FLYERS-SENATORS GAME PREVIEW (10:00 AM EST)
Coming off a solid road trip that saw the club take five of a possible six points, the Philadelphia Flyers (7-10-2) return home to the Wells Fargo Center to start a three-game homestand. First up is the Ottawa Senators (8-8-4).
Game time is 7:00 p.m. eastern. The match will be televised locally on CSN Philadelphia.
This is the second of three meetings between the teams this season, and the lone game in Philly. Last Tuesday in Ottawa, the Flyers got their road trip off to a tremendous start with a 5-0 blanking of the Sens.
Steve Mason stopped all 24 shots fired his way, and the Flyers got a pair of goals from Jakub Voracek, while Matt Read, Vincent Lecavalier and Brayden Schenn all tallied single goals. Lecavalier, who assisted on the Schenn goal, also went 11-for-14 in the faceoff circle in this game.
After tonight's game, the Buffalo Sabres come to town on Thursday. The homestand concludes with a match against the New York Islanders on Saturday.
FLYERS OUTLOOK
The Flyers have had the last three nights off since completing their three-game-in-four-night trip through Ottawa, Pittsburgh and Winnipeg. For the most part, the trip went extremely well. That does not mean there is not still plenty of room for improvement from the last two games.
After scoring a combined nine goals in wins against Edmonton and Ottawa, the Flyers scored two goals apiece in the Pittsburgh and Winnipeg games. That makes 16 times in 19 games that the Flyers have scored two or fewer goals in games this season.
Additionally, the Flyers have had a recent hiccup in their generally strong penalty killing work; they've yielded opposition power play goals in three of the last four games, including two in the last game. On the flip side, the Flyers power play -- which had struggled all season -- has connected on four of its last eight opportunities.
Goaltending has been the Flyers biggest strength this season, followed by improved team defense. The team is still looking for ways to more consistently combine that with effective forechecking pressure and goal support.
SENATORS OUTLOOK
The Senators have played uneven hockey over the last week, losing ugly to the Flyers and Blue Jackets but sandwiching a 4-2 win in the middle. Ottawa is in the midst of a busy week of games. Tonight's game is middle game of a three-in-four and the front end of back-to-back games. The team will also play back-to-back games this weekend.
In Sunday's 4-1 loss to Columbus, the Senators penalty killing sprung a leak, yielding three goals to the Blue Jackets and digging a 3-0 hole shortly past the midway point of regulation. The deficit grew to four goals before a late power play goal by Erik Karlsson spoiled Sergei Bobrovsky's bid for a shutout.
Craig Anderson has struggled in goal since his return from injury. There is a chance that Robin Lehner, who took NHL First-Star of the Week honors prior to incumbent starter Anderson's return, could get the call tonight.
PROJECTED LINE COMBINATIONS (Subject to change)
FLYERS
19 Scott Hartnell - 28 Claude Giroux - 93 Jakub Voracek
10 Brayden Schenn - 40 Vincent Lecavalier - 17 Wayne Simmonds
9 Steve Downie - 14 Sean Couturier - 24 Matt Read
37 Jay Rosehill - 18 Adam Hall - 36 Zac Rinaldo
44 Kimmo Timonen - 5 Braydon Coburn
8 Nicklas Grossmann - 32 Mark Streit
26 Erik Gustafsson - 22 Luke Schenn
35 Steve Mason
[29 Ray Emery]
Potential Scratches: Michael Raffl (healthy), Andrej Meszaros (healthy), Hal Gill (healthy), Chris Pronger (LTIR, post-concussion syndrome).
Senators
9 Milan Michalek - 19 Jason Spezza - 89 Cory Conacher
16 Clarke MacArthur - 7 Kyle Turris - 6 Bobby Ryan
14 Colin Greening - 15 Zack Smith - 25 Chris Neil
22 Erik Condra - 57 - Derek Grant - 93 - Mika Zibanejad
3 Marc Methot - 65 Erik Karlsson
2 Jared Cowen - 62 Eric Gryba
4 Chris Phillips - 74 - Mark Borowiecki
41 Craig Anderson/ 40 Robin Lehner
Potential Scratches: Joe Corvo (healthy) Matt Kassian (healthy), Patrick Wiercioch (healthy).
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