UPDATE 5 PM ET
Carter Hart (illness) is unavailable to play. Samuel Ersson will get the start in net. The Flyers have made an emergency recall of Felix Sandström to back up Ersson against Washington. Also, the Flyers have assigned veteran defenseman Louie Belpedio to the Phantoms.
Marc Staal will enter the lineup against Washington after he was a healthy scratch against Nashville on Tuesday. Egor Zamula will be scratched. Lineups are updated below.
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Game 29 Preview: Flyers vs. Capitals
The Philadelphia Flyers (15-10-3) return home on Thursday to take on the Washington Capitals (14-8-3) at the Wells Fargo Center. Game time is 7:00 p.m. ET.
The Flyers, who came back from a 2-0 deficit but lost in overtime in Nashville on Tuesday, bring a six-game point streak (4-0-2) into this game. The Capitals have won two in a row heading into this tilt, most recently a 4-2 road win on Sunday against the Chicago Blackhawks.
Overall, the Flyers are 6-6-1 on home ice this season and 5-3-2 over the last 10 games. The Capitals are 6-4-1 on the road and 5-4-1 in the last 10 games.
In Nashville, Sean Couturier extended his point streak to six straight games, with a goal in the final minute of the second period and an assist in the third period. Travis Sanheim scored a rebound goal to knot the score at 2-2. In a losing cause, Samuel Ersson stopped 19 of 22 shots.
The Flyers did not practice on Wednesday and will not hold a morning skate today. The Capitals will have an 11:30 a.m. morning skate at the Wells Fargo Center. On Sunday, Nick Dowd tallied his third and fourth goals of the 2023-24 season. The Caps also received tallies from Anthony Mantha (7th) and Dylan Strome (11th).
For an in-depth preview, see today's Five Things on the Flyers' official website. Projected lines below are subject to change and will be updated later in the day. John Tortorella will speak late in the afternoon to the media to confirm the Philadelphia lineup.
FLYERS (updated 5:00 p.m. ET)
71 Tyson Foerster - 14 Sean Couturier - 11 Travis Konecny 86 Joel Farabee - 21 Scott Laughton - 89 Cam Atkinson 74 Owen Tippett - 48 Morgan Frost - 10 Bobby Brink 44 Nic Deslauriers - 25 Ryan Poehling - 19 Garnet Hathaway
8 Cam York - 6 Travis Sanheim 24 Nick Seeler - 26 Sean Walker 18 Marc Staal - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
33 Samuel Ersson [32 Felix Sandström]
Scratches: 5 Egor Zamula (healthy), 62 Olle Lycksell (healthy), Carter Hart (illness)
CAPITALS
8 Alex Ovechkin - 17 Dylan Strome - 43 Tom Wilson 21 Aliaksei Protas - 24 Connor McMichael - 39 Anthony Mantha 91 Joe Snively - 92 Evgeny Kuznetsov - 77 T.J. Oshie 47 Beck Malenstyn - 26 Nic Dowd - 96 Nicolas Aube-Kubel
42 Martin Fehervary - 74 John Carlson 6 Joel Edmundson - 3 Nick Jensen 38 Rasmus Sandin - 57 Trevor van Riemsdyk
79 Charlie Lindgren 35 Darcy Kuemper
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Phantoms Top Checkers in OT
In a game that was nationally televised on NHL Network, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms (11-9-4) earned a 3-2 overtime win against the Charlotte Checkers (12-10-1) at the PPL Center on Wednesday evening.
The two teams traded off goals in the first 67 seconds of the first period. At the 58-second mark, Emil Andrae (2nd goal of the season) measured a wrist shot and found the net with some traffic in from. The assists went to Adam Karashik and Cooper Marody. A mere nine seconds later, Elliot Desnoyers unwisely made a lateral pass attempt near the defensive slot and put the puck onto the stick of Charlotte's Mackie Samoskevich (6th), who quickly fired off a shot past Felix Sandström to tie the score at 1-1.
The game remained scoreless until 1:03 of the second period, as the Phantoms got outnumbered and goal-scorer Justin Sourdif (3rd goal of the season) scored off a feed from Michael Benning. Through 40 minutes, shots on goal were 20-19 in Lehigh Valley's favor but there were lengthy stretches without meaningful scoring chances on either side.
The Phantoms trailed, 2-1, until the latter portion of the third period. A tripping penalty on Calle Sjà¤lin at 15:23 presented a do-or-die opportunity for the Phantoms on the power play. At the 15:51 mark, Lehigh Valley drew even. Andrae teed up a one-timer for Samu Tuomaala (6th goal of the season) from the top of the left circle and Tuomaala ripped the puck home. The other assist went to Marody for his second assist of the game.
In a Samu state of mind 🚨#LVvsCLT | #OurValleyOurHome pic.twitter.com/N1EqMiRwFa
— Lehigh Valley Phantoms (@LVPhantoms) December 14, 2023
At 2:31 of sudden death, the game came to a dramatic conclusion. Marody controlled the puck for an extensive period of time. He swooped around behind the net and, seeing no open shot or passing opportunity, came out the other side and carried higher in the attack zone. Defenseman Ronnie Attard now had a wide open lane to go to the net. Marody delivered a perfect pass and Attard (5th goal of the season) ended the game from point-blank range. It was Marody's third assist of the night and 15th of the season.
Attard gets it done😤#LVvsCLT | #OurValleyOurHome pic.twitter.com/HkpnNzpr0R
— Lehigh Valley Phantoms (@LVPhantoms) December 14, 2023
The Phantoms got mixed news on the injury front. Most of it was positive. Tanner Laczynski, Rhett Gardner, Adam Brooks and Victor Mete all returned from injuries to dress in Wednesday's game. There was, however, some bad news. Defenseman Helge Grans has a broken hand with a displaced fracture that required surgery. He'll miss an extended period of time.
Olle Lycksell, whom the Flyers recalled last week for their now-completed three-game road trip, remains with the parent club as of Thursday morning. He dressed in one of three games during the trip, skating six shifts in Arizona. Defenseman Louie Belpedio, who last played in a game on Nov. 19 against the Columbus Blue Jackets, cleared waivers last week. However, he has not yet been assigned to the Phantoms as of this writing.
The Phantoms' starting lineup from Wednesday's game is below.
24 Adam Brooks - 9 Tanner Laczynski - 27 Samu Tuomaala 17 Garrett Wilson - 91 Elliot Desnoyers - 20 Cooper Marody 16 JR Avon - 22 Rhett Gardner - 19 Wade Allison 15 Jordy Bellerive - 56 Jacob Gaucher - 14 Zayde Wisdom
6 Emil Andrae - 3 Adam Karashik 98 Victor Mete - 12 Ronnie Attard 37 Adam Ginning - 5 Ethan Samson
32 Felix Sandström [40 Cal Petersen]