UPDATE 12:15 PM
Per Tim Panaccio, Sergei Bobrovsky will get his second start of the season tonight. Jody Shelley is in the lineup for the first time (not a huge surprise, since Leafs are dressing Rosehill) while Andreas Nodl is a healthy scratch.
It also appears as if Matt Walker will get the nod tonight over Andreas Lilja. As a result, Andrej Meszaros (coming off one of his worst games as a Flyer) will likely be paired with Kimmo Timonen and Braydon Coburn (also coming off a rough night) will be with Walker.
Here's the updated Flyers lineup projection:
Hartnell - Giroux - Jagr
Schenn - Briere - Simmonds
JVR - Read - Voracek
Shelley - Couturier - Talbot
Carle - Pronger
Timonen - Meszaros
Coburn - Walker
Bobrovsky
[Bryzgalov]
PREVIEW 7:20 AM EDT
Losers of three of their last four games, the Flyers (4-2-1) will try to recover their winning form tonight when they take on a Toronto Maple Leafs (5-1-1) team that has played well in the first month of the season but have split their last four. The game starts at 7 PM and will be broadcast locally on Comcast Sportsnet Philadelphia and in the Toronto area on Leafs TV.
Tonight's game is the first of four meetings between the clubs this season. Last year, the Flyers took three of the four games. Both teams last played on Saturday. The Leafs enter this game coming off an overtime win over the Canadiens, while the Flyers are coming off a ghastly 4-2 loss to the Blues the same night.
Last season, Phil Kessel opened the year with 7 goals in 8 games. He's been even deadlier so far this year, racking up 8 goals and 14 points to date, including 5 points in the last three games. On Saturday, Mikhail Grabovski scored the OT winner after Nikolai Kulemin tied the game late in the third.
Goalie James Reimer is unlikely to play tonight after sustaining a neck injury in the game against the Habs. That will press Jonas Gustavsson into service.
For Philly, Claude Giroux is coming off a forgettable game on Saturday but has been the team's biggest weapon (5 goals, 8 points) in the early going. Chris Pronger has had a strong first month of the season after returning from back surgery, recording at least one point in six of the seven games so far (1G, 6 A overall). His defensive partner, Matt Carle (2 goals, 5 points, +5) has a career history of strong Octobers, and has continued that trend this season.
Meanwhile, Danny Briere appears to be working through his slow start and scored a sniper's goal early in the second period of the game against the Blues. Jaromir Jagr (0G, 4A) played tremendous hockey in the first three games of the season but, apart from a nifty assist on Briere's first goal of the season in the game against Los Angeles, the 39-year-old future Hall of Famer has struggled in the last four games.
Coach Peter Laviolette did a lot of line juggling last week after the Flyers blew out the Senators and the team called up Brayden Schenn from the AHL. He also ran the club through a bag skate the day after their 5-2 loss to the undefeated Capitals. The decisions did not pay off in the short term.
Ilya Bryzgalov is coming off his first truly poor start of the season, and has seen his save percentage drop to an unacceptable .895 through his first six outings. There has been a lot of talk in the last 48 hours about the need for better communication between Bryzgalov and the defense, but the Russian netminder also cannot afford to allow goals like the first one St. Louis scored. Many an ugly loss starts with a soft goal allowed, and the Flyers are paying Bryzgalov a mint to be a Vezina caliber goaltender who rarely yields goals on shots he sees all the way.
Injury-prone projected Toronto top line center Tim Connolly (shoulder) has not played a game yet this season. He has been cleared for contact and practiced with the Leafs yesterday, but is not quite ready for game action.
PROJECTED LINEUPS (subject to change)
FLYERS
Hartnell - Giroux - Jagr
Schenn - Briere - Simmonds
JVR - Read - Voracek
Nodl - Couturier - Talbot
Carle - Pronger
Timonen - Coburn/Meszaros
Lilja/Coburn - Meszaros/Walker
Bryzgalov
[Bobrovsky]
MAPLE LEAFS
Lupul - Lombardi - Kessel
MacArthur - Grabovski - Kulemin
Frattin - Steckel - Kadri
Brown - Dupuis - Rosehill
Phaneuf - Gunarsson
Schenn - Gardiner
Komisarek - Liles
Gustavsson
[Scrivens]
*****
The Phantoms (5-2-0) won two of three games on their 3-in-3 weekend, defeating Rochester 3-1 last night behind a 33-save performance by Jason Bacashihua. Eric Wellwood (2nd goal), Harry Zolnierczyk (3rd goal) and Zac Rinaldo (1st goal) did the scoring honors for Adirondack.
*****
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