GAME 42: FLYERS @ COYOTES
In the fifth game of a six-game road trip, Alain Vigneault's Philadelphia Flyers (22-14-5 overall, 9-12-1 away) are in Glendale on Saturday night to take on Rick Tocchet's Arizona Coyotes (23-16-4, 10-10-1 home) on Saturday night. Game time Gila River Arena is 8:00 p.m. ET.
The game will be televised on NBCSP. The radio broadcast will be on 97.5 The Fanatic with an online simulcast on
Flyers Radio 24/7.
This is the second and final meeting of the season between the teams, and the lone game in Arizona. The Flyers are 1-0-0 in the season series to date, as the Coyotes are one of only two teams to beat the Flyers in regulation at the Wells Fargo Center this season.
On Dec. 5, the Coyotes down the host Flyers, 3-1. Phil Kessel (power play, 5th) and Conor Garland (11th) scored for Arizona to build a 2-0 lead despite their paucity of shots and chances. Matt Niskanen (3rd) cut the gap to 2-1 at 6-on-5 before Kessel scored a power play empty netter (6th) to seal a 3-1 win for the Coyotes.
Darcy Kuemper earned the win, stopping 28 of 29 shots. Brian Elliott took the loss, stopping 14 of 16 shots. Overall, the Flyers held a 66-37 advantage in total shot attempts (SOG + blocked shots + missed shots).
"We get a 10 for effort tonight but a 7 for execution," Flyers head coach Alain Vigneault said.
"When you look at all the numbers after tonight, we’ll be double in possession double and double the shots and everything. But we couldn't find a way to beat their goaltender. So, I like the way we worked. But execution wise with the puck, we're a little off and a lot of people will say they defended well. We had the puck all night. So that's what happened."
FLYERS OUTLOOK
On Thursday, the Flyers came two-thirds of the way back from a cavernous 5-2 deficit but were unable to find an equalizer in a 5-4 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena. With the loss, the Flyers fell to 1-3-0 on their current six-game road trip and to 9-12-1 overall on the road. Overall, the Flyers dropped to 5-6-0 over their last 11 games.
For the second straight game, the Flyers gave up four goals in the first period. They've also given up four power play goals to the opposition over the last two games.
Max Pacioretty had even strength and power play goals for Vegas, as did Sean Couturier for the Flyers. Claude Giroux and Travis Konecny also scored in a losing cause, while Shea Theodore and Jon Merrill scored in Vegas' four-goal deluge in the first period.
This was not a night where any goalie was going to leave with a nice-looking stat line. However, both Marc-Andre Fleury (34 saves on 38 shots) and Carter Hart (28 saves on 33 shots) stepped up big at times over the final 40 minutes of the game after a wild first period.
Thursday's marked the statistical midpoint of the 2019-20 season for the Flyers. Saturday's game will be the team's fifth game in five different cities over less than eight full nights. It's been a very rough trip on the ice as well as logistically.
Beginning the second half of the season, the disparity between the Flyers' overall home and record performances is impossible to ignore. Below are the splits with the team's ranking in each area:
Record: 13-2-4 / 9-12-1
GPG: 3.79 (4th) / 2.50 (23rd)
GAA: 1.95 (1st) / 3.68 (29th)
PP: 24.3% (8th) / 15.9% (20th)
PK: 85.9% (5th) / 76.5% (21st)
COYOTES OUTLOOK
The Coyotes are one of the relatively few NHL teams that have fared better on the road than at home so far this season. Overall, the team had lost five of eight games before skating to back-to-back home wins over the reigning Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues (3-1) on New Year's Eve and then over the Anaheim Ducks (4-2) on Jan. 2. It is the first time since Dec. 3 and 5 that the Coyotes have won two straight games.
Against Anaheim, the Coyotes saw an early 1-0 lead turn into a 2-1 deficit heading into the third period. In the final stanza, Arizona exploded for three goals in the first eight minutes to skate off with a 4-2 win. Lawson Crouse (8th), Christian Dvorak (10th), Brad Richardson (2nd) and Carl Söderberg (12th) scored for Arizona. Antti Raanta made 27 saves for Arizona.
Saturday's game concludes a four-game homestand for the Coyotes. Thereafter, the team will embark on a three-game southeastern road trip to play Florida, Tampa and Carolina in a three-in-four gauntlet.
Overall, the Coyotes have averaged 2.72 goals per game (23rd) and have a team 2.51 GAA (3rd). The power play comes in at 19.9 percent (14th) and the penalty kill at 82.5 percent (6th). The team has won faceoffs at a 49.7 percent pace (20th), while the Flyers top the NHL at 54.6 percent.
