Six days between games is downright absurd in the NHL today, but that’s what the Flyers face this week, and it couldn’t really come at a worse time.
The Flyers are rolling hot off a three-game winning streak, and they’ve been scoring goals in bunches throughout the streak. Sure, the competition hasn’t been great, but it’s never good to head into a extended break when you’re rolling off win after win.
In any event, that’s what the Flyers face this week, with no games until Friday night. At least the Eagles have a Monday night game! And the Sixers probably play a bunch too! Ok!
Let’s discuss what the Flyers have on the schedule when they finally do take the ice again this weekend, though.
Friday: Scott Hartnell returns to Philadelphia
The Columbus Blue Jackets are awful right now — really just terrible and awful and bad. Just about everybody on the team is hurt, including Sergei Bobrovsky and Brandon Dubinsky, and they’ve fallen down to the bottom of the standings as a result.
They’re hurting and they’re already in closed-door players-only meeting mode, but they might have a little more juice in their tank since .. well, we all know how teams can rally around Scott Hartnell’s energy. No doubt that he’s going to have a ton of it on Friday.
Hartnell’s been good for Columbus, too, even if the team hasn’t been too great. Here’s a quick peek at scoring chance numbers so far for ‘Lumbus.
hartnell. RT @ToddCordell: EV attempt numbers for the billion players who have suited up for the Jackets this season pic.twitter.com/XyhbUWgv5n
— collin mehalick (@collinmehalick) November 10, 2014
Not too shabby. Assuming Hartnell doesn’t get hurt like the rest of his teammates before Friday, there should be a lot of energy in the building for this one on Friday. Should be fun.
Saturday: Olé, olé in Montréal
Ahh, six days off and then a back-to-back. A back-to-back in Montreal against the Canadiens, nonetheless. Cool moves, NHL.
My big question is about the goalies here, especially with Columbus on the first leg. Will Craig Berube send Steve Mason out against his old team on Friday night and leave the tougher game in the difficult?road environment to Ray Emery, or will he let Mason focus on Saturday without the added pressure of facing his old team? Does that pressure even exist anymore? Will one guy play both games? Who knows? More questions?
Montreal is a pretty dang good hockey team, and this is going to be a tough game. The Flyers should’ve come out on top last time these guys met but they fell apart in the third period, so there’ll be some motivation this time around.
In the meantime, go Eagles.
