UPDATE 11 AM ET
In order to create emergency roster space, the Flyers have assigned winger Joel Farabee to the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms, and recalled goaltender Alex Lyon. They have placed Chris Stewart on waivers.
With Carter Hart (lower-body injury) unavailable to back up Brian Elliott in St. Louis, the Flyers had three options available:
1) Place Justin Braun or Shayne Gostisbehere on long-term injured reserve; which would delay their eligible date to return to the lineup.
2) Assign an ELC defenseman -- Mark Friedman or Phil Myers -- to the Phantoms, and dress 13 forwards and five defensemen against the Blues.
3) Assign Connor Bunnaman to the Phantoms. This would have entailed moving Michael Raffl back to center (rather than left wing on Sean Couturier's line) and juggling two or three forward line combinations accordingly.
4) Assign Farabee to the Phantoms. This necessitates only one lineup change. Chris Stewart (who would have dressed, anyway, under any scenario but the first) will be in the lineup in place of Farabee on the fourth line. All other line combinations can remain the same.
The Flyers cannot get cap relief on Stewart until he clears waivers on Thursday. At that time, he can be assigned to the Phantoms and Farabee recalled.
Chuck Fletcher announced that Carter Hart will miss two to three weeks with a lower right abdominal muscle strain.
*********
GAME 47: FLYERS @ BLUES
Briefly on the road after a three-game homestand, Alain Vigneault's Philadelphia Flyers (24-16-6 overall, 9-13-2 away visit Craig Berube's defending Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues (30-10-7, 17-4-3 home) on Wednesday night. Game time at the Enterprise Center is 8:00 p.m. ET.
The game will be nationally televised on NBC Sports Network. The radio broadcast will be on 97.5 The Fanatic with an online simulcast on
Flyers Radio 24/7.
This is the first of two meetings this season between the inter-conference teams, and the lone game in St. Louis. The season series concludes in Philadelphia on March 17. The Flyers swept the season series against the Blues in 2017-18, but the Blues turned the tables last year with two convincing wins over Philly.
Shortly after "Chief" took over as interim head coach from Mike Yeo (now a Flyers assistant coach), the Blues came to the Wells Fargo Center on Jan. 7, 2019. Mired in last place in the Western Conference, the Blues started Jordan Binnington in goal for his NHL debut. Binnington, who had struggled in the playoffs the previous season as a member of the Providence Bruins in a first-round series loss to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, shut out the Flyers on 25 shots that night. Goals by ex-Flyer Brayden Schenn in the second period, and by Vladimir Tarasenko and David Perron (empty net) in the third, lifted the Blues to a 3-0 win.
That particular game is widely considered the turning point of the Blues' 2018-19 season, which culminated with the team lifting the Stanley Cup. Binnington proved to be an older rookie sensation in goal.
The teams met again on April 4 in St. Louis. It was the Flyers' final road game and next-to-last game overall of the season, while the Blues were gearing up for the playoffs. St. Louis scored early and often, and the Flyers failed to compete for much of the night. The result was an ugly 7-3 blowout.
FLYERS OUTLOOK
The Flyers are beginning a gauntlet of three games in four nights; the team has not only the most back-to-backs in the NHL this season but the most 3-in-4s and 4-in-6s as well. On Thursday, the Flyers are right back in action to host Montreal. The LA Kings pay their annual visit to Philadelphia come Saturday.
The Flyers enter this game coming off a
wild 6-5 (1-0) comeback victory via shootout at home on Monday against the Boston Bruins; a match that had to be seen to be believed, right up to its bizarre ending with Boston star Brad Marchand flubbing the puck at the center ice dot to end the game in the fifth round of the shootout.
On Tuesday, before the team took to the ice for practice at the Skate Zone in Voorhees, general manager Chuck Fletcher met with the media for a
midseason state-of-the-team press conference, which included
status updates on Nolan Patrick and Oskar Lindblom.
Shortly thereafter, the team practiced. It turned out to be unpleasantly eventful, as goaltender Carter Hart left the ice early with assistant trainer Sal Raffa and did not return. Vigneault said afterwards that Hart experienced lower-body discomfort during practice -- the goalie felt fine after Monday's game and also pre-practice on Tuesday, according to the head coach.
The Flyers said early on Tuesday evening that a medical update on Hart would be forthcoming on Wednesday morning. In the meantime, Philadelphia Inquirer beat writer Sam Carchidi reported that Lehigh Valley Phantoms goaltender Alex Lyon was being flown to St. Louis as a precaution in case Hart was unavailable to back up Brian Elliott in this game. Elliott, who had the best years of his NHL career (including a Jennings Trophy and a trip to the Western Conference Final) in St. Louis, was already slated to start against the Blues after Hart started all three games of the just-completed homestand.
There is going to be a ripple effect on the lineup, depending on Hart's availability to back up Elliott on Wednesday. If he can dress, there won't be any roster moves or lineup changes. If he is unavailable and Lyon must be officially recalled, the team does not have enough salary cap space to do so without a matching roster move -- most likely, to assign Connor Bunnaman to the Phantoms -- to create enough cap space for Lyon. If Bunnaman has to be sent down, Michael Raffl will go back to center. If Hart can back up Elliott, Wednesday's lineup will be identical to Tuesday's.
