Gameday: Flyers vs Senators Preview

I’m thriving right now the Flyers are back, the Phillies are in the NLCS, and the Eagles are still undefeated. It’s a great time to be a Philly sports fan. While some are still recovering from celebrating the Phillies NLDS win and getting ready for Eagles vs Jets tomorrow and game one of the NLCS on Monday, today sit back and relax and enjoy some Flyers afternoon hockey. 

The Flyers are in Ottawa to take on the Senators and former Flyer captain Claude Giroux. Would it really be a Flyers Senators game if we don’t mention Claude Giroux. Look the guy spent the better part of 15 seasons here and was the Captain during some great and some bad times. Obviously, with this being his second year on the Senators it’s not his first time playing against his former team. Last year he had 2 goals and 3 assist in the three games against them including his 300th career goal. 

Enough Claude Giroux though we’re in a New Era of Orange and the Flyers are 1-0 after beating the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday night. The Ottawa Senators are coming off a loss in their first game of the season against the Carolina Hurricanes. The Senators come into this season with some high expectations as they are expected to compete for a playoff spot. Ottawa didn’t looked bad the other night as they started off strong but they let the Canes come back and take control of the game. After going down 3-1 the Senators would battle back to tie the game at 3 but the Canes would prove to be too much and would pull away with the 5-3 victory. 

Saturday will be the home opener for Ottawa so you know the building will be pumping with energy. Lets take a look at how the teams will lineup…

Flyers:

Farabee-Couturier-Brink

Tippett-Frost-Atkinson

Laughton-Cates-Konecny

Deslauriers-Poehling-Hathaway

York-Sanheim

Staal-Walker

Zamula-Seeler

Hart

No expected changes in the Flyers lineup as they are coming off that win against the Blue Jackets. Thought maybe we would maybe see Forster get in the lineup but it doesn’t look like that’s the case. Ristolainen didn’t make the trip as he is still battling a small injury, we could see him in the lineup come Tuesday’s home opener. Carter Hart is expected to get the start in net again after a great performance Thursday. 

The Flyers will look for their offense to build off their performance. The top line of Farabee, Coots, and Brink provided the first goal of the game Thursday and Coots looked like he hadn’t missed a beat after missing all of last season. Having him back in the lineup to match up against the other teams top units is going to be huge. Brink will be looking to make more of an impact then he did on Thursday and hopefully he will get more chances this afternoon. 

Senators:

Tkachuk-Stutzle-Giroux

Joseph-Greig-Tarasenko

Kubalik-Chartier-Batherson

Kelly-Kastelic-Macewen

Chychrun-Chabot

Sanderson-Zub

Brannstrom-Hamonic

Korpisalo

Forsberg

Ottawa played a man short on Wednesday night as they went with 11 forwards and 6 defenseman. With a full lineup today they will look to have a much better performance in front of their hometown fans. The top line of Giroux, Stutzle, and Tkachuk is very dangerous. Stutzle is poised to have a breakout year this season and the kid can score goals when he gets going. He potted one in their opening game and will look to once again get on the scoresheet. Tkachuk plays a very hard nosed style but doesn’t lack offense either and we all know very well exactly what Claude Giroux can do. 

Having added Tarasenko during the offseason he makes their lineup a little deeper. If Ottawa is going to have any shot of the playoffs they will need him and the rest of their depth players to step up. 

Their defense is pretty solid overall and they could very well shut the Flyers down. Chychrun and Chabot will get the bulk of the time against the Flyers top line so those guys will be seeing a lot of Farabee, Coots, and Brink. 

Goaltending isn’t a strong suit for the Senators. Jonnas Korpisalo isn’t bad by any means but he isn’t an elite goaltender. The Flyers need to pepper him with shots and they should be able to get a few by him. 

Recent History:

Ottawa took two of the three games from the Flyers last season. Two of the three were one goal games while the second of the three meeting was a 4-1 Senators dominate victory. 

Final Thoughts:

This is going to be another early test for the Flyers to see how they are going to stack up against another team that has playoff expectations. If the Flyers can start this season off strong against these type of teams it’ll be huge for them come later in the season. Not saying they are going to be a playoff team but if they can win some of these early games and not put themselves too far behind the 8-ball then they very well could find themselves in the hunt come March. 

Travis Sanhiem had one heck of a game Thursday night and that’s another thing you love to see as Flyers fans. There was a lot of talk of him getting traded in the offseason and to see him come out and have such a strong performance in game one was fantastic. If he plays like this all season long Flyers fans won’t be saying a word about his contract. 

The game gets started today at 1:00pm on NBCSP. 

Follow us on Twitter for all your Flyers coverage @FlyersFanLife

-Walsh

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By Keith Walsh | October 14, 2023