PREVIEW 11:45 AM EST
Starting a crucial home-and-home set with a team that tormented them since last year's playoffs, the Philadelphia Flyers (12-14-1) are in Newark tonight to take on the New Jersey Devils. The game starts at 7:30 p.m. EST and will be broadcast nationally on NBCSN.
This is the third meeting between the teams this season, and the third and final one at the Prudential Center. On Jan. 22, the Devils shut out the Flyers 3-0. On Feb. 15, the Flyers built a 3-1 lead heading into the first intermission but then collapsed and went on to lose 5-3. The latter game was one of the most disheartening games of what has been a season of frustration for Philadelphia.
On Sunday, the Flyers snapped a three-game losing streak with a less-than-stellar 3-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres. The Devils have had problems of their own lately, dropping seven of their last 10 games (3-6-1) but are coming off a 3-2 shootout win over Winnipeg on Sunday.
Martin Brodeur remains out for the Devils with a back injury. Johan Hedberg, who was stellar in spot duty early in the season, has struggled mightily as the starter. The club is carrying Jeff Frazee as the backup. The club is also without former Flyers forward Dainius Zubrus (broken left wrist) and veteran defenseman Henrik Tallinder (lower body).
For the Flyers to reverse their problems against the Devils, they are going to have to do a much better job at even strength. The breakouts and forechecking need to improve and the forwards have to help out more on defensive zone coverages. Otherwise, they play right into the hands of Pete DeBoer's team, which often seems to have two red jerseys to every orange one around the puck.
On the roster move front, the Flyers have returned Erik Gustafsson to the Phantoms, along with Tye McGinn.
After tonight's game, the Flyers and Devils will rematch in Philadelphia on Friday.
PROJECTED LINEUPS (subject to change)
FLYERS
19 Scott Hartnell - 28 Claude Giroux - 93 Jakub Voracek
24 Matt Read - 10 Brayden Schenn - 17 Wayne Simmonds
12 Simon Gagne - 14 Sean Couturier - 48 Danny Briere
25 Max Talbot - 26 Ruslan Fedotenko - 36 Zac Rinaldo
44 Kimmo Timonen - 22 Luke Schenn
8 Nicklas Grossmann - 5 Braydon Coburn
41 Andrej Meszaros - 27 Bruno Gervais
30 Ilya Bryzgalov
[49 Michael Leighton]
DEVILS
12 Alexei Ponikarovsky - 21 Andre Loktionov - 17 Ilya Kovalchuk
26 Patrik Elias - 14 Adam Henrique - 18 Steve Bernier
20 Ryan Carter - 19 Travis Zajac - 23 David Clarkson
22 Krys Barch - 11 Stephen Gionta - 25 Tom Kostopoulos
24 Bryce Salvador - 2 Marek Zidlicky
6 Andy Greene - 5 Adam Larsson
28 Anton Volchenkov - 10 Peter Harrold
1 Johan Hedberg
[31 Jeff Frazee]
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In tomorrow's blog, I'll finish out the "who is/isn't meeting expectations" series in addition to reviewing tonight's game in Newark.
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