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ESPN staff
The ABC Saturday afternoon hockey schedule continues this week with a Metropolitan Division matchup, as the Philadelphia Flyers travel to take on the Carolina Hurricanes, with coverage beginning at 3 p.m. ET and simulcast on ESPN+.
To help get you ready for the game, we’ve put together a guide on all the key players to watch for each team, including in-depth statistical insights from ESPN Stats & Information, and more.
This season, ESPN+ will broadcast 75 exclusive regular-season games, with ABC and ESPN airing a combined 28 exclusive regular-season games for a total of 103 games. The complete broadcast schedule can be found here.
Subscribe to ESPN+ | Stream the NHL on ESPN
3 p.m. ET | Watch live on ESPN+
Line: Carolina -320 | Over/under: 5.5
Flyers
ESPN Power Rankings: 28
Leading scorer: Cam Atkinson, 43 points in 57 games
2021-22 record: 18-29-10, eighth in Metro division
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The Flyers are 7-14-5 on the road this season, currently tied for the least such amount of wins in the NHL with the Seattle Kraken and Montreal Canadiens. The Flyers are tied with the Detroit Red Wings for the fourth-worst points percentage on the road (.365).
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The Flyers are currently on a 10-game road winless streak dating back to Dec. 30, 2021. They are seeking to avoid 11 straight winless road games for the first time since the 1972-73 season.
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Claude Giroux is one point shy of reaching 900 career points, and can become the second Flyers player to do so after Bobby Clarke. Giroux can become the 14th active player — and the third player from the 2006 draft class (Nicklas Backstrom, Phil Kessel) — to reach the benchmark.
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Giroux will be an unrestricted free agent at season’s end (he has a $8.275M cap hit this season, according to CapFriendly). He is three games away from joining Clarke (1,144) as the only Flyers to reach 1,000 career games with the team. If he plays in the next three games for Philly, he will reach 1,000 on March 17 vs. the Nashville Predators — four days before the NHL trade deadline on March 21.
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The Flyers are only the fourth team this season to have two goaltenders (min. 20 GP) with a 2.94 GAA or worse (the Canadiens, Red Wings and Arizona Coyotes are the others). Carter Hart produced winning seasons in the first two seasons of his career, but his struggles to emulate that success continue, as he’s seeing his second-worst season marks in save percentage (.912) and GAA (2.94) this season.
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The Flyers’ power-play struggles might be because they don’t get the puck towards the net. According to Stathletes, they rank 29th in completed power-play slot passes per 60 minutes, and they’ve taken the fourth-most power-play point shots per 60 minutes this season.
Hurricanes
ESPN Power Rankings: 3
Leading scorer: Sebastian Aho, 59 points in 54 games
2021-22 record: 40-12-5, first in Metro division
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The Hurricanes have been great at home this season at 22-4-2, posting the second-best home points percentage in the NHL, at .821, behind only the Colorado Avalanche at .845. They have the third-best home power-play percentage, at 28.3%, trailing only the Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs, and have power-play goals in five of their last six games.
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Their current six-game home winning streak is their longest this season. The Hurricanes are seeking to reach seven straight for the sixth time in Hurricanes/Whalers franchise history. They have not won seven straight games within a single season at home since the 2016-17 season.
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The Hurricanes share the league lead with the Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild in wins decided by one goal this season, and five of their last nine games have been wins decided by that margin.
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Sebastian Aho leads the team in goals (25) and points (59) this season. The Hurricanes have not lost in regulation in games in which Aho scored, going 18-0-1. Aho has points in 10 of his last 11 games.
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The Hurricanes are led by their Finnish contingent of Aho, Teuvo Teravainen and Jesperi Kotkaniemi. The trio has scored 128 points this season, giving the Hurricanes the most points among players from Finland; the two next highest are the Florida Panthers (115) and the Stars (107).
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Frederik Andersen is third in the NHL in wins with 29, only one shy of Sergei Bobrovsky and Andrei Vasilevskiy who share the league lead. Andersen’s 29 wins in his team’s first 57 games of a season are tied for the most in his career, doing so previously with the Anaheim Ducks during the 2014-15 season. Anderson is seeking to reach 30 wins during his team’s first 58 games, which would be his quickest to that mark.
Source: www.espn.com