The Philadelphia Flyers will aim to move on from a missed opportunity when they visit the Nashville Predators on Wednesday night.
The Flyers led the visiting Vegas Golden Knights 3-0 on Monday but ended up losing 5-4 in a shootout. The Predators, meanwhile, were done in by Nico Hischier’s second-period natural hat trick in Monday’s 5-2 loss to the host New Jersey Devils.
Morgan Frost had a goal and an assist and Ivan Fedotov made 26 saves for Philadelphia, which lost for the third time in four games on Monday (1-2-1). Rookie right winger Matvei Michkov scored his eighth goal of the season as the Flyers finished 2-2-1 on a five-game homestand.
“One of our better showings in the offensive zone as far as puck movement and people moving without it,” Philadelphia coach John Tortorella said. “Take out seven or eight minutes, it’s a really good game by us. But that’s a really good team. They’ll capitalize.”
For Frost, it was just his second goal of the season and his sixth assist.
“It’s nice to contribute, for sure. It’s been a struggle in that area for me,” Frost said. “It was nice to contribute there and hopefully keep building on it and contribute more going offensively.”
Sean Couturier has scored goals in back-to-back games for the Flyers and Travis Konecny has posted points in nine of the last 10 games (six goals, 10 assists).
The Predators have alternated wins and losses in their last four games and have lost five of seven overall (2-3-2).
Filip Forsberg and Zachary L’Heureux scored against the Devils, but Juuse Saros was pulled after allowing four goals on 30 shots in the first two periods. Scott Wedgewood stopped all 15 shots he faced in relief.
“I thought (the Devils) were faster, they won more battles and they were just a better team for 60 minutes,” Predators captain Roman Josi said. “We had a little bit of a push in the third, but it was way too late. We’ve been talking about it — we have one good game and we fall back to a bad game, and we’re not in a position to do that. We need to find consistency.”
L’Heureux, Nashville’s first-round pick (No. 27 overall) in the 2021 draft, pulled the Predators within 4-2 early in the third period, scoring his second goal of the season with a backhander on a breakaway.
“He’s been great,” Josi said of L’Heureux. “He has a lot of energy. Obviously, scores a nice goal. And just in general, gets on the forecheck, he gets pucks back, he’s hard to play against. So, he’s been great.”
Nashville was 0-for-5 on the power play after scoring on three of eight chances over the previous three games.
Prior to Monday’s game, the Predators acquired the New York Rangers’ fourth-round pick in the 2027 NHL Draft from the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for forward Philip Tomasino, Nashville’s first-round pick (24th overall) in 2019. Tomasino had one assist in 11 games this season for the Predators.
Nashville forward Michael McCarron (upper-body, day-to-day) did not play Monday.
–Field Level Media