Following a productive road trip, the Philadelphia Flyers will return home Monday night to take on the improving San Jose Sharks.
The Flyers suffered a tough 6-4 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday to open their three-game trek before nipping the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1 in a shootout on Thursday. Then, on Saturday, Philadelphia battled the defending champion Florida Panthers for 65 minutes before falling 4-3 in a shootout.
“The past few games, we’re beginning to play better, more to what we’re supposed to play like,” Flyers coach John Tortorella said.
Samuel Ersson missed the first two games of the road trip with a lower-body injury before returning to make 28 saves against the Panthers.
“This road trip, I think we played pretty well,” Ersson said. “We battled … against very good teams. We’re happy with the way we played. Obviously we want more points, but if we play like this, they’re going to come.”
Joel Farabee, Anthony Richard and Garnet Hathaway each scored a goal and Scott Laughton had two assists against Florida. Owen Tippett had the team’s lone tally in five shootout attempts.
“I thought we dictated the speed of the game tonight,” Hathaway said. “And that’s something that when we’re playing to our identity, that’s what we do.”
The Sharks are playing better in recent weeks, as well, having gone 5-2-0 in their last seven games following an 0-7-2 start to the season. Most recently, they slipped past the New Jersey Devils on Sunday night, 1-0, in the opener of a four-game trip.
Mackenzie Blackwood made 44 saves for his 11th career shutout, blanking his former team in his first game as a visiting goaltender at Prudential Center.
“It’s just one of those nights where it feels easy,” Blackwood said. “I don’t know why sometimes that happens and sometimes it doesn’t, but sometimes pucks just seem like they’re coming in slow. I don’t know why, but definitely you could say today was one of those days I was seeing the puck well.”
While most teams typically don’t start the same goalie on both ends of a back-to-back set, perhaps San Jose coach Ryan Warsofsky has a tougher decision to make after Blackwood’s stellar effort on Sunday.
“(Blackwood) was outstanding, probably the best I’ve seen him play,” Warsofsky said. “You could just tell he was dialed in, focused and tracking pucks really well.”
Of course, some credit must go to the Sharks’ defense for shutting out a talented Devils team that entered with five wins in its previous six games.
“I thought we did a great job for the most part, staying tight,” said Nico Sturm, who scored the lone goal for San Jose. “Obviously, (Blackwood) had a huge game.”
It remains to be seen if the Sharks’ defense will have to contend with dynamic Flyers rookie Matvei Michkov, who has been a healthy scratch in the last two games.
“It’s just part of the process,” Tortorella said. “With young guys, they can watch games too as far as developing. It’s (about) trying to help him.”
The Sharks and Flyers split their two-game season series in 2023-24. Five of the last six matchups between the teams have been decided by one goal.