PROJECTED STARTING LINEUPS (subject to change, will be updated)
FLYERS
28 Claude Giroux - 14 Sean Couturier - 93 Jakub Voracek
25 James van Riemsdyk - 13 Kevin Hayes - 11 Travis Konecny
49 Joel Farabee - 21 Scott Laughton - 18 Tyler Pitlick
10 Andy Andreoff - 12 Michael Raffl - 62 Nicolas Aube-Kubel
9 Ivan Provorov - 15 Matt Niskanen
6 Travis Sanheim - 61 Justin Braun
53 Shayne Gostisbehere - 5 Phil Myers
79 Carter Hart
[37 Brian Elliott]
Power Play 1: Giroux, Couturier, JVR, Konecny, Provorov.
Power Play 2: Farabee, Hayes, Voracek, Gostisbehere, Niskanen.
Scratches: 8 Robert Hägg (healthy), 44 Chris Stewart (healthy), 24 Mikhail Vorobyev (healthy)
LTIR: 55 Sam Morin (torn ACL, out for season), 23 Oskar Lindblom (Ewing sarcoma, out for season), 19 Nolan Patrick (migraines)
COYOTES
91 Taylor Hall - 18 Christian Dvorak - 83 Conor Garland
9 Clayton Keller - 34 Carl Söderberg - 8 Nick Schmaltz
67 Lawson Crouse - 21 Derek Stepan - 81 Phil Kessel
13 Vinnie Hinostroza - 15 Brad Richardson - 36 Christian Fischer
23 Oliver Ekman-Larsson - 55 Jason Demers
6 Jakob Chychrun - 33 Alex Goligoski
82 Jordan Oesterle - 46 Ilya Lyubushkin
32 Antti Raanta
31 Adin Hill
Power play 1: Hall, Dvorak, Keller, Kessel, Ekman-Larsson
Power Play 2: Schmaltz, Söderberg, Garland, Chychrun, Goligoski
Scratches:40 Michael Grabner (healthy), 75 Kyle Capobianco (healthy)
IR: 4 Niklas Hjalmarsson (fractured leg), 35 Darcy Kuemper (lower body)
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PHANTOMS UPDATE
The struggles of the Lehigh Valley Phantoms continued on Friday night as they got shut out, 4-0, by the host Laval Rocket. Laval scored twice in the first period (once at even strength and once on the power play), once in the second and once in the third.
Cayden Primeau, the son of early 2000s Flyers captain Keith Primeau, recorded a 20-save shutout. Laval got goals from Jake Evans (8th), Charles Hudon (power play, 16th), Evan McEneny (2nd) and Xavier Ouellet (7th). Riley Barber recorded two assists.
The Phantoms were held to just 13 mostly harmless shots through two periods. In the third period, after the deficit grew to 4-0 just 11 seconds into the period, Lehigh Valley finally started to generate better looks. They came away with nothing but added frustration.
In his first game back with the Phantoms since being reassigned to the AHL on Monday by the Flyers, rookie center Morgan Frost had a rough night. He took a hooking penalty on his first shift on the game. Later, he took a slashing penalty. Frost did not record a shot on goal in the game.
The Phantoms got veteran Cal O'Reilly back in the lineup after he was out nearly a month due to an injury suffered in the Dec. 7 game against Hershey. Unfortunately, the Phantoms lost defenseman Andy Welinski in the first period of Friday's game. He did not return.
One of the more active Phantoms in this game was Connor Bunnaman. He was one of the relatively few Lehigh Valley players winning puck battles and generating forechecking pressure. He also finished with five of the team's 20 shots on Primeau's net.
Goaltender J.F. Berube took the loss. He stopped 30 of 34 shots.
Then Phantoms (12-17-5) return to action on Saturday. In the second game of their three-game Canadian road trip, Lehigh Valley will take on the Belleville Senators (19-12-3). The trip wraps up on Sunday as the Phantoms visit the Toronto Marlies (19-11-3).
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WJC SEMIFINALS
With the elimination of Team USA (Bobby Brink, Cam York) on Thursday after a 1-0 loss to Finland in the medal round quarterfinals, two Flyers prospects remain in the 2019-20 IIHF World Junior Championships tournament in the Czech Republic. Saturday's semifinal round will determine with two teams will play for the gold medal and which two play for bronze. There is guaranteed to be one Flyers prospect in each of the two final games, because Sweden (Adam Ginning) will play Russia (Egor Zamula) in one semifinal game. Canada opposes Finland in the other.
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FLYERS POWERPLAY VS. FLYERS WARRIORS
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