With four wins in their last five games, the Philadelphia Flyers are skating with confidence heading into Thursday’s home game against the Nashville Predators.
Philadelphia’s hot stretch has included a trio of victories in extra time. The team recently topped the Minnesota Wild in overtime and the New York Islanders in a shootout before posting another shootout victory Tuesday in a 3-2 triumph against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
“There’s not a lot of panic,” first-year Flyers coach Rick Tocchet said. “Listen, we’ve got a ways to go, don’t get me wrong, but I feel that when the pressure hits, we’re starting to deal with it a little bit, inch by inch, each game.”
Bobby Brink was the hero of Tuesday’s win, scoring in regulation and again in the shootout. His shootout game-winner was a nifty tally in which he stick-handled several times from close range before burying the decisive goal.
“All that matters is to walk away with two points,” Brink said. “Not going to say it was the best game we’ve ever played, but we came for two points and we got it.”
Samuel Ersson made 24 saves through overtime and stopped two of the Penguins’ three attempts in the shootout. He has started the last two games for Philadelphia, earning a pair of victories, although Tocchet could opt to go back to Dan Vladar on Thursday.
“We did a lot of the small things right and it paid off in the end,” said Ersson, who has a 3.08 goals-against average, compared to Vladar’s 1.81 mark on the young season.
Either netminder will certainly want to keep a close eye on Nashville center Ryan O’Reilly, who leads his team in goals (five) and points (nine). O’Reilly’s five-game point streak was snapped Tuesday in a 5-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Luke Evangelista and Filip Forsberg scored for the Predators, who were blanked over the first two periods before making things interesting in the final frame.
“It was a great push in the third. We were a lot more connected,” Evangelista said. “The forecheck was going and they were turning pucks over, resulting in a lot more (offensive) zone time and a good push. We’ve got to play like that for a full 60.”
This is the lone road matchup in an eight-game stretch for Nashville, which has dropped six of its last eight overall.
The Predators have only won once this season by more than one goal. They beat the Ottawa Senators 4-1 by scoring two empty-netters in the final minute.
“Obviously, we need to get the offense going here a little bit more,” Nashville forward Michael Bunting said. “Maybe just deliver more pucks to the net when we have guys there and kind of cause havoc.”
This is the first meeting of the season between these teams, who will reconvene in Nashville next week. The Flyers captured both matchups with the Predators last season.
