPN+ and ABC

Opponent Track: The Flyers are in freefall right now. They have lost 10 of their last 12 games and are coming to PPG Paints after being shut out by the Hurricanes in Carolina and crushed 5-2 by the Lightning in Tampa in their last two games.

Pens Path Ahead: The Penguins play again tomorrow at home against the New York Rangers in a Metropolitan Division matchup they can’t afford to lose (just like Thursday’s loss to the Islanders which they couldn’t afford to lose, and two road games against the Rangers next week which— well, you know the rest. What a fun time in the Pens’ schedule!)

Season Series: The Pens last saw their erstwhile rivals on November 25, when they scored four straight regulation goals— including two from the now-injured Ryan Poehling— on the way to a handy 4-1 defeat of the Flyers.

Hidden Stat: The Flyers (12 overtime points) are one of only four teams in the NHL with more OT losses than the Penguins. The others: Dallas (13), Calgary (13) and San Jose (12.)

Getting to know the Flyers

SBN partner blog: Broad Street Hockey

Tuesday Game Lines

FORWARDS

Joel Farabee - Morgan Frost - Owen Tippett

Scott Laughton - Noah Cates - Tyson Foerster

James van Riemsdyk - Elliot Desnoyers - Kevin Hayes

Nicolas Deslauriers - Tanner Laczynski - Kieffer Bellows

DEFENSEMEN

Ivan Provorov / Cam York

Travis Sanheim / Rasmus Ristolainen

Nick Seeler / Justin Braun

Goalies: Felix Sandstrom, Carter Hart

Scratches: Wade Allison (day to day injury), Brendan Lemieux (day to day injury)

IR: Travis Konecny (upper body, possibly out for the season), Cam Atkinson (neck, out for the season), Sean Couturier (back injury, has not played since December 2021), Ryan Ellis (missed entire season with pelvic injury)

Suspended: Tony Deangelo (second game of a two-game suspension for spearing Corey Perry)

• After a too-quiet trade deadline in Philadelphia, the Flyers ousted general manager Chuck Fletcher today, placing former Flyer Danny Briere in the interim position instead.
• The loss of leading scorer Travis Konecny, who was the Flyers’ only 20-goal scorer and point-per-game producer, has made it even more difficult for this low-scoring team to rack up goals. Philadelphia has been held to two or fewer goals in eight of their last 10 games.
• There a few call-ups in this lineup, like Tyson Foerster, who made his NHL debut on Thursday, and Elliot Desnoyers, who has three NHL games to his name.

Stats

via hockeydb

• Like the Blue Jackets, who the Penguins rudely took to overtime earlier this week, the Flyers are within tanking territory and would likely benefit most from a regulation loss. This team has goaltending talent in Carter Hart, who has arguably often been the team’s best player for the past few years, and Felix Sandstrom, who has emerged as a strong backup for Hart by showing— such as in the Flyers’ 1-0 loss to Carolina on Thursday— he can keep the Flyers competitive. Luckily for the team’s tanking chances, even with strong goaltending, the Flyers still struggle to score (only Chicago and Anaheim score fewer goals per game than this squad.)

And now for the Pens...

Potential Lines

Forwards

Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Rickard Rakell

Jason Zucker - Evgeni Malkin - Bryan Rust

Drew O’Connor - Mikael Granlund - Jeff Carter

Danton Heinen - Nick Bonino - Josh Archibald

Defense

Marcus Pettersson / Kris Letang

Brian Dumoulin / Jeff Petry

Dmitry Kulikov / Jan Rutta

Goalies: Tristan Jarry, Casey DeSmith

Scratches: Chad Ruhwedel, P.O. Joseph

IR: Ryan Poehling

• The Penguins did an off-ice workout instead of a regular practice on Friday, so no confirmed lineup updates until today.
• After some rough moments in Tuesday’s game against the Blue Jackets, did the Kulikov/Rutta pairing redeem itself enough to keep P.O. Joseph out of the lineup for now?
• Jason Zucker has scored seven goals in the Penguins’ last six games.

• Because the Penguins are facing a back-to-back this weekend, both goaltenders will likely get a start. Because Jarry played last, will Sullivan start out the weekend with DeSmith in net?
• The Penguins recalled Alex Nylander from the WBS Penguins yesterday. Will he make another appearance in the lineup tonight? It’s on an emergency basis again, suggesting one of the 12 forwards above will be unavailable for today’s game. The team has not yet announced who that would be, however.