GAME PREVIEW (6:00 AM EDT)
Coming off a third-period collapse on Tuesday and a trade sending checking forward Max Talbot to Colorado to re-acquire gritty forward Steve Downie, the Philadelphia Flyers (3-8-0) return to action on Friday night to take on the Washington Capitals (5-7-0). Reigning Hart Trophy winner Alexander Ovechkin (upper-body injury) will not be in the Washington lineup.
Game time is 7:00 p.m. eastern at the Wells Fargo Center. The match will be televised locally on CSN Philly and nationally on NHL Network.
This is the first of five meetings between the teams this season. The next one will take place on the afternoon of Sun. Dec. 15 in Washington, followed by a return engagement in Philadelphia two nights later.
After tonight, the Flyers are back in action tomorrow night in New Jersey. The Devils are idle tonight, having last played on Tuesday in a 2-1 home win over Tampa Bay.
FLYERS OUTLOOK
Everything was looking up for the Flyers in the first 35 minutes or so of Tuesday's game against Anaheim. The club was going for its third straight win. They staked themselves to an early 2-0 lead in this match, courtesy of Matt Read's third goal in three games and Vincent Lecavalier (power play) notching his fourth in two.
The wheels fell off over the final 25 minutes of the game. Poor puck management and a standstill in skating fed off one another as the Ducks dialed up the intensity of their forechecking pressure. A series of turnovers led to three unanswered goals by the Ducks, and only the strong goaltending of Steve Mason prevented the 3-2 final score from being even worse. The Philadelphia netminder had no chance on any of the Anaheim goals.
Yesterday afternoon after practice at the Skate Zone in Voorhees, NJ, the team announced a trade sending the popular Talbot to Colorado for the sometimes controversial Downie. A former first-round pick of the Flyers in 2005, Downie had one goal (as part of an opening night Gordie Howe Hat Trick), seven points and 36 penalty minutes for Colorado prior to the trade.
Philadelphia captain Claude Giroux is still looking for his first goal of the season, but has points (six assists) in five of the last six games. Apart from Giroux, the Flyers are still looking for Scott Hartnell, Sean Couturier, Kimmo Timonen and Mark Streit to score their respective first goals of the season.
Mason is slated to make his 10th start of the season. Flyers head coach Craig Berube indicated after Thursday's practice that he would "see how it goes" in the game against Washington before deciding whether to come back with Mason tomorrow in Newark or give Ray Emery (who has not played since Oct. 12) his third of the season.
At Thursday's practice, Erik Gustafsson was paired with Kimmo Timonen. Berube said he had not made a final decision as to whether Andrej Meszaros, who returned to the lineup on Tuesday after sitting out five games as a healthy scratch, would return to the DNP list in favor of Gustafsson. However, since Meszaros took all line rushes and did passing drills with eighth defenseman Hal Gill as his partner, it seems more likely that Gustafsson will play.
Additionally, the Flyers practiced yesterday with veteran checking forward Adam Hall (a healthy scratch the last two games) as the extra forward, and with enforcer Jay Rosehill remaining on the fourth line. Rookie forward Michael Raffl continued to practice on the top line with Giroux and Lecavalier. However, this was all before the Talbot trade went down, and it is likely that there will be line combination changes to accommodate the acquisition of Downie and the departure of Talbot.
CAPITALS OUTLOOK
The Capitals have lost their last two games heading into tonight. On Monday, the team absorbed a 3-2 road loss in regulation to the Canucks after taking a 2-1 lead early in the third period. Jason Chimera and Mikhail Grabovski tallied for the Caps. Ovechkin reportedly got injured on a first period play that led to him being awarded a penalty shot, which he took and failed to convert. The injury may be to his right shoulder.
Although Washington has its share of talented players apart from Ovechkin, the NHL's reigning Most Valuable Player has directly played a hand in 15 of the team's 34 goals. He ranks second in the NHL with 10 goals and leads the team in overall points.
In the absence of Ovechkin, the onus will be on the likes of Nicklas Bäckström (two goals, 12 points), Grabovsky (five goals, 10 points), Marcus Johansson (10 assists), Jason Chimera (four goals, seven points), defenseman Mike Green (seven assists) and the rest of the lineup to pick up the slack. Also of note is the fact that Troy Brouwer has been credited with 43 hits (sixth most in the NHL) in addition to scoring three goals to date.
With Ovechkin in the lineup as their trigger man, the Caps bring the NHL's fourth-ranked power play (24.4 percent success ratio) into tonight's game. Without Ovechkin to funnel the puck to at every opportunity, it remains to be seen how Washington will adjust its puck-rotation patterns.
The Flyers bring the NHL's sixth-ranked penalty kill (84.4 percent) into tonight's tilt. Philly's penalty kill has been stellar at home, successfully navigating 20 of 22 disadvantages (90.9 percent). However, the team will have to make some adjustments of their own now that Talbot, who led all of the club's forwards in PK ice time, is no longer a member of the team.
Washington has been outstanding on the penalty kill in its own right. The Caps bring the NHL's second-ranked PK (90.7 percent overall, including 20-for-21 on the road). The Flyers' power play has notched tallies in each of the last two games and has looked better in general since Lecavalier returned to the lineup but is still just 25th in the NHL at a disappointing 11.6 percent success ratio.
Goaltending and team defense have been spotty at times for Adam Oates' club this season. Braden Holtby (10 GP, 3.07 GAA, .913 SV%) and Michal Neuvirth (4 GP, 3.07 GAA, .905 SV%) have had their ups and downs in net despite reasonably solid save percentages relative to their inflated goals against averages.
PROJECTED STARTING LINEUPS (Subject to change, will be updated later)
FLYERS
9 Steve Downie - 28 Claude Giroux - 40 Vincent Lecavalier
19 Scott Hartnell - 10 Brayden Schenn - 93 Jakub Voracek
24 Matt Read - 14 Sean Couturier - 17 Wayne Simmonds
12 Michael Raffl or 37 Jay Rosehill - 18 Adam Hall - 36 Zac Rinaldo
44 Kimmo Timonen - 26 Erik Gustafsson
8 Nicklas Grossmann - 5 Braydon Coburn
32 Mark Streit - 22 Luke Schenn
35 Steve Mason
[29 Ray Emery]
Scratches: Jay Rosehill or Adam Hall (healthy), Andrej Meszaros (healthy), Hal Gill (healthy), Chris Pronger (LTIR, post-concussion syndrome).
Capitals
10 Martin Erat - 19 Nicklas Bäckström - 16 Eric Fehr
25 Jason Chimera - 84 Mikhail Grabovski - 42 Joel Ward
90 Marcus Johansson - 21 Brooks Laich - 20 Troy Brouwer
24 Aaron Volpatti - 83 Jay Beagle - 43 Tom Wilson
27 Karl Alzner - 74 John Carlson
88 Nate Schmidt - 52 Mike Green
81 Dmitry Orlov - 61 Steven Oleksy
70 Braden Holtby
[30 Michal Neuvirth]
Scratches: Alexander Urbom (healthy), Michael Latta (healthy), Alexander Ovechkin (upper body, day-to-day), Jack Hillen (IR, leg), John Erskine (LTIR, upper body and possible knee issues).
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