‘Going to be a lot of chirping I bet' — Flyers face old friend in D.C.

In Game 54 of the club's 56-game regular season, Cam York will make his NHL debut as the Flyers (23-23-7) visit the Capitals (34-14-5) for a back-to-back set starting Friday.

Let's get into the essentials for the game:

• When: 7 p.m. ET with The Warm Up at 6 p.m. ET and Flyers Pregame Live at 6:15 p.m. ET
• Where: Capital One Arena
• Broadcast: NBC Sports Philadelphia
• Live stream: NBCSportsPhiladelphia.com and the NBC Sports MyTeams app

• For the first time since Michael Raffl was traded at the April 12 deadline, the Flyers will face their old teammate.

"It's going to be interesting, I think a lot of guys are excited about kind of joking around with Raf," Jakub Voracek said Thursday. "There's going to be a lot of chirping I bet, but in a good way. He's a good friend to a lot of people here in this organization. We miss him dearly but wish him success. It's going to be exciting to see him."

Before being dealt to the Capitals, the 32-year-old Raffl had played all 504 of his career NHL games with the Flyers, going back to 2013.

"It's weird seeing him in those colors to be honest," Scott Laughton said.

Laughton and Raffl are close friends.

"We spent a ton of time together, drive together every day, live in the same apartment complex," Laughton said. "He's definitely missed here, missed by me, but hopefully he gets a shot at doing something special there."

To no surprise, the jovial and team-first Raffl has fit in well with the Capitals, who are vying to win the East Division. Raffl has two assists through seven games with Washington. In the Capitals' fight-filled rematch Wednesday with the Rangers amid the bubbling Tom Wilson drama, Raffl dropped the gloves with Anthony Bitetto.

Michael Raffl had a really bad swollen right hand with the Flyers before joining the Capitals. He was just throwing punches with that right hand.

"Played hurt a lot this year," Chuck Fletcher said. "Almost refused to be taken out of the lineup." https://t.co/d0h8qoHW2k

— Jordan Hall (@JHallNBCS) May 5, 2021

"He did well, he's a pretty strong guy," Laughton said. "That guy's tough that he fought, so good for him, got in on the action. Pretty entertaining game to watch."

• York, the Flyers' anticipated 2019 first-round pick, will get his first taste of the NHL at 20 years old. He's a slick puck-moving defenseman with high-end offensive skill and smarts in the defensive zone.

York will become the sixth Flyer to make his NHL debut this season. If there's any silver lining to the Flyers' letdown season, it's that the club has been able to evaluate some prospects at the NHL level ahead of the offseason.

• A win Friday night would put the Capitals in first place of the East Division. The Flyers won't see Alex Ovechkin, who has a lower-body injury and eight goals against the orange and black this season.

So for Friday's game against Flyers:

Vanecek starts

Ovechkin is out

Schultz is out

Wilson is in

Sprong is in

Kuznetsov and Samsonov both on COVID list, both out

— JJ Regan (@JJRegan41) May 7, 2021

Projected lineup

 

Forwards

Claude Giroux-Sean Couturier-Travis Konecny

Joel Farabee-Kevin Hayes-Jakub Voracek

James van Riemsdyk-Scott Laughton-Nicolas Aube-Kubel

Oskar Lindblom-Nolan Patrick-Wade Allison

Defensemen

Ivan Provorov-Travis Sanheim

Cam York-Justin Braun

Samuel Morin-Philippe Myers

Goalies

Brian Elliott

Alex Lyon

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