When: Tuesday, Feb. 22 at 6 p.m. CT
Where: Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, PA
Watch: Bally Sports Midwest, Bally Sports app
Listen: Tape delayed on Q94 pregame start at 930pm
TEAM SNAPSHOTS
BLUES The St. Louis Blues will play their first game at Wells Fargo Center since Jan. 7, 2019 on Tuesday when they meet the Philadelphia Flyers.
In that game in 2019, Jordan Binnington recorded a 25-save shutout in his first NHL start, David Perron, Brayden Schenn and Vladimir Tarasenko scored and the Blues rolled to a 3-0 victory that nearly everyone would claim was the starting point for an eventual run to the first Stanley Cup championship in franchise history.
One night prior, the team also re-discovered Laura Branigan’s 1982 hit “Gloria” at The Jack’s NYB and adopted it as the team’s postgame victory song.
The Blues will be looking to finish off their four-game road trip strong on Tuesday night. The team is 2-0-1 on the trip thus far, most recently downing the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-3 at Scotiabank Place thanks to two goals from Pavel Buchnevich and 34 saves from Ville Husso.
“I think we played pretty solid all three periods,” Blues Head Coach Craig Berube said. “Third period, we let a couple slip there, but our goalie came up big for us in the third and made some big saves. We scored on our opportunities tonight and stayed out of the penalty box.”
The team played Saturday without Vladimir Tarasenko due to an undisclosed injury, but he was back on the ice for practice Monday and is expected to be in the lineup against the Flyers.
FLYERS The Philadelphia Flyers will be playing in their second game of a back-to-back set when they host the Blues for the first time in the regular season.
On Monday, the Flyers dropped an afternoon contest to the Carolina Hurricanes, falling 4-3 at Wells Fargo Center.
It was the fifth consecutive loss for Philadelphia, who are seventh in the Metropolitan Division with 40 points (15-25-10).
It’s been a trying year for the Flyers, who were mired in an eight-game winless streak in December that prompted the firing of Head Coach Alain Vigneault on Dec. 6. Former Blues coach Mike Yeo took over behind the bench on an interim basis but things haven’t gotten much better. In January, the Flyers went 1-9-4 and didn’t capture their first win until Jan. 29.
“We’ve gotta play our game,” Berube said of facing the underdog Flyers. “We’ve got to focus on what we’re going to do in the game. We’ve got to execute and we’ve got to be ready with urgency and intensity in the game… They play in the afternoon (Monday). They’re going to get plenty of rest (before our game). They’ll be ready.”
HEAD-TO-HEAD The Blues and Flyers last met Jan. 15, 2020 in St. Louis. The Flyers won 4-3 in overtime.
Overall, the Blues are 2-1-0 in their last three games at Wells Fargo Center.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
BLUES Justin Faulk, who has points in six straight games entering Tuesday’s matchup. With a point against the Flyers, Faulk would set a new career-high with points in seven straight.
FLYERS Claude Giroux, a veteran Flyer who leads the team with 38 points (16 goals, 22 assists) this season. The 34-year-old is in the final year of an eight-year contract and could be on the move at the trade deadline.
BLUE NOTES
Three players on the Blues roster were drafted by the team at the 2014 NHL Draft in Philadelphia. That year, the Blues selected Ivan Barbashev, Jake Walman and Ville Husso… Berube will be coaching his 240th game for the Blues, moving him into a tie with Jacques Demers for fifth on the team’s all-time list. Berube makes his offseason home just outside of Philadelphia and coached the Flyers for 161 games from 2013-15… Buchnevich has a five-game point streak (three goals, six assists) and is now tied for first on the club with 45 points (18 goals, 27 assists)… Brayden Schenn has nine points in his last seven games (five goals) four assists) and leads the team with 17 points (10 goals, seven assists) since Jan. 1.
