Philadelphia Flyers: Three players that will need to step up in Lake Tahoe showdown
These three players will have to step up for the Philadelphia Flyers at Lake Tahoe on Sunday.
We’re in for one hell of a treat this weekend with the NHL heading to Lake Tahoe for two Honda NHL Outdoors games, with the Vegas Golden Knights taking on the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday (3:00 p.m. ET) and the Boston Bruins going up against the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday (2:00 p.m. ET).
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However, while both games should be absolute spectacles with a breathtaking backdrop, the Philadelphia Flyers have been dealt a huge blow with six key players not making the trip to Lake Tahoe for Sunday’s East Division showdown with the Bruins.
Defenseman Justin Braun and forwards Claude Giroux, Travis Konecny, Scott Laughton, Oskar Lindblom and Jakub Voracek have all been ruled out this weekend due to all being on the NHL’s COVID-19 Protocol list.
That is a lot of star and man power for the Flyers to be missing against a Bruins team that is 10-3-2 on the year and are 7-2-1 in their last 10 outings. As a result, Philadelphia will need other players to step up and fill the void left by those absentees, and we’ve looked at three players in particular who will need to step up to help their team enjoy a memorable weekend at Lake Tahoe
Three Philadelphia Flyers who will need to raise their game at Lake Tahoe
3. Carter Hart
It has already been confirmed that Carter Hart will get the start for the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday, and the phenom goalie will have his work cut out for him given what he’s going to be going up against in a loaded and potent Boston Bruins lineup.
The B’s may rank 20th in the NHL in Goals For Per Game (2.80), but they still boast one of the best lines in all of hockey in the perfection line, and Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak can absolutely run riot if they are allowed to.
Boston have also been pretty damn good on the power play this season too, converting on the man advantage at a 29.8 percent clip, so the Flyers will need their franchise goaltender to adapt to the elements and stand on his head on Sunday.
Hart has been okay this season, posting a 5-2-3 record with a 3.31 Goals Against Average and a .902 Save Percentage, but there is no doubt that those numbers will need to improve if the Flyers are to battle for the top seed in what is an incredibly loaded and competitive East Division this year.
And, the Philadelphia Flyers will probably need an elite performance between the pipes given that they will be playing shorthanded due to the players out, so this is a golden opportunity for Carter Hart to produce arguably his best performance of the season and backstop his team to what would be a marquee win against the Boston Bruins at Lake Tahoe.
2. James van Riemsdyk
I looked a week or so ago at why James van Riemsdyk deserves more attention given what he has done for the Philadelphia Flyers so far this season, and that statement still stands true a month or so into the 2020-21 NHL Season.
After all, Riemsdyk leads the Flyers in points with 18 (7 G, 11 A), and he’s without a doubt been one of their most consistent and impressive performers through the first quarter of the year. He’s averaging 16:07 of total ice time, he’s playing in all situations and he’s arguably playing some of the best hockey of his career right now.
While a 21.9 shooting percentage perhaps isn’t sustainable for the duration of a 56-game schedule, even if that number regresses slightly Riemsdyk will still be shooting the puck at a high level and, as we’ve seen with him so far this season, good things tend to happen when he gets the puck on net.
He just does the little things well too that go a big way in making things happen in the offensive zone and, with potent weapons in the ilk of Claude Giroux, Travis Konecny and Jakub Voracek all unavailable for Sunday’s game, the onus will be on Riemsdyk even more to drive the play and provide the Flyers with a scoring punch.
Not having Giroux, Konecny and Voracek is a lot of firepower to lose, especially against a team as stingy as the Boston Bruins who are currently ranked third in Goals Against Per Game (2.20), so it will be up to James van Riemsdyk to stay hot and lead a depleted offense for the Philadelphia Flyers if they are to pick up a big win and keep the heat on the Bruins at the top of the East Division.
1. Kevin Hayes
The Boston Bruins can play a physical brand of hockey and, even though they are nowhere near the big, bad Bruins of yesteryear, they can still mix it with the best of them when needed and they have players on the backend who can play physical and dominate that aspect of the game.
As a result, the Philadelphia Flyers will need to be prepared for a battle on Sunday, especially in outdoor conditions, and this is where Kevin Hayes comes in. The power forward, who was born in Dorchester, is one of Philadelphia’s most physical players and he will need to be prepared to bring the grit on Sunday.
Not only that but, without the likes of Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek in the lineup, the Flyers will need someone to step up and lead by example in a number of areas and Hayes can certainly do that. He has a 49.3 percent win rate in the faceoff circle this season and will be relied upon in that area, while he will also no doubt see an increase in his ice time having averaged 19:01 of total ice time so far.
Hayes is also a penalty killing expert and, given the Boston Bruins’ dominance on the power play, he will be expected to play a real physical brand of hockey and do whatever he needs to do in order to disrupt the Bruins’ most potent offensive weapons and prevent them from having a big impact on proceedings.
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With six goals and seven assists for 13 points in 14 games too, and currently shooting the puck at a 17.6 percent clip, Kevin Hayes can certainly provide a scoring punch and, with the amount of key offensive players that will be out of the lineup for the Philadelphia Flyers at Lake Tahoe this Sunday, the center will need to be a dominant presence in all three zones in order to give his team the best possible chance of claiming victory in the second of the NHL’s Outdoor games this weekend.