John Tortorella’s Philadelphia Flyers (13-12-4) are at home against Derek Lalonde’s Detroit Red Wings (11-13-4) on Thursday night. Game time at the Wells Fargo Center is 7:00 p.m. EST.

The game will be televised on NBCSP. The radio broadcast will be on 97.5 The Fanatic with a 24-hour online simulcast on Flyers Radio.

Thursday’s meeting is the first of three meetings between the Flyers and Red Wings this season. The clubs will face off again on December 18th at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit. The season series will conclude on January 21st again in Philadelphia.

The Flyers enter this game with a 5-3 road win on Tuesday against the Columbus Blue Jackets. The victory stopped a three-game winless streak for the Flyers (0-2-1) after Philly went 4-0-1 in five games in eight nights through Thanksgiving week.

On Monday, the Red Wings ended a four-game winless streak with a 6-5 (2-1) away win against the Buffalo Sabres. Detroit has a 1-3-2 record in its last six games.

Here are five things to keep in mind for Thursday’s game:

1. Konecny’s scoring spree

Travis Konecny, the Flyers’ leading scorer and Team Canada’s representative in the upcoming four-nation duel, has posted a career-best scoring average (15 goals, 19 assists, 34 points) through the first 29 games of the 2024-24 season. .

The 27-year-old two-time NHL All-Star Game participant has played some of the most consistent offensive hockey of his NHL career over the last six weeks. Since Nov. 5 in Raleigh, Konecny ​​​​has scored at least one point in 16 of the last 18 games. He will try to get on the scoresheet in 17 of 19 games on Thursday.

Konency had a two-goal, power-play and five-on-five performance in Columbus on Tuesday. In his last 18 games, Konency has scored 10 goals and added 14 helpers for 24 points (an average of 1.33 points per game).

2. Tippett targets 6-in-6

No Flyers line has been hotter offensively of late than the trio of left winger Owen Tippett, center Morgan Frost and right winger Matvei Michkov. During training camp and the preseason, the trio was a regular unit and was split up in 5-on-5 at the start of the regular season due to fights between Frost and Tippett and team-wide issues.

Reunited eight games ago, the team has rediscovered – and built on – the chemistry they showed before the season. On Tuesday in Columbus, Tippett scored a goal, Michkov had two major assists and Frost had a goal and an assist.

Tippett enters Thursday with a streak of five goals in his last five games. In the last eight games, Tippett has six points (5g, 1a, +7). Of note, Michkov provided the first assist of Tippett’s five goals with four goals.

Michkov’s hot run precedes his reunion with Frost and Tippett. The Russian winger is the front-runner for the Calder Trophy (NHL Rookie of the Year) and leads all first-year NHL rookies with 27 points (11 goals, 16 assists) in 27 games played.

In the last eight games, Michkov has scored 11 points (4g, 7a, +8). He scored three of his points on the power play and eight at even strength.

Like Tippett, Frost has six points (3g, 3a, +7) in his last eight games. He recently started playing with Tippett in the second power play unit. Michkov is an integral part of the first unit. Five of Frost’s six points in the last eight games came at 5-on-5, the other being a game-winning goal in Nashville when the Flyers attacked at 6-on-5.

3. Special teams: Power play recovers, PK struggles

The Flyers’ power play posted a 3-for-11 record in four games in December after enduring a very difficult 16-game stretch in which the club posted just a 4-for-41 record (9.8 percent). . The Flyers previously opened the season 8:31 (25.8 percent).

For the season as a whole, the Flyers are tied with the Dallas Stars in 25th place with a power play efficiency of 17.4 percent. The trend is increasing, but there is still a long way to go.

On the other hand, the Flyers’ penalty kill — normally one of the team’s biggest strengths under assistant coach Brad Shaw — has struggled a lot lately.

At Thanksgiving, the Flyers ranked third in the NHL in penalty kills with a solid 85.7 percent percentage (10 opposing power play goals on 70 player advantages against the Flyers). Since then, the Flyers’ PK has struggled.

In the Flyers’ last six games, opponents are 8 for 19 on the power play against the Flyers (a PKing percentage of 57.9 percent for Philly). As a result, the Flyers have fallen to 16th in the league with a PKing rate of 79.8 percent.

4. Take leads, keep leads

Because of the Flyers’ improved structure and recent offensive performance – their season-long average production rate of 2.93 goals per game is tied for 20th with the Toronto Maple Leafs – they have had to play fewer games recently than they did last year first six weeks of the season.

Even during the 0-2-1 week the Flyers suffered last week, the team held a third-period lead in two games. The other game, a poor effort against Utah HC, was tied 1-1 and 2-2 after Philly erased two one-goal deficits.

Last week, finishing games after leading in the third period was a problem. Even in Tuesday’s win in Columbus, the Flyers dominated for 50 minutes, securing the win early but allowing two late “garbage time” goals that turned a four-goal lead into an eventual two-goal lead.

If the Flyers manage to gain a lead over Detroit by the third period, tightening their closeouts – including by avoiding penalties in the crucial minute as in recent losses to Carolina and Boston – will become the top task ahead Final buzzer.

5. Behind Enemy Lines: Focus on Larkin

Red Wings center Dylan Larkin leads all Detroit forwards in ice time with an average of 20:23. He ranks second on the team this season with 23 points (12g, 11a) in 28 games played. Larkin has six power play goals among his nine power play points.

Alex Debrincat has had identical total goals and assists so far. Lucas Raymond leads the club overall with 30 points (11g, 19a).

Larkin, who combines excellent speed with above-average size, has five points (all assists) in his last five games. He scored his last goal on November 25 against the New York Islanders: nine games ago.

Larkin scored more than 30 goals in each of the last three seasons prior to the 2024-25 season. Last year he scored a career-best 33 goals with 69 points in 68 games.

The American center was unavailable for the first game of last year’s regular season series (a 1-0 win in Philly) against the Flyers. He did a lot of damage in the second and third meetings (7:6 (2:0) shootout and 3:0 victories for Detroit). In the last two games, Larkin scored two goals and one assist. That included a game-winning goal in Detroit’s shootout victory.

Another factor to keep in mind: Larkin is an excellent faceoff man, especially on draws in the left circle. He has won 56.7 percent of his faceoffs so far this season. Larkin has won more than 54 percent of his faceoffs overall in each of his last three seasons.

On Thursday night, when the Flyers make their final line change, look for Tortorella trying to force Sean Couturier’s line and Cam York with Travis Sanheim in a 5-on-5 duel against Larkin’s line. There is also some confidence in Noah Cates’ line and Rasmus Ristolainen’s defensive pair to check Larkin when the top line or D pair has just undergone a shift.

From Detroit’s perspective, the Red Wings would ideally like to get a matchup between the Larkin line and the Frost line or lose the line to Jamie Drysdale’s pairing with Nick Seeler. For one thing, this could require the Flyers’ hottest offensive line to focus more on defense than offense. From the Flyers’ perspective, getting the Frost line with Michkov and Tippett for starts in the offensive zone against Detroit’s bottom six would be preferable.