Arizona Coyotes (23-23-4) at Philadelphia Flyers (28-19-6)
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Starting Time/Venue: 5 p.m. MST at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, PA
To keep their playoff aspirations alive, the Arizona Coyotes role into Philadelphia for a must-win game against the Flyers this evening.
Arizona have lost five in a row after blowing a two-goal lead against the Nashville Predators, falling 5-4 in overtime on Saturday. Jason Zucker recorded three assists while Clayton Keller had two.
The ‘Yotes do have 50 points on the season, but the teams ahead of them are on fire and creating a wider gap.
In the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference the St. Louis Blues are eight points ahead of Arizona (58).
Time is ticking on their playoff picture as the Coyotes are trailing five other teams who have more points than the Desert Dogs, but are still on the outside looking in behind the Blues.
It doesn’t get any easier tonight as Philadelphia are one a three-game winning streak and are third in a stacked Metropolitan Division.
Back when these two teams met on Dec. 7, Travis Konecny scored twice for the Flyers as they beat Arizona 4-1 at Mullett Arena.
Fast-forwarding to their successful stretch as of late, they were able to preserve a 3-2 win over the Seattle Kraken two days ago.
What has been a key contributor of their success so far this season is outshooting their opponents and creating more scoring chances. Philadelphia are both fourth in shots-for per-game (33.4) and shot-faced (28.0%).
As for Philadelphia’s play on special teams, they excel in one area, but mightily struggle in another. The Flyers are second in the NHL in killing penalties (86.0%) but 31st in scoring on the power play (13.2%).
This matchup will be unpredictable before puck-drop as to how it will turn out between a red-hot Philly team and an ice cold ‘Yotes squad.
Key Stats
Goals: Coyotes – RW Clayton Keller: 21 | Flyers – RW Travis Konecny: 24
Assists: Coyotes – RW Clayton Keller: 27 | Flyers – LW Joel Farabee: 24
Points: Coyotes – RW Clayton Keller: 46 (21 goals, 27 assists) | Flyers – RW Travis Konecny: 46 (24 goals, 22 assists)
Injuries
Arizona Coyotes: D Troy Stecher (lower body – IR), C Travis Boyd (upper body – IR)
Philadelphia Flyers: G Carter Hart (personal – IR), RW Tyson Foerster (lower body – Day-to-Day)
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Reporter Alec Cipollini covers the Arizona Coyotes, Cardinals and more for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on his X account @AlecCipollini
