Game 30 Preview: Flyers @ Kraken
Opening a four-game western road trip, interim head coach Mike Yeo's Philadelphia Flyers (12-12-5) are in Washington State on Wednesday to take on Dave Hakstol's Seattle Kraken (10-17-3). Game time at Climate Pledge Arena is 10 p.m. ET (NBCSP, 97.5 The Fanatic).
This is the second and final game of the season series between the inter-conference teams. On Oct. 18 at the Wells Fargo Center, the Flyers skated to a 6-1 blowout victory.
Due to respective COVID-related game postponements by the NHL as well as the leaguewide Christmas break (Dec. 24 to Dec. 26), this will be the first game for either the Flyers or Kraken since Dec. 18.
Both teams have a significant number of players who are out with injuries and/or due to COVID protocol. However, the Flyers got Kevin Hayes and Morgan Frost back at practice on Tuesday after exiting protocol, while the Kraken got back defensemen Jamie Oleksiak and Carson Soucy.
For an in-depth five-facet preview of Wednesday's game, see "Five Things" on the Flyers official website (which typically posts by 10:30 a.m. ET on a game day). As of this writing, based on the teams' respective line combinations at their practices on Tuesday, the projected line combinations are as follows:
FLYERS
86 Joel Farabee - 13 Kevin Hayes - 11 Travis Konecny 23 Oskar Lindblom - 28 Claude Giroux - 89 Cam Atkinson 25 James van Riemsdyk - 48 Morgan Frost - 20 Gerry Mayhew 71 Max Willman - 38 Patrick Brown - 17 Zack MacEwen
9 Ivan Provorov - 61 Justin Braun 6 Travis Sanheim - 70 Rasmus Ristolainen 3 Keith Yandle - 8 Kevin Connauton
35 Martin Jones [32 Felix Sandström]
KRAKEN
17 Jaden Schwartz - 16 Jared McCann - 7 Jordan Eberle 19 Calle Jà¤rnkrok - 37 Yanni Gourde - 43 Colin Blackwell 90 Marcus Johansson - 21 Alex Wennberg - 72 Joonas Donskoi 71 Max McCormick - 15 Riley Sheahan - 67 Morgan Geekie
24 Jamie Oleksiak - 5 Mark Gioardano 55 Jeremy Lauzon - 28 Carson Soucy 4 Haydn Fleury - 3 Will Borgen
31 Philipp Grubauer [60 Chris Driedger]