With two reinforcements, skidding Flyers try to avoid another ‘gut punch'

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The Flyers (15-25-9) will try to snap a four-game losing streak Monday when they host the Hurricanes (34-11-4).

Let's get into the essentials for the afternoon action on Presidents Day:

  • When: 3 p.m. ET with Flyers Pregame Live at 2:30 p.m. ET
  • Where: Wells Fargo Center
  • Broadcast: NBC Sports Philadelphia
  • Live stream: NBCSportsPhiladelphia.com and the NBC Sports MyTeams app

• The Flyers are set for some reinforcements in Rasmus Ristolainen and Patrick Brown.

Ristolainen will return to the lineup after missing the last three games because of an upper-body injury. Brown will play his first game since Jan. 8 after recovering from an MCL sprain.

More: Flyers place a center on waivers; two pieces set for return to lineup

• The Flyers are 2-13-4 in their last 19 games and coming off of two straight demoralizing losses in which they held third-period leads against quality clubs.

They blew a 4-2 advantage last Tuesday in a 5-4 OT loss to the Penguins in Pittsburgh. They relinquished a 3-2 edge in the final three minutes last Thursday for a 5-3 loss to the Capitals at the Wells Fargo Center.

The Flyers are 8-4-9 in games decided by one goal.

"It's a gut punch. I don't even know how to explain it, I've never seen anything like it, where you've got all these games that you're right there and you've got a chance to win them," Flyers interim head coach Mike Yeo said Friday. "Believe me, I've gotten caught up in it a couple of times, too, where you start to feel sorry for yourself, you play the victim, if the circumstances were different and make excuses of who's out of the lineup. We can't allow that to happen. As soon as you do that, then you've lost all control.

"And that's my message to the group. If we understand that we put ourselves in a position to win that hockey game [Thursday], that was because of us and the things that we did. And then we lost the game and that was also because of us and the things that we did. We didn't lose the game because we didn't have good enough players. We lost the game because we made plays or didn't do things at a critical time of the game when we had a chance to put it away. And we also had a chance to win the game because of the things that we did.

"For me, winning teams have that mindset, that attitude that it's never about the other team, it's about us, it's about what we do and what we don't do that guarantees the result."

The Hurricanes played Sunday afternoon in Pittsburgh and picked up a 4-3 win over the Penguins. They're in first place of the Metropolitan Division and have the NHL's third-best goal differential at plus-54.

More: Braun, a sneaky-good trade chip, knows his situation with Flyers

• Carter Hart has allowed more than three goals in a game just three times since Dec. 8. Two of those times have come in his last three starts.

In that span overall, the 23-year-old is 4-9-3 with a 2.96 goals-against average and .908 save percentage.

Update: Hart scratched for Flyers' home game vs. Hurricanes

Projected lineup

 

Forwards

Oskar Lindblom-Claude Giroux-Cam Atkinson

James van Riemsdyk-Scott Laughton-Travis Konecny

Gerry Mayhew-Morgan Frost-Max Willman

Isaac Ratcliffe-Patrick Brown-Zack MacEwen

Defensemen

Ivan Provorov-Justin Braun

Travis Sanheim-Rasmus Ristolainen

Keith Yandle-Nick Seeler

Goalies

Martin Jones

Kirill Ustimenko

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