Game Preview: Pittsburgh Penguins @ Philadelphia Flyers 11/25/2022 - Lines, how to watch

The Pens get ready for the 2022 NHL Thanksgiving Showdown

Who: Pittsburgh Penguins (10-7-3, 23 points, 5th place Metropolitan Division) @ Philadelphia Flyers (7-8-5, 19 points, 6th place Pacific Division)

When: 5:30 p.m. Eastern

How to Watch: Nationally broadcast game on TNT, Sportsnet and TVAs in Canada, Sling TV

Opponent Track: On November 8th, the Flyers defeated the St. Louis Blues to move to 7-3-2 on the season. There was a lot of smoke and mirrors with poor process, great goaltending and hot shooting and since then it’s been downhill. Philadelphia is 0-5-3 since that point, including recent losses to Boston, Montreal (shootout), Calgary and Washington (OT) in the last week.

Pens Path Ahead: The long “road” for away games being heavily featured on the schedule is about to break for the Pens after tonight. Pittsburgh returns home for the next five games, and seven of the next eight. Toronto, Carolina, Vegas, St. Louis and Columbus will be the teams coming to Pittsburgh in the coming days, starting with the Maple Leafs tomorrow night.

Season Series: Tonight is the first of only three PIT/PHI games this season. And if you like this game you better enjoy it because it won’t be back again for a while. The Pens and Flyers don’t meet again until March 11th when the Flyers come to the ‘Burgh and then a final game in Pittsburgh between the two happens on April 2nd.

Getting to know the Flyers

SB Nation counterpart: Broad Street Hockey

Possible lines

FORWARDS

Joel Farabee - Morgan Frost - Owen Tippett

Noah Cates - Kevin Hayes - Zack MacEwen

Jackson Cates - Patrick Brown - Tanner Laczynski

Nicolas Deslauriers - Lukas Sedlak - Kiefer Bellows

DEFENSEMEN

Ivan Provorov / Tony DeAngelo

Travis Sanheim / Justin Braun

Nick Seeler / Rasmus Ristolainen

Goalies: Carter Hart

Scratches: Cam Atkinson (injury), Travis Konecny (injury), Max Willman

IR: Sean Couturier, Ryan Ellis, James van Riemsdyk, Scott Laughton, Wade Allison

—There’s probably more talent on the sidelines and IR than actually in the lineup for the Flyers tonight. The heart just breaks for them. But it is tough to compete in the NHL with so many important players unable to

Stats

via hockeydb

—Where would the Flyers be without Carter Hart this season? Only four players have five or more goals on the season. Hart has had an up and down career to this point and could be more of the solution than problem if Philadelphia can build up the rest of the team around him.

—Only four more seasons after this one for Rasmus Ristolainen. Odds he makes it that far have to be pretty low.

If you can’t be good, at least chop it up

The Flyers are tied for first in the NHL with 13 fights this season, so at least they’re tops at something. (The Pens, by the way, have one fight on the year, and it was barely a memorable one with Bryan Rust. Not even sure any punches were thrown).

Anyways, on now an eight-game losing streak with the season spiraling out of control, John Tortorella should be extra punchy against the team he loves to hate, the Pens.

Head to head matchup

—The Flyers, woof. They’re very bad at pretty much everything, besides where Carter Hart has taken it upon himself to carry them for a little bit. Who knows how long that might continue to last, but that will be the matchup to watch in this game.

And now for the Pens...

Potential Game Lines

Forwards

Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Rickard Rakell

Jason Zucker - Evgeni Malkin - Bryan Rust

Brock McGinn - Jeff Carter - Danton Heinen

Ryan Poehling - Teddy Blueger - Josh Archibald

Defense

Marcus Pettersson / Kris Letang

P.O. Joseph / Jeff Petry

Brian Dumoulin / Jan Rutta

Goalies: Tristan Jarry (Casey DeSmith)

Scratches: Kasperi Kapanen, Chad Ruhwedel

IR: None!

Stats