For the Flyers first game after nine days off the orange and black traveled to South Florida to play a hot Panthers team. Florida has aspirations to prove that last season was not a fluke and that they are ready for another deep playoff run. While the Flyers had to regroup after a five game losing streak going into the All-Star break. The first period was shaky for the Flyers as they were heavily outplayed by the Panthers. They had to rely heavily on Sam Ersson to keep it a one goal deficit after twenty minutes. The Flyers were able to regroup and battle back for a 2-1 victory with goals by Travis Konceny and Noah Cates. The Flyers were fortunate to have Owen Tippett return to the lineup after missing the last four games with a lower body injury. Philadelphia will be relying on Sam Ersson to be the number one goalie for the rest of the season due to the absence of Carter Hart. As he has most likely played his last game as a Flyer.
Travis Konceny was the Flyers lone participant at the NHL All-Star game this past weekend in Toronto. He was drafted to Nathan MacKinnon’s team along with Sidney Crosby, Tom Wilson, and Sebastian Aho from the Metro Division. TK did not participate in the skill competition on Friday night and only recorded an assist in Team MacKinnon’s lone game in a 4-3 shootout loss to Team McDavid.
The Flyers are currently third in the Metropolitan Division with 58 points in 51 games. They are three points behind the Hurricanes and four points ahead of the Islanders. No other team in the division has played 51 games yet so teams below the Flyers will have games at hand to make up points to try and catch the Flyers. As of right now it looks like both Wild Card spots in the East will be taken by teams from the Atlantic Division. So the Flyers must stay in the top three of the Metro to make the playoffs.
The Flyers are next in action on Thursday the 8th against the Jets, followed by a Saturday night game versus the Kraken and Monday night against the Coyotes during a three game home stand.
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