The Flyers will have revenge on their minds Saturday when they host former Philadelphia captain Claude Giroux and the Ottawa Senators.
The Flyers have only lost three times in their last 10 games, but one of those losses came at Ottawa on October 23 in a 2-1 setback. Giroux, who spent the 2007 to 2022 season with Philadelphia, had an assist on Michael Amadio’s tying goal.
Olle Lycksell, another former Flyer, scored the game-winning goal for the Senators, who are aiming to win their seasonal series with Philadelphia for the fifth straight season.
The Flyers’ improved play included wins in back-to-back road games this week. First, the team beat the Montreal Canadiens 5-4 in a shootout, then smothered the Nashville Predators 3-1.
“I’m really happy we came away with four out of four points,” Flyers goaltender Dan Vladar said.
Noah Cates, Matvei Michkov and Travis Konecny scored in the win over Nashville, while Cam York recorded two assists. Philadelphia coach Rick Tocchet was especially happy to see Michkov find the back of the net, since he hadn’t scored since Oct. 16 and had just two goals.
“He was a little tight, but his game is coming,” Tocchet said. “It’s nice to see him score.”
Still, the first-year coach would like to see more consistency from his team – a 60-minute effort.
“I just didn’t like how we left,” Tocchet said. “…But then we started progressing. We got better, which is the key. Sometimes you don’t bounce back from a rough start.”
Last month’s win over the Flyers sparked a three-game winning streak for the Senators, although they followed that streak with three losses in their last four games. Their current three-game trip, which ends Saturday, has been highlighted by overtime losses to the Canadiens and Boston Bruins.
Giroux had a goal and an assist Thursday against Boston, while Amadio also scored for the Senators. Linus Ullmark made 22 saves before allowing the game-winning goal with 5.6 seconds remaining in overtime.
“We didn’t have a lot of good players tonight, to be honest,” Ottawa coach Travis Green said. “I thought we held our own. I thought we defended pretty well, but we spent a lot of time in our zone in the first two periods because we weren’t playing well enough. We got beat against a lot of loose pucks.
“…I’m happy we found a way to score a point against a team that’s doing well and playing well at home. I like the fact that we came out in the third period and came back to our game. It was a good point on the road for the way we played.”
The Senators allow 3.86 goals per game – only the St. Louis Blues are worse – and their penalty kill percentage (65.1%) ranks last in the league.
“They wanted it more than us, it’s as simple as that,” said Ottawa defenseman Thomas Chabot. “We did a good job coming back in the third period, but ultimately we have to be better as a team.”
–Field level media