Elsewhere on the injury front, the Flyers will be without Shayne Gostisbehere underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee on Tuesday. His targeted return date is a Jan. 31 road game in Pittsburgh as the Flyers exit the NHL All-Star break and their bye week on the schedule. Fellow defenseman Justin Braun (groin) was also originally projected to be out until after the All-Star break. However, he is ahead of schedule. Fletcher said on Tuesday that Braun is questionable for Saturday's game against Los Angeles and probable by next Tuesday's home game against Pittsburgh before the break.
Right now, apart from juggling personnel to manage around injuries, the Flyers' No. 1 task is to figure out the massive discrepancy between their home and road performance.
At home, the Flyers boast a 15-3-4 record, scoring an average 3.64 goals per game (6th-highest leaguewide), carrying a 2.05 goals against average (2nd in the NHL). The power play clocks in at 23.1 percent efficiency (9th), and the penalty kill is at 86.8 percent success (4th). On the road, the Flyers are 9-13-2, averaging 2.54 goals per game (21st), posting a 3.84 goals against average (30th), 14.7 percent power play (25th), and 77.1 percent penalty kill (24th).
BLUES OUTLOOK
The Blues' boast the top record in the Western Conference and have pulled even with the Washington Capitals in the President's Trophy race. If the season ended today, the Blues would be awarded the President's Trophy via tiebreaker for having more regulation wins.
St. Louis, which brings a four-game winning streak into Wednesday night's game, do not own a shootout win (0-3) this season. All 30 of their wins have come either in regulation (24) or overtime (6). For the season, the Blues own a +27 differential in goals for vs. goals against (152-125). In the Western Conference, only Colorado's +28 is better.
At 5-on-5, the Blues have scored 98 goals (T-11th) and allowed 79 (T-4th best). Breaking it down by home-road, St. Louis has scored 42 goals (16th) and allowed 33 (3rd, the Flyers rank second at 30) at home. On the road, the Blues have scored 42 goals (T-15th) and allowed 46 (12th).
Looking further inside the Blues' numbers on special teams, St. Louis' overall power play ranks 4th at 25.7 percent: 11th at home (22.5%) and No. 1 on the road (29.2%). The PK is 12th overall (one spot behind the Flyers) at 81.6%: 9th at home (84.3%) and 16th on the road (79.8%).
In the absence of the injured Tarasenko, balanced scoring and depth is the name of the game in St. Louis. David Perron leads the Blues offensively with 46 points (20 goals, 26 assists), of which 24 points have come on the power play. Schenn has 40 points (17g, 23a), with 25 points at even strength and 15 on the power play. Last season's Conn Smythe Trophy winner, Ryan O'Reilly, also has 40 points on top of a 57.1 percent faceoff success rate.
Jaden Schwartz had 39 points and defenseman Alex Pietrangelo has 38 points while averaging roughly 24 minutes of ice time per game. In fact, the Blues have nine different players (eight forwards plus Pietrangelo), who have already collected 19 or more points this season.
In goal, Binnington has a 22-7-4 record, 2.47 GAA, .917 SV% and one shutout. Jake Allen has an 8-3-3 record, 2.27 GAA, .926 SV% and one shutout.
PROJECTED STARTING LINEUPS
FLYERS (based on Monday, will be updated after Carter Hart status is clarified)
28 Claude Giroux - 13 Kevin Hayes - 11 Travis Konecny
12 Michael Raffl - 14 Sean Couturier - 93 Jakub Voracek
25 James van Riemsdyk - 21 Scott Laughton - 62 Nic Aube-Kubel
18 Tyler Pitlick - 82 Connor Bunnaman - 44 Chris Stewart
9 Ivan Provorov - 15 Matt Niskanen
6 Travis Sanheim - 5 Phil Myers
8 Robert Hägg - 59 Mark Friedman
37 Brian Elliott
[34 Alex Lyon]
Power Play 1: Giroux, JVR, Konecny, Hayes, Provorov.
Power Play 2: Couturier, Aube-Kubel, Voracek, Sanheim, Niskanen.
Scratches: 79 Carter Hart (abdominal muscle strain), 62 Justin Braun (groin), 53 Shayne Gostisbehere (knee).
LTIR: 55 Sam Morin (torn ACL, out for season), 23 Oskar Lindblom (Ewing sarcoma, out for season), 19 Nolan Patrick (migraines).
BLUES
12 Zach Sanford - 90 Ryan O'Reilly - 57 David Perron
17 Jaden Schwartz - 10 Brayden Schenn - 70 Oskar Sundqvist
20 Alexander Steen - 18 Robert Thomas - 21 Tyler Bozak
28 Mackenzie MacEachern - 61 Jacob de la Rose- 49 Ivan Barbashev
29 Vince Dunn - 27 Alex Pietrangelo
19 Jay Bouwmeester - 72 Justin Faulk
77 Niko Mikkola - 41 Robert Bortuzzo
50 Jordan Binnington
34 Jake Allen
Power Play 1: Schwartz, O'Reilly, Schenn, Perron, Pietrangelo
Power Play 2: Steen, Thomas, Bozak, Dunn, Faulk
Scratches: 33 Jordan Kyrou (healthy), 36 Troy Brouwer (healthy), 55 Colton Parayko (day-to-day, upper body).
IR: 4 Carl Gunnarsson (arm), 9 Sammy Blais (wrist), 91 Vladimir Tarasenko (left shoulder)
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
Join the Discussion:
»