Standings look ‘pretty bad,' but Flyers see important stretch ahead

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With the All-Star break now over, the Flyers begin an important stretch ahead of the March 21 trade deadline.

How aggressively will the Flyers retool? Can they make things interesting this season?

The stretch starts Wednesday when the Flyers (15-22-8) host the Red Wings (20-21-6).

Let's get into the essentials for the game:

  • When: 7 p.m. ET with The Warm Up at 6 p.m. ET and Flyers Pregame Live at 6:15 p.m. ET
  • Where: Wells Fargo Center
  • Broadcast: NBC Sports Philadelphia
  • Live stream: NBCSportsPhiladelphia.com and the NBC Sports MyTeams app

 • The odds to make the playoffs are almost completely against the Flyers at this point. A 13-game losing streak and a 10-game losing streak before February will do that to a team.

"The math is daunting, so in view of that, if this continues, then clearly we’re going to look to do what we can at the trade deadline to improve this team going forward," Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher said Jan. 26.

According to Hockey-Reference.com, the Flyers have a 0.1 percent chance to clinch a postseason berth. They enter Wednesday in seventh place of the Metropolitan Division, with a minus-39 goal differential and a litany of injuries.

"You look at the standings, it looks pretty bad, it looks like it's going to be almost impossible," Claude Giroux said Tuesday. "What we have to do is just take one game at a time. If we can get a few games in a row and get back in the race, then we can look at the standings again. For us right now, it's just to keep getting better, finding ways to win some hockey games and we're going to need everybody for that."

The Flyers were able to take some positives into the All-Star break. They picked up consecutive wins for the first time in 2022. They're hoping they can build on that, especially with nine of their next 11 games coming at home.

"Coming out of a break, one of the main things for me, we talked about how you execute, the simplicity of your game, sort of forcing the other team into positions to deal with those difficulties. But I'd like to see the physicality pick up right off the hop," Flyers interim head coach Mike Yeo said Wednesday after morning skate. "I think that was one thing we were doing really well heading into the break, was our compete level and our physicality. Now we can't allow ourselves after having this opportunity to take a breath and take a break, to not rediscover that, to not get that back into our game. So we'll be looking for that right from the start."

More: 'That was awesome' — Flyers make Giroux blush in celebrating his All-Star MVP

• Yeo said the Flyers will look to play Derick Brassard between 10 to 15 minutes tonight. The 34-year-old center is returning from a nagging hip injury that kept him out for 26 of the last 28 games.

"It's been a long two months," Brassard said Tuesday. "Came back too quick like three times in that span. It's pretty tough for us as a team, losing 10 games in a row two times and not being able to help my teammates. I think that was the hardest part. Hopefully I'm ready to go here, it's probably going to take a few games to get back to normal. But I'll try to keep everything simple and just have fun out there."

• Carter Hart is 4-0-0 with a 2.24 goals-against average and .931 save percentage in his career against the Red Wings.

He faced Detroit in his NHL debut at 20 years old, picking up a 3-2 win at the Wells Fargo Center back on Dec. 18, 2018.

This season, Hart has allowed more than three goals in a game only once since Dec. 8. He's 4-7-2 with a 2.64 goals-against average and .919 save percentage in that stretch.

Projected lineup

 

Forwards

Oskar Lindblom-Claude Giroux-Cam Atkinson

James van Riemsdyk-Scott Laughton-Travis Konecny

Gerry Mayhew-Derick Brassard-Max Willman

Isaac Ratcliffe-Connor Bunnaman-Zack MacEwen

Defensemen

Ivan Provorov-Justin Braun

Travis Sanheim-Rasmus Ristolainen

Keith Yandle-Nick Seeler

Goalies

Carter Hart

Martin Jones

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