VOORHEES, N.J. – NHL defensive pairings typically have one guy who’s a bit offense-minded and one who’s more of a stay-at-home type. Which is why the Flyers’ new backline unit of Jamie Drysdale and Emil Andrae has created a bit of a buzz the past couple days, since neither is reluctant to get a rush started up ice.

Coach Rick Tocchet made a switch midway through Thursday night’s game against St. Louis, moving Andrae up onto the second unit in place of Nick Seeler.

After Friday’s practice, Tocchet said he plans to stay with the Drysdale-Andrae tandem for at least Saturday night’s home game against the New Jersey Devils.

There’s a lot of upside to this alignment. Both players are excellent skaters, have some offensive instincts and can disrupt opponent’s charges with strong stick work. Then again, they aren’t the biggest guys, which can present problems against physical teams.

“It’s a good debate, it’s a good question,” Tocchet said of that aspect, using a former player in Vancouver, Quinn Hughes, as a reference point.

“You take one of the best players, Quinn Hughes, not the biggest guy, won the Norris (Trophy as NHL defenseman) with his brain, his quickness, his puck ability and his breakouts. So they (Drysdale, Andrae) can defend that way. If they’re going against bigger guys, cycle in corners to squash plays, might be a little difficult but I think with your brain and your quickness and your patience with the puck, you can work around that.”

Tocchet went on to say it’s something that a coach has to try.

Andrae, who’s been mostly paired with Noah Juulsen in the third unit, looks forward to the challenge.

“I think we’re both pretty skilled with the puck,” Andrae said. “We’re both searching for plays out there and when we play like that it’s a lot of fun.“Obviously you have to take care of the defensive part of it. But we’re both similar as players so it’s been fun.”

Drysdale has developed into an offensive force, which includes running the power-play point on the first unit. He’s been with a steady defender in Seeler. This will be a much different look.

“I think that’s a good thing about our back end, we’re pretty versatile across the board,” Drysdale said. “Got a little bit of everything. Throughout the course of the time I’ve been here I played with everybody at some point. There’s an adjustment period but I’m familiar with everyone. Emil likes to hang onto the puck and make plays. It’s a smooth transition and should be good.”

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The Flyers reach the unofficial quarter mark of the schedule against the Devils for game No. 20.

The schedule has been favorable so far, with 12 home games and only seven on the road. Things will start to change next week.

The Flyers will play four games — all on the road — in six nights, including tests against Tampa Bay Monday, Florida Wednesday and then a back-to-back grinder against the New York Islanders Friday and New Jersey Saturday, both division foes.

The stretch could serve as a measuring stick to see where the Flyers are at this season.

“It’s the old cliché ‘it’s a long season,’ but it’s true,” Drysdale said. “I think it’s the teams that handle these stretches, these back-to-backs, that usually find themselves in a better spot.”

Cam York said this week could say a lot about what the Flyers are made of.

“We got to be ready for it,” he said. “A few guys are banged up but every team is banged up. We’ll be ready to go when the challenge presents itself.”

Tocchet knows these kinds of stretches demand a lot of preparation. The Flyers are just 1-12-2 in the second half of back-to-backs since the start of the 2024-25 season.

“It’s the mental toughness,” Tocchet said. “The second half of back-to-backs is an eyesore. It’s no different with four-in-six. You might not have your good stuff, you might have your ‘B’ game, but can you play a good ‘B’ game? Good angles? Shorter shifts? Doing things consistently.”

The Flyers are 7-3-2 at home and 3-3-2 on the road. The latter is a clear area to improve.

“When you’re playing your third game in four nights and can break out clean, make some good plays, it’s not as taxing,” Tocchet said. “If you’re in your end all night, the puck’s bouncing around and we’re not doing good wall work, you’re going to be hemmed in. What happens? You’re going to be tired. So we have to build a mental toughness here. Every team has to go through it. Some teams have played 22 games. We’ve played 19. So it’s our turn to get in the muck.”