PREVIEW 5:30 AM EST
If the Philadelphia Flyers (5-7-1) are going to make the playoffs in the lockout-shortened 2013 season, they need to start winning regularly on the road. A season after setting a franchise record for road points, the club is off to a 1-6-0 start on the road and got a six-game road trip off to a bad start with a 5-2 loss in Toronto last night.
Things are not going to get any easier for the Flyers tonight. The Winnipeg Jets (5-5-1) have given Philly trouble in recent seasons both in Atlanta and Winnipeg, and their home building is an inhospitable place for opponents.
The Jets are a well-rested team. They last played on Saturday, winning 1-0 in Ottawa, and have otherwise been at home since Feb. 5. The Flyers are playing the trailing end of back-to-back road games. Overall, the Flyers will be playing for the third time in four days in three different cities involving significant travel from place to place.
Bottom line: This is a major gut check game for the Flyers. It's going to be hard for the team to maintain fresh legs for three periods, so they will need to play smarter, more disciplined and more efficient hockey than they've played for the majority of the season.
Tonight's game starts at 8 p.m. EST (7 p.m. CST) and will be televised on Comcast Sportsnet Philadelphia.
This is the first of three meetings between the teams this season, and the first of two in Winnipeg. Last year, the Jets won three of four games against the Flyers. Dating back to their final season as the Atlanta Thrashers, Winnipeg has taken seven of the last eight against Philadelphia.
Last year's season series was a memorable one for the sheer number of goals scored by both teams. It started with instantly infamous 9-8 seesaw slugfest in Philadelphia, after which Ilya Bryzgalov (who was strafed in relief of an equally beleaguered Sergei Bobrovsky) made his "lost in the woods" self-assessment.
Bryzgalov did not start the teams' rematch in Winnipeg held 23 days later. The Flyers fell into a deep hole in that game but Matt Read's two goals spurred a near miraculous comeback that fell just short. The Jets ultimately prevailed by a 6-4 count.
The third meeting of the season was the first game after the 2012 All-Star Break. Markedly different in tone than all of the other matches the teams played against each other last season, scoring chances were hard to come by for either side. Brayden Schenn got an early power play goal for Philadelphia, but an early second period goal by Chris Thorburn (who had not scored in his previous 59 games) knotted the game at 1-1. That's how it stayed through the end of overtime. Bryan Little scored in the shootout to take an extra point for the Jets.
The final meeting of the season was another high scoring affair in Winnipeg. The Flyers trailed 4-3 in the final minute of regulation before Wayne Simmonds scored on a 6-on-5 to tie the game with 10 seconds left. Jaromir Jagr notched the game-winner in overtime.
Goals have been much harder for the Flyers to come by this season. They've been held to two or fewer goals in 10 of their 13 games overall, and in six of their seven road games to date. Meanwhile, the team's road goals against average is over 3.40 per game.
Last night in Toronto, the Flyers played a solid first period. They got a goal from Simmonds and applied their share of forechecking pressure during the period. Philly successfully killed off a five-on-three Toronto power play, and seemed to be good shape heading to the second period despite a heavily screen goal by Dion Phaneuf that knotted the score at 1-1.
Everything fell apart in the second period. The usually reliable Nicklas Grossmann got outworked for a loose puck by Toronto enforcer Colton Orr, and it resulted in the Leafs taking a 2-1 lead. Less than a half-minute later, Braydon Coburn got beaten off the boards by Matt Frattin, who redirected a puck past Bryzgalov. Just like that, it was 3-1 Leafs.
Several shifts later, Grossmann gave the puck away as he backpeddled in the defensive zone. The Philadelphia coverage broke down after initially seeming to recover, and the Leafs had a 2-on-1 down low in the zone. Grossmann was unable to prevent a cross-ice pass from Frattin to Clarke MacArthur, and it was a 4-1 game. Bryzgalov was pulled, and Brian Boucher came in the game.
The Flyers had a five-minute power play in the latter half of the second period (and seven minutes of overall power play time in the middle stanza) but were unable to get a puck past backup goaltender Ben Scrivens, who had come into the game after starter James Reimer suffered a lower-body injury and had to be helped off the ice.
In the third period, ex-Flyers forward James van Riemsdyk beat the player for whom he was traded, Luke Schenn, off the line rush and went in to deposit home a backhand shot past Boucher for his eighth goal of the season. Philly got a late, meaningless goal from Tye McGinn to make it a 5-2 final score.
Sean Couturier missed last night's game with the flu and has reportedly been sent home to recuperate for Friday's game in New Jersey. Scott Hartnell (foot) and Andrej Meszaros (shoulder) also remain sidelined for the Flyers.
Winnipeg expects to have Dustin Byfuglien back in the lineup tonight after a five-game absence. Defenseman Zach Bogosian, who has yet to play this season due to a wrist injury, is getting close to being ready to play but remains out of the lineup.
Jets goaltender Ondrej Pavelec, who can sometimes be spectacular and sometimes downright awful, did not play in Saturday's game due to the flu. He is able to play tonight but the team has not yet said whether he or former Islanders netminder Al Montoya will be in goal.
Philadelphia needs to get its power play going, and needs for Claude Giroux in particular to start scoring and setting up goals in any game situation. The Flyers' new captain has been held pointless in four of the last six games heading into tonight.
The Flyers have recalled Harry Zolnierczyk from the Phantoms. It is not known yet if he will be in the lineup tonight.
PROJECTED LINEUPS -- Subject to change
FLYERS
48 Danny Briere - 28 Claude Giroux - 17 Wayne Simmonds
24 Matt Read - 10 Brayden Schenn - 93 Jakub Voracek
15 Tye McGinn - 25 Max Talbot - 9 Mike Knuble
12 Harry Zolnierczyk - 26 Ruslan Fedotenko - 36 Zac Rinaldo
44 Kimmo Timonen - 22 Luke Schenn
5 Braydon Coburn - 27 Bruno Gervais
8 Nicklas Grossmann - 3 Kurtis Foster
30 Ilya Bryzgalov
[33 Brian Boucher]
JETS
9 Evander Kane - 18 Bryan Little - 26 Blake Wheeler
22 Chris Thorburn - 12 Olli Jokinen - 16 Andrew Ladd
13 Kyle Wellwood - 8 Alexander Burmistrov - 23 Alexei Ponikarovsky
17 James Wright - 80 Nikolai Antropov - 19 Jim Slater
39 Tobias Enstrom - 33 Dustin Byfuglien
6 Ron Hainsey - 25 Zach Redmond
5 Mark Stuart - 4 Paul Postma
31 Ondrej Pavelec / 35 Al Montoya
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