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Flyers Gameday: 10/22/11 vs. Blues

October 22, 2011, 7:36 AM ET [ Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
PREVIEW 7:00 AM EDT

Coming off a disappointing 5-2 loss on Thursday to the undefeated Washington Capitals, the Flyers (4-1-1) take to Wells Fargo Center ice tonight looking to get back on the winning track against the St. Louis Blues (3-4-0). The game starts at 7 PM and will be broadcast locally on Comcast Sportsnet Philadelphia.

The Flyers need to get back to playing the type of aggressive two-way hockey with strong puck support that they exhibited through most of their first five games. They also need to stop taking so many bad penalties, which have been stalling their momentum even though the club has maintained a solid 83.3 percent success rate in kill off the penalties.

In the Washington game, however, it was at 5-on-5 where the Flyers lost the game. Apart from a couple costly miscues and being unable to prevent the Caps from getting body position down low -- which contributed to all the deflection goals, including the ones that went off Flyers' players -- the team did not respond well in the shifts immediately following the goals. Late in the first period, a 1-1 tie rapidly turned into a 2-1 deficit. Early in the third period, a still-manageable 3-1 gap very quickly became a turn-out-the-lights 4-1 game, and then a 5-1 rout.

At the offensive end of the ice, the Flyers threw too much perimeter junk at the net in Thursday's loss. Washington's strong defense deserves credit for boxing out Flyers forwards effectively but players such as James van Riemsdyk need to do a better job of creating havoc in front of the net.

Emblematic of the Flyers' mediocre forecheck on Thursday (except for certain stretches of the second period) was the fact that the club only earned two power plays for the game, while having to kill six penalties of their own. In particular, the team cannot keep taking so many careless high-sticking penalties.

Claude Giroux remains on a tear. He scored a dazzling breakaway goal to the give the Flyers a 1-0 lead against the Caps and created several other scoring opportunities. If there has been one flaw, it has been a tendency to try to force the puck to Jaromir Jagr, who is still looking for his first regular season goal as a Flyer.

At pratice yesterday, Peter Laviolette juggled all four of his lines and reportedly skated the team much harder than a typical practice (although some folks quibbled over the semantics of whether it was a true bag skate). Laviolette said "not to read too much right now" into all the line changes but it is not known which ones will actually be used -- and for how long -- tonight. What was clear is that the coach does not want the team's intensity level or focus to drop.

A popular preseason pick to be a playoff team this year, the Blues have been inconsistent in the early going of the season. They are also playing on back-to-back nights, having defeated Carolina in comeback fashion last night. The Blues fell behind 2-0 but then rallied for three goals to win in overtime, capped off by Matt D'Agostini's game-winner off a perfect pass from Vladimir Sobotka. Tonight's game marks the start of a four-game road trip for St. Louis.

The Blues' biggest issues so far have been a struggling power play (0-for-20 in the six games played since opening night, 4 percent efficiency overall) and some misadventures in their own end of the ice, including spotty play in goal by Jaroslav Halak. Former Senators netminder Brian Elliott was in goal last night for the Blues.

Ageless Jason Arnott (goal last night, 3 goals and six points overall) leads the club in scoring so far, while Alex Steen and D'Agostini also have three goals apiece. Chris Stewart is off to a bit of a slow start (0 points in last four games, overall 2 goals and zero assists).

POSSIBLE STARTING LINEUPS (speculatory and subject to change)

FLYERS

Schenn/JVR - Giroux - Jagr
Hartnell/Simmonds - Briere - Voracek/Simmonds
Voracek/JVR/Hartnell - Couturier/Schenn - Read
Nodl/Shelley - Couturier/Talbot - Talbot/Nodl

Pronger - Carle
Timonen - Meszaros
Coburn - Walker/Lilja

Bryzgalov
[Bobrovsky]


BLUES

Sobotka - Backes - Stewart
Porter - Berglund - Oshie
Steen - Arnott - Langenbrunner
D'Agostini - Nichol - Grachev

Huskins - Pietrangelo
Jackman - Shattenkirk
Colaiacovo - Polak

Halak/Elliot

******

The Phantoms' Michael Leighton recorded his 35th career AHL shutout -- a modern era record -- as the team downed Portland Pirates, 3-0, on Friday night. Garrett Roe, Tyler Brown and Harry Zolnierczyk did the scoring honors for Adirondack.

The Phantoms are in action again tonight in Albany.

******

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