PREVIEW: FLYERS VS. LIGHTNING
In the final game of a six-game homestand, Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers (30-23-11) host Jon Cooper's Tampa Bay Lightning (39-22-4). Game time at the Wells Fargo Center is 7:00 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on CSN Philadelphia.
This is the second of three meetings this season between the teams, and the lone game in Philadelphia. Back on opening night, Oct. 8, the Flyers settled for one point from a generally well-played 3-2 overtime loss in Tampa. A pair of unsuccessful penalty shots -- first by Flyers captain Claude Giroux at 13:47 of the first period and then by Scott Laughton at 2:17 of overtime -- ultimately served to cost the Flyers a victory.
For the Flyers, the next two meetings with Tampa are a home-and-home set. The team will be idle on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights before playing back-to-back games in Tampa Bay and Sunrise. In the meantime, the Lightning return home on Tuesday to host the Boston Bruins before the Flyers come to town on Friday.
Flyers Outlook
The Flyers are 4-1-0 on the homestand to date, but the Lightning by far are the toughest of the six opponents to visiting during the stretch. For the season, the Flyers are 17-9-7 on home ice, compared to a 13-14-4 mark on the road.
On Saturday night, the Flyers avenged a humiliating 4-0 loss to the lowly Edmonton Oilers two nights earlier with a 6-0 shellacking of the Columbus Blue Jackets. Former Tampa Bay defenseman Radko Gudas had a career night with two goals and two assists. The tallies were his first two as a Flyer.
The Flyers got single goals from Michael Raffl (ninth of the season), Sam Gagner (sixth), Claude Giroux (18th) and Nick Cousins (fourth). Brandon Manning chipped in a pair of assists, while Sean Couturier, Chris VandeVelde, Andrew MacDonald, Wayne Simmonds, Brayden Schenn, Matt Read and Raffl chipped in one helper apiece.
All Flyers scoring was done at even strength. The Flyers went 0-for-4 on the power play and were 2-for-2 on the penalty kill. Philadelphia is 0-for-11 on the man advantage over the last two games.
Making his first appearance since Feb. 20, Steve Mason earned a 19-save shutout. It was Mason's fourth shutout (fifth regulation shutout) of the season. Prior to Saturday's game, Mason not played a single minute since removing himself due to leg cramping in the third period of the Feb. 20 game in Toronto.
Mason has appeared in 38 games this season, posting a 14-15-7 record, 2.62 goals against average, .916 save percentage and four shutouts (five regulation shutouts). Michal Neuvirth has appeared in 30 games, posting a 16-8-4 record, 2.29 GAA, .925 save percentage and three shutouts.
Jakub Voracek is expected to return from a lower body injury sometime around the March 15 game against the Detroit Red Wings. Top-pairing defenseman Michael Del Zotto (torn ligaments in his left wrist, suffered on Feb. 13) is out for the rest of the season. Sparingly used forward Jordan Weal (upper body) is out approximately three weeks from Feb. 16. Weal has resumed practicing with the team.
Rookie defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere is one goal away from tying Behn Wilson's 13 goals in 1978-79. Gostisbehere needs 15 points to match Wilson's franchise-record 49 points (set over 80 games) the same season. The top three in points are Wilson, Tom Bladon (42 points in 78 games in 1972-73) and Janne Niinimaa (44 points in 77 games in 1996-97). Gostisbehere is currently fourth. Gostisbehere has one point, an assist, in his last six games.
Team captain Giroux leads the Flyers with 18 goals, 37 assists and 55 points in 61 games. He is followed on the Flyers' scoring leader list by Voracek (10 goals, 38 assists, 48 points), Wayne Simmonds (23 goals, 21 assists, 44 points, 129 penalty minutes), and Schenn (21 goals, 22 assists, 44 points). Gostisbehere has 12 goals (six on the power play, four in overtime), 23 assists and 35 points in 46 games. Couturier rounds out the top six with nine goals, 17 assists and 26 points in 46 games.
The Flyers enter this game four points behind the Detroit Red Wings for the lower wildcard seed in the Eastern Conference playoff race. Philly has a game in hand but the Red Wings hold a tiebreaker advantage. The teams also have two head-to-head games remaining. The Flyers are five points behind Pittsburgh for the higher wildcard seed with a tiebreaker disadvantage, one game in hand and three head-to-head games remaining.
Lightning Outlook
The defending Eastern Conference champion Lightning got off to a slow start this season, amid a host of distractions. The team has caught fire since the All-Star break, however, rattling off nine straight wins coming into this game. The Lightning have not lost since a 4-2 home defeat by the San Jose Sharks on Feb. 16.
