PREVIEW 4:00 AM EST
Coming off their first win of the 2013 season, the Philadelphia Flyers (1-3-0) head to Florida for a two-game weekend road trip. First up is a Saturday night match in Sunrise with Kevin Dineen's Florida Panthers (1-3-0). Tonight's game starts at 7:30 p.m. EST and will be televised locally on CSN Philly.
This is the first of three meetings between the teams this season. Last year, the Flyers won three of four games against the eventual Southeast Division champions.
The Flyers are coming off a 2-1 victory over the New York Rangers. The injury-riddled Flyers got strong performances from up and down the lineup to win the game by outworking a tired-legged opponent. Wayne Simmonds and Jakub Voracek hustled up ugly-but-good goals and Ilya Bryzgalov made numerous key saves to nail down the win.
The lone downside to Thursday's game was that the Flyers lost defenseman Andrej Meszaros to a shoulder separation. He is expected to miss a month. Philly has recalled veteran defenseman Andreas Lilja from Adirondack.
The club was already without forwards Scott Hartnell (foot, 4-6 weeks), Danny Briere (wrist fracture, close to being ready to play), Zac Rinaldo (leg laceration, 10-14 days).
Briere is unlikely to be ready to play tonight, but is said to be 50-50 for tomorrow's game in Tampa Bay and has a good chance to play by Tuesday. Tonight, the Flyers will get Brayden Schenn back after a one-game suspension for charging New Jersey's Anton Volchenkov. Philly has also signed 40-year-old free agent Mike Knuble for a second tour of duty with the team. Knuble is in Florida with the club.
The Panthers, who have lost three straight games after winning their opener, are wracked with injuries in their own right. The club is without former Flyers forward Kris Versteeg (groin, chance of returning tonight), who led the club in scoring a year ago. Also missing are Stephen Weiss (lower body), Tomas Fleischmann (skate cut), Sean Bergenheim (groin), Marcel Goc (ankle) and promising young defenseman Erik Gudbranson (shoulder).
Philly has shown signs of improvement on the penalty kill in the last two games, but are still at a horrid 65 percent through four games. The Flyers are also just 2-for-18 on the power play thus far. The Panthers have connected on five of their 22 powerplays (a healthy 22.7 percent) but have yielded four power play goals on 19 kills (79 percent).
The Flyers have done all their scoring in the second period thus far. They have yet to tally a single goal in the first and third periods. Meanwhile, the Panthers have scored just two goals at even strength.
Projected Starting Lineups (subject to change)
FLYERS
17 Wayne Simmonds - 28 Claude Giroux - 24 Matt Read
25 Max Talbot - 14 Sean Couturier - 93 Jakub Voracek
15 Tye McGinn - 10 Brayden Schenn - 9 Mike Knuble
26 Ruslan Fedotenko - 21 Scott Laughton - 32 Tom Sestito
44 Kimmo Timonen - 22 Luke Schenn
8 Nicklas Grossmann - 5 Braydon Coburn
6 Andreas Lilja/ 3 Kurtis Foster - 27 Bruno Gervais
30 Ilya Bryzgalov
[49 Michael Leighton]
Panthers
11 Jonathan Huberdeau - 88 Peter Mueller - 82 Tomas Kopecky
42 Quinton Howden - 13 Mike Santorelli - 27 Alexei Kovalev
19 Scottie Upshall - 18 Shawn Matthias - 50 Drew Shore
12 Jack Skille - 25 Jerred Smithson - 22 George Parros
17 Filip Kuba - 51 Brian Campbell
7 Dmitry Kulikov - 43 Mike Weaver
4 Keaton Ellerby - 55 Ed Jovanovski
30 Scott Clemmensen / 60 Jose Theodore
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