Flyers at Avalanche
9 p.m. on Comcast SportsNet
The Flyers (35-24-13) on Thursday night face a team also fighting for its playoff lives when they visit the Colorado Avalanche (38-31-4) at the Pepsi Center.
We’ll touch on that and more in five things you need to know for the game:
1. Rebounding from Columbus?
Just over two weeks ago at practice, Claude Giroux said, “We’re going to lose another game this year. It’s how we’re going to respond to that.”
The Flyers need a response against the Avalanche after blowing a 2-0 lead in the final 1:04 of regulation on Tuesday night en route to a 3-2 shootout loss to the Metropolitan-worst Blue Jackets.
“At the end of the day, we gotta worry about ourselves and if we play like that, even if we make the playoffs, we'll be out soon,” Giroux said postgame Tuesday. “So we need to find a way to play better because it's not good enough.”
In March, the Flyers have been able to counter tough losses with big wins. After a 4-0 letdown to the Oilers, they stomped the Blue Jackets, 6-0. Following a 5-4 shootout loss to the Panthers, they took care of business against the Red Wings, 4-3. And they put a 4-1 loss to the Penguins in the past by beating the Islanders, 4-1, to open this four-game road trip.
NHL
In fact, the Flyers have not lost consecutive games since Feb. 13-14.
2. Two teams, same position
The Flyers and Avalanche find themselves in nearly identical spots.
The Flyers are tied with the Red Wings for the Eastern Conference’s final playoff seed, while the Avalanche are one point behind the Wild for the Western Conference’s last bid.
Like the Flyers with Detroit, Colorado has a game in hand on Minnesota in terms of total remaining.
And while the Flyers have wrapped up one of the tiebreakers with the Red Wings by winning the season series in points, the Avalanche have already lost that scenario with the Wild, but do play Minnesota once more on Saturday.
It’s a big night for both teams considering Detroit welcomes Montreal at 7:30, while Minnesota hosts Calgary at 8.
Let the scoreboard watching continue.
3. A little support for Mason
For the second straight game, Steve Mason was outstanding. He made a career-high 51 saves against the Blue Jackets and the Flyers offered him spotty defense at best on both goals he surrendered in the final 1:04 of regulation.
As we know, Mason will be heavily relied upon these final 10 games.
The Flyers can’t afford to waste lights-out goalie efforts like the one they received Tuesday night.
"They hurt, we're in a hunt right now, and we had that one in the bag, I guess you wanna say,” Ryan White said (see story). "But it's never over until it's over and gotta give Columbus credit, they fired all night."
And part of that is because of defensive coverage. The 53 shots were the most the Flyers have allowed in a game since March 11, 2008.
Mason comes in 6-7-3 with a 3.05 goals-against average and .903 save percentage in 16 career games against the Avalanche.
4. Keep an eye on ...
Flyers: We’ll go Jakub Voracek, who has been somewhat quiet in his first three games back from a lower-body injury. He has an assist over that span as the Flyers have dropped two of the three games after going 7-1-1 in his nine-game absence. Voracek's getting back to his playmaking ways will be a significant boost.
Avalanche: Right winger Jarome Iginla has 22 points in 23 career games against the Flyers and needs just one goal to reach 20 or more for the 17th time in his career. The 38-year-old is still a threat, especially on the power play in which he has 12 markers, most by an Avalanche player since 2006-07.
5. This and that
• Colorado is without its two leading scorers in centers Matt Duchene (knee) and Nathan MacKinnon (knee), who have combined for 108 points.
• The Avalanche took the first meeting with the Flyers, 4-0, on Nov. 10 at the Wells Fargo Center
• The Flyers have lost seven straight in Denver, with their last win coming on Dec. 27, 2002.
• Colorado has won three straight and five of its last six.
• Avalanche goalie Semyon Varlamov is 4-1-0 with a 1.59 goals-against average and .952 save percentage in his last five games.