The Bolts enter this game coming off a 4-3 overtime win at home against the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday. Tampa trailed 3-2 in the third period before Tyler Johnson scored at 13:42 to force OT and Alex Killorn won the game with 43 seconds remaining before a shootout. Earlier in the game, Ondrej Palat scored first and second period goals to give Tampa leads of 1-0 and 2-1. Ben Bishop stopped 24 of 27 shots in goal to earn the win.
Nikita Kucherov leads Tampa in scoring with 53 points (25 goals, 28 assists) in 63 games. He is followed by Steven Stamkos (29 goals, 23 assists, 52 points), defenseman Victor Hedman (six goals, 31 assists, 37 points, plus-16), Alex Killorn (13 goals, 21 assists, 34 points), defenseman Anton Strålman (nine goals, 22 assists, 31 points, plus-15), Johnson (12 goals, 18 assists, 30 points), Ryan Callahan (10 goals, 18 assists, 28 points), Vladimir Namestnikov (10 goals, 18 assists, 28 points), Valtteri Filppula (seven goals, 21 assists, 28 points) and Palat (10 goals, 13 assists, 23 points in 45 games).
Workhorse starting goalie Bishop has appeared in 49 games, posting a 28-17-3 record, 2.06 goals against average, .926 save percentage and three shutouts. Highly regarded young netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy has made 18 appearances (16 starts), with an 11-5-0 record, 2.64 GAA, .914 save percentage and one shutout.
Former Flyers defenseman Braydon Coburn recently signed a three-year contract extension with the Lightning to pre-empt his unrestricted free agency this summer. For the season, Coburn has posted 10 points (one goal, nine assists) and a plus-eight rating while dressing in all 65 games.
Fellow former Flyers blueliner Matt Carle was a frequent healthy scratch for a significant part of the season but has back as a regular in the lineup since Feb. 9. For the season, the veteran puck mover has two goals, three points and a minus-two rating in 49 games.
Key team stat comparisons (NHL overall ranking)
Non-shootout goals per game: Flyers 2.52 (T-21st), Lightning 2.77 (9th)
Non-shootout goals against per game: Flyers 2.59 (15th), Lightning 2.34 (4th)
5-on-5 Goals For/Against Ratio: Flyers 103/99, Lightning 117/97
Power play efficiency: Flyers 18.2% (18th), Lightning 17.2% (T-24th)
Penalty killing efficiency: Flyers 79.6% (21st), Lightning 83.8% (7th)
Shots per game: Flyers 30.5 (11th), Lightning 29.1 (20th)
Shots against per game: Flyers 31.4 (26th), Lightning 28.7 (8th)
Faceoff percentage: Flyers 50.2% (T-12th), Lightning 49.4% (21st)
Projected lineups (subject to change, will be updated)
Flyers
10 Brayden Schenn - 28 Claude Giroux - 17 Wayne Simmonds
12 Michael Raffl - 14 Sean Couturier - 89 Sam Gagner
21 Scott Laughton - 52 Nick Cousins - 24 Matt Read
76 Chris VandeVelde - 78 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - 25 Ryan White
47 Andrew MacDonald - 53 Shayne Gostisbehere
55 Nick Schultz - 32 Mark Streit
23 Brandon Manning - 3 Radko Gudas
35 Steve Mason / 30 Michal Neuvirth
Scratches: Evgeny Medvedev (healthy), R.J. Umberger (healthy) Jakub Voracek (out, lower body), Jordan Weal (IR, upper body), Michael Del Zotto (IR, wrist).
Lightning
17 Alex Killorn - 91 Steven Stamkos - 24 Ryan Callahan
18 Ondrej Palat - 9 Tyler Johnson - 86 Nikita Kucherov
13 Cedric Paquette - 51 Valtteri Filppula - 23 J.T. Brown
11 Brian Boyle - 90 Vladimir Namestnikov - 22 Erik Condra
77 Victor Hedman - 6 Anton Strålman
25 Matt Carle - 5 Jason Garrison
89 Nikita Nesterov - 55 Braydon Coburn
30 Ben Bishop
[88 Andrei Vasilevskiy]
Scratches: Andrej Sustr (lower body, questionable), Slater Koekkoek (healthy), Jonathan Marchessault (healthy).
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2016 Flyers Alumni Fantasy Camp Registration
Registration is now open for the 2nd annual Flyers Alumni Fantasy Camp (Aug. 19 -22) in Atlantic City. The Alumni have assembled an excellent group of instructor/coaches this year, including Hockey Hall of Famers Bernie Parent and Mark Howe, along with the likes of Danny Briere and Flyers assistant coach Ian Laperriere.
For more information,
click here.
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