This isn’t the Columbus Blue Jackets.
The Flyers will face a real test when they close out their season-long, six-game homestand at the Wells Fargo Center Monday night against the surging Tampa Bay Lightning, who have reeled off nine consecutive victories.
So forget all the excitement that surrounded Saturday’s 6-0 rout of the Metropolitan Division bottom-dwellers. The Flyers are aware of the task at hand, and the mantra in the locker room after Monday’s morning skate was, “We have to show up.”
“All the games are huge now,” defenseman Mark Streit said. ”For us, it’s playoff hockey. We’re facing a really good team that’s been hot for a while now. A lot of offense. So we wanna make sure we have a good start and need to play a level game tonight.”
The Lightning, winners of six straight on the road, have soared to the top of the Atlantic Division standings thanks to an impressive 20-5-0 run since Jan. 8.
Tampa is a team known for its blazing speed and seemingly unlimited skill on offense and its size and strength on defense. Right now, it’s the “Triplets Line” of Nikita Kucherov, Ondrej Palat and Tyler Johnson carrying most of the weight. The three-man unit has combined for seven goals over the last three games.
“You think about Tampa and you think about their speed,” winger Wayne Simmonds said. “That team can skate pretty fast. They’re a pretty good team in transition so if we’re limiting our mistakes in the neutral zone and taking care of the puck. I know I say it all the time, but it’s the truth, if we take care of the pucks, get them deep and put them where we want to put them we can play our game and we can be successful.”
NHL
The Lightning aren’t the only club making a push, however. The Flyers have gone 4-1-0 on their current homestand and have played exceptionally well, sans the 4-0 clunker to Edmonton last week.
Before going down with a lower-body injury, Jakub Voracek stated the Flyers would likely need to claim 10 out of a possible 12 points over their next six games to keep pace in the wildcard chase. He was right.
The Flyers enter Monday four points behind the Red Wings and five behind the Penguins. The Flyers, though, have a game in hand on both Detroit and Pittsburgh.
“I think we set ourselves a goal for the homestand and if we can actually get it I think we’re gonna be in a position to make a playoff push,” captain Claude Giroux said. “We know that they’re coming in hot with a nine-game winning streak so we need to be ready.
“Defensively, they have guys who are pretty big and pretty mobile and can move the puck. It’s going to be important for us to move our feet and we’ll be able to skate with them tonight.”
Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol wants his players to keep things simple. He's constantly preached taking each game one at a time and doesn't want anybody to get caught looking ahead.
After Monday’s skate, Hakstol said he likes the way the Flyers having been working and battling over the past two weeks or so. But he also knows the challenge Tampa poses.
"They’re a hell of a team," Hakstol said of the Lightning. "They play good in all areas. They have outstanding personnel. They’re well-coached. They’re a good team that’s playing very well and consistently well."
Radko the great
After a two-goal, two-assist performance in Saturday's blowout win, Radko Gudas was a popular guy in the locker room Monday morning.
Quite a few players joked they expected him to replicate his stat line against Tampa, his former team, but Gudas was quick to take the attention off himself and focus on the task at hand.
But it was Simmonds who summed it up best.
"Gudy does a lot of things for this team to help us to win,” Simmonds said. “To see him put the puck in the back of the net from center ice feels good.
"Obviously, it’s unbelievable for him, his first goal as a Flyer and his first of the year, he just kept shooting and kept pounding and he had two great assists. I think there’s only one column or two columns on the scoresheet that he didn’t fill out."
Projected lineup
Forwards: Schenn-Giroux-Simmonds
Raffl-Couturier-Gagner
Laughton-Cousins-Read
VandeVelde-Bellemare-White
Defensemen: Schultz-Streit
MacDonald-Gostisbehere
Manning-Gudas
Goalies: Mason (starter)
Neuvirth (backup)
Injured: Del Zotto (wrist, out for season), Voracek (lower body, out another week), Weal (upper body, day to day)
Scratched: Umberger, Medvedev