Fly Like An Eagle: Blues at Philadelphia Flyers Preview

The Blues find themselves on a bit of a roll, winners of 3 straight and getting their special teams on track. Their 5-on-5 play has been ragged at times, but they've managed to come back when the game has called for it. The Blues could use a little momentum right now, as they go to the Eastern Conference for a quick 2 games this week. First up is the City Of Brotherly Love.

As you may recall, the Blues hosted the Flyers on the 10th, not too long ago. The Blues got behind in the 2nd period, fought back furiously, but came up short in the end. They put a total of 37 shots on net, but only 2 in the net. In the third, our boys were aided by two power plays, outshot the Flyers 14-7, but only had one goal to show for it when they needed 2. Tonight presents an opportunity to at least even the score. The Flyers are eminently beatable, and that home loss is a prime example of "one that got away". While you can't change the past, you can at least balance out the consequences.

Time keeps on slippin' slippin' slippin' ... into the future

Since their visit to St Louis, the Flyers have gone 2-1-1, beating Vancouver and Carolina but losing to Columbus and Dallas. They've been an up-and-down team, somewhat like the Blues. Their last game was a shootout loss to the BJs, and our sister site for the Flyers has their analysis up. From Broad Street Hockey, tell me if this sounds familar:

Just as they did on Thursday, the Flyers were sloppy early, particularly in their own zone. They improved as the game progressed, and the third period was the team at their best.

So, it almost sounds like the Blues will be looking into a mirror tonight. One thing that separates the two teams is their special teams success. While St Louis is riding high on both the PP (7th in the league at 20.8%) and PK (1st in the league at 87%), the Flyers are 26th with the man advantage (15.8 %) and 18th (80.7%) when a man short. The Blues will need to keep that advantage on this trip.

Something else that will need to be maintained: the chemistry in the dressing room. As the lineup constantly changes (especially with the injuries), the players will need to keep up the positive vibes. Earlier this month, Coach Hitch said

"There’s a camaraderie that creates the chemistry that’s been going on, really since (Scott) Gomez and (Scottie) Upshall came here. They’re veteran players who have really good spirit, good team spirit. When you see veteran players who are unselfish like those two are, it rubs off on guys the right way.

"There’s a genuine excitement for somebody else having success other than yourself… it goes a long ways to why we’ve got the points we do right now."

Fly like an eagle, Let my spirit carry me

With that frame of thought, we welcome Joel Edmundson and Jordan Caron to the team (again, in Joel's case). Also, Patrik Berglund is back on the ice, so he's due to return to the team soon as well. As a result, Petteri Lindbohm has been returned to the Wolves. Goalies have not been set, but the likeliest matchup would be Jake Allen versus Steve Mason.

Further Reading:

Broad Street Hockey

CSN Philly

Blues vs Flyers coverage

GameDay Twitter Feed:

Tweets from https://twitter.com/CrossCheckRaise/lists/gameday

Final Verse: Back to the least coast, so another early start. The puck drops at 6PM St Louis time, and the GDT should drop shortly beforehand. Please do come by and pay us a visit. The TV broadcast is on Fox Sports MW, and the radio call will be on KMOX 1120 AM. In the meantime, here's an alternative take on today's theme song - some of you young'ns out there might know this better from the Space Jam soundtrack:

LGB!!!