Despite an array of injuries, the young Philadelphia Flyers are growing up.
The Flyers improved to 3-0-1 in their last four games following a stirring 5-4 shootout victory over the Minnesota Wild on Thursday.
Philadelphia (27-32-12, 66 points) will look to keep its positive momentum moving forward when it hosts the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday afternoon.
“Pucks are going in for us,” said Flyers coach John Tortorella, who picked up his 700th career victory after outlasting the Wild. “We’re scoring some goals obviously. When we were losing some games, we weren’t playing that bad, we just couldn’t find the net. … Now pucks have been going for us.”
The Flyers have been without key injured players such as Cam Atkinson, Sean Couturier, Ryan Ellis and Travis Konecny, among others.
Joel Farabee scored for the fourth straight game after going 26 in a row without notching a goal. Scott Laughton, Rasmus Ristolainen and Tyson Foerster each added one goal.
Foerster has especially been impressive with six points since making his National Hockey League debut on March 9.
“I remember him even from his first training camp (in 2020), just his smarts,” James van Riemsdyk said of Foerster. “You could tell even back then, obviously he was a little more raw than I think now, but you can tell he’s developed and gotten much more confident, comfortable and just gotten the reps.”
Flyers forward Nicolas Deslauriers was a late scratch in warmups with an upper body injury. He’s considered day- to-day.
The Red Wings’ faint wild card hopes continue to fade with four losses in their last five games.
Detroit lost 4-3 to the St. Louis Blues on Thursday and remained nine points behind the Pittsburgh Penguins for the second wild-card position.
Simon Edvinsson was a bright spot with his first career goal for the Red Wings (31-31-9, 71 points).
But Detroit couldn’t sustain the level of play needed to earn a win at this stage of the season.
The Red Wings have careened to a 3-10-1 mark over their last 14 games after a strong start.
“I loved our start, but I’m really disappointed with the way we handled giving up the goals,” Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde said. “Instead of feeling sorry for ourselves for four or five minutes after every goal, we have to go play the right way.”
Edvinsson was selected in the first round, No. 6 overall, in the 2021 NHL Draft. It was just his third game after being promoted from Grand Rapids on March 17 on an emergency basis.
“I’ll be happy about the goal tomorrow, but tonight is about losing,” Edvinsson said. “I felt for myself, taking two penalties, it wasn’t good enough.”
Detroit’s Dylan Larkin managed to extend his points streak to four straight games, with one goal and three assists over that span.
The 26-year-old Larkin, who recently signed an eight-year contract extension with an average annual value of $8.7 million, was named to the All-Star team this season.
–Field Level Media
