Game 82 Preview: Flyers vs. Blackhawks
Playing their final game of the 2022-23 season, John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (27-38-13) are in the Windy City on Thursday to take on Luke Richardson's Chicago Blackhawks (26-49-6). Game time at the United Center is 8:30 p.m. EDT.
This is the second and final meeting of the season between the teams this season, and the lone game in Philadelphia. The Flyers are 0-1-0 against Chicago this season. The Blackhawks prevailed, 4-1, at the Wells Fargo Center on January 19. It was Chicago's first regular season win in Philadelphia (0-16-1) since November 9, 1996.
On Tuesday, the Flyers snapped a seven-game winless streak (0-6-1) with a 4-3 overtime victory against the Columbus Blue Jackets in the final home game of the 2022-23 season.
The Flyers finished at "hockey .500" on home ice this season, at 18-18-5. Entering the season finale in Chicago, the Flyers are just 12-20-8 on the road this season.
Thursday game will be the final one in the storied career of Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews. For the Flyers, it will be the farewell game for defenseman Justin Braun, who will have numerous family members and friends who've taken the trip to Chicago for the game. It will also be the final Flyers game for two-stint winger James van Riemsdyk, who will be an unrestricted free agent this summer.
Projected lineups (subject to change)
FLYERS 13 Kevin Hayes - 49 Noah Cates - 74 Owen Tippett 86 Joel Farabee - 48 Morgan Frost - 11 Travis Konecny 25 James van Riemsdyk - 21 Scott Laughton - 57 Wade Allison 22 Brendan Lemieux - 58 Tanner Laczynski - 44 Nicolas Deslauriers
9 Ivan Provorov - 45 Cam York 6 Travis Sanheim - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen 24 Nick Seeler - 61 Justin Braun
32 Felix Sandström 79 Carter Hart
Available: 20 Kieffer Bellows, 77 Tony DeAngelo.
BLACKHAWKS
90 Tyler Johnson - 19 Jonathan Toews - 17 Jason Dickinson 24 Anders Björk - 89 Andreas Athanasiou - 53 Buddy Robinson 14 Boris Katchouk - 58 MacKenzie Entwhistle - 15 Joey Anderson 26 Austin Wagner - 52 Reese Johnson - 51 Ian Mitchell
82 Caleb Jones - 4 Seth Jones 44 Wyatt Kaiser - 45 Connor Murphy 28 Andreas Englund - 22 Nikita Zaitsev
32 Alex Stalock 34 Petr Mrazek