PHILADELPHIA — If their first back-to-back, common-opponent games on the same sheet of ice in nearly five years, the last team the Flyers would least want to see twice in a row would have to be Tampa Bay.

The Flyers are set to play the Lightning at Xfinity Mobile Arena Saturday night, then again Monday night. Not much to worry about there unless you consider the fact that Tampa had won eight straight games and moved back into serious contention in the Atlantic Division.

In case you’re wondering, the Flyers hadn’t done this same foe for two straight games in the same building thing since May 3-4, 2021 against Pittsburgh, mostly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

At Saturday’s morning skate, Garnet Hathaway discussed the challenge of taking on a powerhouse team twice in about 72 hours.

“There’s a mindset,” Hathaway offered. “You look at it like it’s a playoff series. This game is going to make a big impact on the next 120 minutes. How we prepare now is going to get our feet rolling.

“They’re a really good team and we know that. We have respect for them. Our best hockey is when we’re aggressive.”

Coach Rick Tocchet knew the Flyers would have their hands full with a team retraining some of the big pieces from its pair of Stanley Cup championships.

“That top line (Nikita Kucherov, Brandon Point, Gage Goncalves) is hard to shut down,” Tocchet said. “You have to pay attention. You have to be aware of changes because they use the weak side a lot. So you have to be aware of what is behind you going on.

“It’s almost like chess. You got to read the play two moves ahead. Because that’s what they do, they put you in those situations. They’re one of the better weak-side teams in the league.”

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Jamie Drysdale and Bobby Brink both took part in the morning skate but remained out of the lineup. Drysdale is on IR and will not play in either Tampa game.

Travis Konecny did not skate.

“Quite honestly, I think Drysey and Brink felt better today,” Tocchet said. “I think that’s a real good sign. TK felt a little bit better but not good enough to play.”

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NOTES >> Matvei Michkov skated on a line with Trevor Zegras and Christian Dvorak at morning skate.. … Defenseman Emil Andrae had his plus-minus up to plus-13, tops for D-men on the team and just three behind Noah Cates for the overall team lead. … Samuel Ersson started in goal for the Flyers Saturday . He has had only one victory (at Chicago on Dec. 23) since Dec. 4. … Going into Saturday night, the Flyers ranked fourth in the NHL in shots allowed per game at 25.5. That isn’t too far behind NHL leader Carolina (24.6). … In the aforementioned bookend series with Pittsburgh, the Flyers took to home ice to win the first game by a 7-2 score and then returned to home ice and dropped the second game by a 7-3 margin.