by The Los Angeles Kings face the Philadelphia Flyers in their fifth of seven games on this road trip, amid rumors that both clubs could make a trade with each other.
LA suffered an overtime loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday, where Kings head coach Jim Hiller felt the team’s performance was “not good enough” and added that they “relied on Darcy.” [Kuemper] Way too much.” This could indicate that Kuemper has earned a day off tonight (more on that in a moment).
The Flyers have been evenly matched in their last ten games, with a record of 5-4-1 and a goal difference of 33-34.
Likewise, the Kings have a 5-4-1 record against the Flyers with 32 goals for and against in their last ten meetings.
WILD THING
In his career against the Flyers, Kings goaltender David Rittich is 5-0-0 with a 1.95 GAA and a .932 SV%, one of those wins in relief. In addition, he was used on January 28, 2023 (with the Winnipeg Jets) in thirteen minutes of play with three saves on three opposing shots.
At the beginning of this article, it was noted that the Kings leaned on Kuemper in Tuesday’s game against the Penguins. Since returning from his most recent injury, Kuemper has gone 3-0-1 with a 1.50 GAA and a .943 SV%. Such a strong performance could see him get the nod tonight. However, Kuemper’s career numbers weren’t great compared to the Flyers (3-4-1, 3.16 GAA, .898 SV%).
It seems like a good night to launch Rittich – “the Philly Buster”. But Hiller was able to channel his inner Lou Brown and follow Kuemper, “a guess that’s his due.”
PHILADELPHIA, MI
In the early to mid-1990s, forward Bill Armstrong – who played for the Albany River Rats of the American Hockey League (AHL) – scored a goal four times, which he called “The High Wrap”.
The move caught the attention of U. of Michigan Wolverines forward Mike Legg, who stunned the hockey world on March 24, 1996 by hitting a “high wrap” against the U. of Minnesota Gophers. The move was later renamed “Michigan Target” or simply “Michigan” in common parlance.
“The Michigan” was successful in scoring ten times in the NHL (Trevor Zegras 4x, Andrei Svechnikov 3x, Connor Bedard 1x, Filip Forsberg 1x, Kent Johnson 1x).
Joining the discussion is Philadelphia Flyers forward Matvei Michkov, who recently unsuccessfully tried the “Michigan” against Michigan’s own Detroit Red Wings, drawing the public ire of Flyers head coach John Tortorella.
This isn’t the first time Tortorella has expressed his displeasure with “the Michigan.” After Anaheim Ducks forward Trevor Zegras introduced a “Michigan”-adjacent play commonly referred to as an “alley-oop” on December 7, 2021, he indicated that he doesn’t think this type of theatrics is for The game is ice hockey. Tortorella went on to explain that he would “have a conversation” with any of his players who attempted such maneuvers in a game.
After the move against Detroit could not be implemented, it was time speak with Michkov, and it seems that Tortorella may have had better luck negotiating with a wall.
“So I lost the damn fight. I won’t try to fight it… I don’t think so [the Michigan goal] should be in our game, but it is what it is.” –John Tortorella
BACK-TO-BACK SLIDE
This season the Flyers have had five straight games – S/L, L/L, S/L, S/W, L/L.
Philadelphia’s 1-4-0 record in the second game of their back-to-back games bodes well for LA, which is 4-0-0 in that regard (L/W, L/W, W/W, W/W). ).
Puck drop is scheduled for 4:35 p.m. PST. You can stream the game via ESPN+ or listen live using the ESPN LA app.
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