(note: does not include last night\u2019s game)<\/p>\n
Key to the game: Kick an opponent while they\u2019re down<\/p>\n Tonight might be the most vulnerable the Flyers have been all season. They\u2019re playing a second night in a row and have lost four straight. Their goaltending is in flux, their offense hasn\u2019t been much better. The Penguins have had significant difficulties themselves in generating goals lately (just two over the last three games), Philadelphia is not much better scoring one or two goals in each of the last four games. Nothing is clicking and things are starting to go off the rails. The Penguins can\u2019t single-handedly send them on an unrecoverable slide, but they do have a great opportunity to add even more to Philadelphia\u2019s current spiral.<\/p>\n On the other side, the proverbial wounded opponent can also be the most dangerous. The Flyers will surely give whatever effort and energy they have to be desperate to break out of this lull against a rival on the road, the Penguins can\u2019t expect an easy night but it\u2019s difficult to scheme up a more advantageous position to be in coming into this game.<\/p>\n Rickard Rakell – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust<\/p>\n Egor Chinakhov – Tommy Novak – Evgeni Malkin<\/p>\n Anthony Mantha – Ben Kindel – Justin Brazeau<\/p>\n Connor Dewar – Blake Lizotte – Noel Acciari<\/p>\n Brett Kulak \/ Kris Letang<\/p>\n Parker Wotherspoon \/ Jack St. Ivany<\/p>\n Ryan Shea \/ Connor Clifton<\/p>\n Goalies: Stuart Skinner and Arturs Silovs<\/p>\n Potential Scratches: Ryan Graves, Kevin Hayes<\/p>\n IR: Erik Karlsson, Filip Hallander, Caleb Jones, Rutger McGroarty<\/p>\n There were no changes in the lines yesterday at practice for the Penguins, who look like they\u2019re going to count on Rust\u2019s return to eventually help boost the offensive output to where it needs to be.<\/p>\n Biggest game of the season\u2026so far?<\/p>\n Tonight won\u2019t be the absolute most important game of the season, but there\u2019s a good case to be made that it\u2019s the biggest game the Penguins have played so far (and not just in that lame way because it\u2019s the next game of the season).<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/flye.jpg\"\/)
<\/a>I feel like a big difference between the Penguins and Flyers can be summed up by when Anthony Mantha has a good start to the season on a one-year contract, the Penguins say \u201ccool\u201d; when Christian Dvorak has a good start to the season on a one-year contract the Flyers sign him up immediately to a five-year extension.You can see why Rick Tocchet\u2019s being mentioned as a potential Jack Adams candidate by having this type of roster positioned well through the first 45 games of the season. Not a team devoid of talent, but they don\u2019t have many consistently above-average performers either.One of the reasons the Flyers have been one of the bigger surprises in the first half of the season around the league was the play of Vladar, who frankly was one of the biggest shockers for stepping up and providing quality goaltending out of nowhere considering a mediocre track record in the NHL entering this season. Vladar was 10-4-1 with a .912 save% entering the game against the Penguins on 12\/1, perhaps at his zenith. Since then, it\u2019s been downhill winning only six of 12 games (6-3-3, and last night\u2019s injury likely let him off the hook of another loss since Ersson took the L) and posting a .895 save% and getting hurt last night. Has the clock struck midnight to turn his crease into a pumpkin? That could be a possibly crushing development for the Flyers to sink out of the playoff race in the second half of the season if Vladar\u2019s injury is serious and\/or his performance can\u2019t rebound.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/tth43ro1g9tlho7brval.jpg\"\/)
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