Philadelphia Flyers

Flyers-Predators preview: Nashville out for a payback

Published

12 months ago

March 27, 2022

Center Kevin Hayes has 10 points over his last seven games for the Philadelphia Flyers, who face the host Nashville Predators on Sunday.

The Philadelphia Flyers will try to contain two of the league’s hottest players — left winger Filip Forsberg and defenseman Roman Josi — when they play Sunday in Nashville.

Good luck with that.

Forsberg has a career-high 36 goals, including nine in his last nine games. Josi, a strong Norris Trophy candidate as the league’s top defenseman, has a career-best 79 points (18-61) and a plus-19 rating in 63 games. Over his last 12 games, he has a staggering 26 points, including 22 assists, and a plus-12 rating.

On March 17, the Flyers scored an emotional 5-4 win over the Predators in what was Claude Giroux’s final game with the Orange and Black.

The Flyers (21-33-11) are 1-2 on their five-game road trip, which concludes Tuesday in Minnesota.

Nashville (37-24-4), fighting for a Western Conference playoff spot, has lost two straight, both by 6-1 scores to Los Angeles and Vegas.

Storylines

The Flyers will try to bounce back from a 6-3 whipping Friday in Colorado, the NHL’s best team. They were playing on consecutive nights and looked sluggish; then again, the Avs make a lot of teams look slow.

Nashville will be attempting to pay back the Flyers for their recent loss at the Wells Fargo Center.

Flyers’ projected lineup

Line 1: Joel Farabee centering James van Riemsdyk and Cam Atkinson.

Line 2: Kevin Hayes centering Oskar Lindblom and Travis Konecny.

Line 3: Morgan Frost centering Hayden Hodgson and Owen Tippett.

Line 4: Patrick Brown centering Max Willman, and Zack MacEwen.

Defense: Ivan Provorov and Cam York; Travis Sanheim and Rasmus Ristolainen, Keith Yandle and Nick Seeler.

Goalie: Martin Jones.

Numbers Dept.

The Flyers have the NHL’s worst power play (13.2%), while the Preds are No. 6 (24.6%).

Philly is averaging 2.57 goals per game (31^st), and Nashville is averaging 3.23 (11^th).

Who’s hot?

For Nashville, see above.

Kevin Hayes has 10 points (4-6) in his last seven games for the Flyers.

Projected goalie matchup

Jones (3.30 GAA, .903 save percentage) is expected to face Juuse Saros (2.55, .921).

How to watch

NBC Sports Philadelphia+, 6 p.m.

How to bet

Money line (FanDuel)

Flyers: plus-225.

Preds: minus-280.

Prediction

Predators 4, Flyers 3.

Prediction record: 23-8.

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