FLYERS VS. SABRES GAME PREVIEW (12:55 A.M. EDT)
Looking to snap a four-game winless streak, the Philadelphia Flyers (39-29-9) are in action for the third time in four days as they take on the Buffalo Sabres (21-47-9). Game time at the Wells Fargo Center is 7:30 p.m. The match will be televised nationally on NBCSN in the U.S. and TSN2 in Canada.
This is the third and final meeting of the season between the teams, and the second in Philadelphia. On Nov. 21, the Flyers captured a 4-1 home win. On Jan. 14, the Flyers eked out a 4-3 road win in Buffalo as Vincent Lecavalier scored in the final 15 seconds to cap off a three-goal third period.
Tonight's game is the next-to-last home game of the regular season for the Flyers. The team will play road games against Florida (Tuesday), Tampa Bay (Thursday) and Pittsburgh (next Saturday afternoon) before closing out the regular season a week from tomorrow with a home game against Carolina.
FLYERS OUTLOOK
The good feeling created by the Flyers' overtime ties against Boston and St. Louis and a series of wins against top NHL teams in mid-to-late March has given way to a pair of regulation losses in the last two games.
On Saturday, coming off back-to-back shutout losses, the Flyers rallied from a pair of one-goal deficits to the Boston Bruins to take Saturday's matinee in Boston to the third period tied at 2-2. The game remained knotted until the final seven minutes, when the Bruins pulled away with three unanswered goals -- the final one into an empty net -- to down the Flyers by a 5-2 count.
The Flyers undoing in Saturday's game: The dreaded letdown on the shift immediately following a goal or a goal against. In the second period, moments after Wayne Simmonds tied the game at 1-1 -- the Flyers' first goal in their last seven-plus regulation periods -- the Bruins went right back ahead. In the third period, right after Boston went ahead 3-2, the Flyers had a scoring chance and then gave up a counter-rush that ended up in their net.
Saturday's game was somewhat reminiscent of a 5-3 loss in Anaheim on Jan. 30. In that game, the Flyers did not play nearly as badly as the final score would suggest but they paid dearly for their mistakes. Philly played a little better in the Anaheim game than the Bruins game.
In the game against the Bruins, the first goal was off a rebound that three Flyers failed to clear. The second one was defenseman Braydon Coburn getting beaten by David Krejci in a battle coming around the net and an open Milan Lucic ripping home a slapshot from the deep slot. The third goal came directly off a clean faceoff win by the Bruins. Goal four was an odd-man counter-rush after Zac Rinaldo missed the net on a scoring chance the other way. The last one was an empty net goal.
On the bright side for the Flyers, Wayne Simmonds notched a power play goal that halted an 0-for-13 drought for Philly. Later, enforcer Jay Rosehill (who had an earlier bout with Shawn Thornton) surprised everyone with a spin move around the net and a jam-in the far side. Ray Emery played well in goal despite yielding four goals on 41 shots.
Claude Giroux broke a three-game point drought with an assist on the Simmonds goal.
SABRES OUTLOOK
Buffalo recently removed the "interim" tag from head coach Ted Nolan's job title and signed him to a contract extension. Since taking over for Ron Rolston in what has been a nightmarish season at all levels of the NHL franchise, Nolan has gotten his players to work hard even though the results have rarely been there.
The Sabres enter this game with 21 wins overall -- and just 14 of the regulation or overtime variety in 77 games played. Buffalo has won just two of its last 10 games. The Sabres are the NHL's lowest-scoring team by a wide margin, averaging just 1.83 non-shootout goals per game. However, Buffalo has managed to win seven games via shootout this season.
With Ryan Miller having been traded to St. Louis and both Jhonas Enroth and Michal Neuvirth shelved with lower-body injuries, the Sabres goaltending tandem is now Matt Hackett and Nathan Lieuwen.
Buffalo has a host of other players out of the lineup with reported injuries: defensemen Tyler Myers (upper body) and Henrik Tallinder (lower body) are both officially day-to-day and likely out for this game. Fourth-line forward Zenon Konopka (back spasms) is also day-to-day. Forwards Marcus Foligno (leg), Chris Stewart (high ankle sprain), Drew Stafford amd Torrey Mitchell are all out. Ditto defenseman Alexander Sulzer (upper body).
KEY STAT COMPARISONS (NHL OVERALL RANKING)
Non-shootout goals per game: Flyers 2.75 (12th), Sabres 1.83 (30th)
Non-shootout goals against per game: Flyers 2.74 (17th), Sabres 2.92 (25th)
Even strength Goals For/Against Ratio: Flyers 0.96 (16th), Sabres 0.59 (30th)
Power play efficiency: Flyers 19.3% (10th), Sabres 14.5% (28th)
Penalty killing efficiency: Flyers 84.9% (6th), Sabres 81.2% (20th)
Faceoff percentage: Flyers 50.1% (16th), Sabres 46.9% (27th)
PROJECTED LINEUPS (Subject to change)
FLYERS
19 Scott Hartnell - 28 Claude Giroux - 93 Jakub Voracek
10 Brayden Schenn - 40 Vincent Lecavalier - 17 Wayne Simmonds
24 Matt Read- 14 Sean Couturier - 12 Michael Raffl
37 Jay Rosehill - 18 Adam Hall - 36 Zac Rinaldo
44 Kimmo Timonen - 5 Braydon Coburn
8 Nicklas Grossmann - 32 Mark Streit
47 Andrew MacDonald - 22 Luke Schenn
35 Steve Mason
[29 Ray Emery]
Potential Scratches: Steve Downie (concussion, could return this game), Tye McGinn (healthy), Erik Gustafsson (healthy), Jay Rosehill (potential healthy scratch if Downie returns), Hal Gill (healthy), Chris Pronger (LTIR, post-concussion syndrome).
SABRES
88 Cory Conacher - 63 Tyler Ennis - 23 Ville Leino
19 Cody Hodgson - 28 Zemgus Girgensons - 27 Matt D'Agostini
72 Luke Adam - 22 Johan Larsson - 44 Nicolas Deslauriers
32 John Scott - 37 Matt Ellis - 65 Brian Flynn
10 Christian Ehrhoff - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
4 Jamie McBain - 6 Mike Weber
5 Chad Ruhwedel - 29 Jake McCabe
31 Matt Hackett/ 50 Nathan Lieuwen
Potential Scratches: See list in Sabres Outlook.
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