PREVIEW 7:30 AM EST
The most important week of the Philadelphia Flyers (11-12-1) regular season continues tonight with a clash against the archrival Pittsburgh Penguins (15-8-0). Tonight's game at the Wells Fargo Center starts at 7:00 p.m. and will be televised locally on CSN Philly and nationally on NHL Network.
This is the third of four meetings between the teams this year, and the second and final one in Philadelphia. Each club has won once on the other's home ice. Pittsburgh skated off with a 3-1 opening night win, and the Flyers prevailed in a seesaw 6-5 game reminiscent of last year's playoff series between the teams.
The Flyers enter this game coming off a disappointing 4-2 loss to the Rangers on Tuesday. Philly held a 2-1 lead courtesy of power play goals by Wayne Simmonds and Jakub Voracek but defensive breakdowns and so-so goaltending proved to the Flyers' undoing.
Pittsburgh survived the concussion-related absence of reigning Hart Trophy winner Evgeni Malkin and has been winning since his return to the lineup. Half of the defensive pairing the Flyers typically send out against Malkin's line at even strength may be missing tonight for Philly. Nicklas Grossmann is day-to-day with a hip flexor injury. The Penguins may have defenseman Paul Martin (lower body) back in the lineup tonight.
Apart from Grossmann, the Flyers are still without Andrej Meszaros (shoulder), Matt Read (torn ribcage muscles) and Tye McGinn (fractured orbital bone). Harry Zolnierczyk is serving the second game of a four-game suspension by the NHL.
FLYERS
19 Scott Hartnell - 28 Claude Giroux - 93 Jakub Voracek
48 Danny Briere - 10 Brayden Schenn - 17 Wayne Simmonds
12 Simon Gagne - 14 Sean Couturier - 25 Max Talbot
36 Zac Rinaldo - 26 Ruslan Fedotenko - 9 Mike Knuble
44 Kimmo Timonen - 22 Luke Schenn
5 Braydon Coburn - 27 Bruno Gervais
29 Erik Gustafsson - 3 Kurtis Foster
30 Ilya Bryzgalov
[33 Brian Boucher]
PENGUINS
19 Beau Bennett - 71 Evgeni Malkin - 18 James Neal
14 Chris Kunitz - 87 Sidney Crosby - 9 Pascal Dupuis
24 Matt Cooke - 16 Brandon Sutter - 48 Tyler Kennedy
10 Tanner Glass - 15 Dustin Jeffrey - 27 Craig Adams
2 Matt Niskanen - 58 Kris Letang
44 Brooks Orpik - 7 Paul Martin
5 Deryk Engelland - 41 Robert Bortuzzo
29 Marc-Andre Fleury
[92 Tomas Vokoun]
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Thank you to everyone for all the well wishes on the birth of my daughter yesterday. I'm now the very proud father of a four-year-old son and a baby girl, and it's a very exciting time.
I will be remaining in Texas with my wife and daughter until early April, when I come back to Philadelphia to cover the stretch drive of the NHL season.
Thanks again!
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