PREVIEW 12:05 AM EDT
With 18 games remaining in the 2013 regular season, the Philadelphia Flyers (13-16-1) are coming off a season-high six-day break. Tonight, they are in western Pennsylvania to take on the archrival Pittsburgh Penguins (24-8-0). The game starts at 7:30 p.m. EST. It will be televised nationally on NBCSN.
This is the fourth meeting between the teams this season. In the last two games, the clubs have taken turns pulling off comeback wins on the other's home rink. No lead is safe, no deficit insurmountable when the two teams get to playing river hockey against one another.
Of late, however, the Penguins have been playing with greatly improved defensive discipline. In fact, as much as their offensive explosion that propelled Pittsburgh to a 5-4 win after the Flyers led 4-1, it was the defensive play of the Penguins that stood out over the final 40 minutes of the last meeting between the teams. Once they stopped taking bad penalties and started making the Flyers earn every inch of real estate, the Penguins surged while the Flyers wilted.
The Penguins' dominant two-way play has propelled the an 11-game winning streak into tonight's game. Conversely, the Flyers are just 4-6-0 in their last 10 games.
The Flyers have struggled mightily in road games this season, dragging a 4-12-0 record into tonight's game. The month of March has been largely a disappointment. The Flyers have struggled to score even strength goals or third period goals of any variety, and have had to sink or swim on the strength of their special teams play.
On the injury front, the Flyers are now a relatively healthy team. Two crucial players for Pittsburgh -- center Evgeni Malkin (shoulder) and defenseman Kris Letang (lower body)-- are day-to-day with injuries but one or both could play against the Flyers.
During the six-day break since the Flyers' loss in Tampa Bay on Monday, Peter Laviolette did a lot of juggling of his forward lines at practice. Some of these changes could be reflected in the starting lineups tonight.
PROJECTED LINEUPS (subject to change)
FLYERS
24 Matt Read 28 Claude Giroux - 93 Jakub Voracek
12 Simon Gagne - 10 Brayden Schenn - 17 Wayne Simmonds
19 Scott Hartnell - 25 Max Talbot - 48 Danny Briere
26 - Ruslan Fedotenko - 14 Sean Couturier - 36 Zac Rinaldo
4 Kimmo Timonen - 22 Luke Schenn
8 Nicklas Grossmann - 5 Braydon Coburn
41 Andrej Meszaros - 27 Bruno Gervais
30 Ilya Bryzgalov
[49 Michael Leighton]
PENGUINS (If Malkin and Letang unavailable)
14 Chris Kunitz - 87 Sidney Crosby - 9 Pascal Dupuis
24 Matt Cooke - 16 Brandon Sutter - 18 James Neal
19 Beau Bennett - 15 Dustin Jeffrey - 23 Trevor Smith
10 Tanner Glass - 46 Joe Vitale - 27 Craig Adams
44 Brooks Orpik - 7 Paul Martin
2 Matt Niskanen - 4 Mark Eaton
5 Deryk Engelland - 47 Simon Despres
29 Marc-Andre Fleury
[92 Tomas Vokoun]
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