Preview: The Flyers head to the State of Hockey for a matchup against the Wild

The Philadelphia Flyers (20-21-8) go on a two-game road trip to end January and enter the all-star break. They start from America to the north Minnesota Wild (25-17-4). This Wild team has just been kicked out of third place in their division Colorado Avalanche, who, despite their injury problems, have made it back to the playoffs. Flyers? Well, they’re still at the bottom of the Metropolitan Division.

These two teams are oddly similar in their last 10 games, Philadelphia is 5-4-1 and Minnesota is 4-4-2. The Flyers have suffered two losses in a row, one to their next opponent, the Jets, and the other to the Los Angeles Kings. The Wild have lost three straight to Eastern Conference teams, the Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Panthers and Carolina Hurricanes.

Kirill Kaprizov has surprisingly been at the forefront of everything the Wild have done this season. He leads the team in assists and points over the last five games, and in 2022-23 he leads the team in points with 57 points in 46 games. He was selected to the all-star game to represent Minnesota this coming week.

Ryan Hartman will be looking for a rebound tonight after telling the media that he felt the loss to the Lightning in their most recent round was about him after taking two minor penalties and allowing Tampa to get back into the game. An angry Hartman is not something to mess with, and luckily the Flyers won’t have to deal with him, as Wild head coach Dean Evason has decided to scratch him due to said penalties.

All-star Kevin Hayes leads the Flyers in goals and points over the last five games with five and seven. He has 44 points in 48 games, not a team high (behind Travis Konecny), but still on pace to break his career high in that stat category.

This will be the first of two games against the Wild this season, with the second coming in late March. The interesting thing is that both of these games are on ESPN to some extent, this one being broadcast exclusively on ESPN+ and the other being televised nationally from the Wells Fargo Center.

Players to watch

Scott Laughton

While Scott Laughton doesn’t have the most flattering stat line against the Wild, he has had an impressive showing over the last 10 games: 3 goals and 5 assists, 8 points and 22 shots, the fourth-highest total of any Flyers forward right now. span. He’s been an important depth adder to the team, which isn’t a surprise to many, but one could be that he’s on pace to break his career high as well. He can be a factor tonight.

Matt Boldy

The young forward from Massachusetts has been a key player for the Wild since breaking into the NHL. Matt Boldy hasn’t been performing at a ridiculous level lately, with just 6 points in his last 10 games, but he just signed a 7-year, $7 million-per-year contract extension with the Wild. He has a young career 33 points in 46 games in 2022-23 and 2 points in two games against the Flyers.

Flyers Lines

James van Riemsdyk Morgan Frost Owen Tippett

Joel Farabee Noah Cates Travis Konecny

Kevin Hayes Scott Laughton Wade Allison

Nicolas Deslauriers Patrick Brown Zack MacEwen

Ivan Provorov Cam York

Travis Sanheim Tony DeAngelo

Nick Seeler Rasmus Ristolainen

Carter Hart

(Felix Sandstrom)

How to watch

Puck Drop: 8:00 PM ET

Where: Xcel Energy Center

TV: ESPN+/Hulu

Radio: 97.5 The Fanatic