Philadelphia Flyers forward Scott Laughton is known for working hard and letting other players take the spotlight.
However, this week has been different for Laughton. As a 12-year veteran who has played his entire career with the Flyers, he recently had a career-high, scoring four goals in one game, which earned him a standing ovation from his teammates in the locker room.
Laughton will look to keep up his strong play when the Flyers take on the Minnesota Wild on Saturday afternoon in Saint Paul, Minn.
“Scotty’s one of those guys that it doesn’t matter where he is in the lineup or what his job is, he’s always a good spirit at the rink,” said Flyers teammate Travis Konecny. “He never complains about anything. He just goes and puts his head down and does what he has to do. I think when he’s called upon for offense, he has got a lot of skill.”
The Flyers as a team are also doing well recently.
Philadelphia comes into the game with back-to-back wins. They have earned at least one point in 13 of their last 17 games, with a record of 10-4-3.
Laughton scored all four goals, including a short-handed goal and two empty-netters, in their 4-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday.
“Great play by (Konecny) finding me backdoor,” Laughton said about his penalty kill goal. “… We haven’t really been that great on it the last couple of weeks so it’s nice to pot one there and get the ball rolling in the right direction.”
Konecny is the Flyers’ top scorer with 36 points (15 goals, 21 assists) in 30 games. Matvei Michkov has 27 points (11 goals, 16 assists) in 28 games.
Like the Flyers, the Wild have had a strong start to the season, but they are coming off a tough 7-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday. They have lost two of their last three games after a five-game winning streak.
Kirill Kaprizov leads the Wild with 43 points (18 goals, 25 assists) in 28 games. Matt Boldy is second with 28 points (12 goals, 16 assists) in 29 games.
Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson may get a chance to bounce back from a rough performance in their last game. Marc-Andre Fleury replaced Gustavsson after the Wild gave up five goals in two periods, but Fleury didn’t do much better, allowing two more goals on nine shots in the third period.
“I think we’ve had a lot of good things that have gone on for us this year,” said Wild coach John Hynes. “(Thursday) was an uncharacteristic night for us. I’m not going to overthink it. … We have to get ready for Saturday.”
Gustavsson is 14-5-3 this season with a 2.24 goals-against average and a .922 save percentage. Fleury is 5-1-1 with a 2.71 GAA and a .905 save percentage.
The Flyers are carrying three goaltenders on their roster. Samuel Ersson is the top option and could start against the Wild. He has a 6-3-2 record this season with a 2.85 GAA and an .893 save percentage.
Aleksei Kolosov (4-5-1, 3.05 GAA, .889 save percentage) is second on the Flyers’ goaltender depth chart, while Ivan Fedotov (4-4-1, 3.48 GAA, .877 save percentage) is third.
Kolosov has impressed his teammates in his first NHL season. He stopped 25 of 26 shots in the Flyers’ most recent victory.
“You can tell he’s a gamer, he battles hard, he fights for a lot of pucks,” said Flyers forward Sean Couturier. “He’s really athletic and never quits on pucks.”
