Game 40 Preview: Flyers vs. Penguins

The Philadelphia Flyers (20-13-6) will host the Pittsburgh Penguins (19-15-4) on Monday evening. Game time at the Wells Fargo Center is 7:00 p.m. ET.

Flyers Outlook

The Flyers enter this coming off a 3-2 home win over the Calgary Flames on Saturday afternoon. The victory halted a four-game winless stretch in which the Flyers suffered regulation losses on the road in Calgary and Edmonton and shootout losses to Seattle (road) and Columbus (home).

On Saturday afternoon, the Flyers received goals from Morgan Frost (6th), Sean Couturier (PPG, 10th) and Travis Konecny (SHG, 21st). Konecny's shorthanded tally -- his fifth and the Flyers' 10th of the season -- proved to the game winner. Frost also assisted on the Couturier goal. Sean Walker, Tyson Foerster, Egor Zamula, Scott Laughton and Cam York chipped in one assist apiece. Carter Hart made 22 saves on 24 shots.

The Flyers will soon have some roster and lineup decisions to make. Noah Cates, out since late November with a broken foot, is now skating regularly and will soon ramp up in practices toward a return to the lineup. Head coach John Tortorella was recently asked if the player would return to playing center upon his return or whether the pre-injury move to a wing (he was primarily a winger before last season) would resume. The coach said he'd make that decision when the time comes.

In each of the Flyers' last three games, Tortorella has opted to shorten his bench in terms of the forward rotation. In the road trip finale Edmonton and at home against Columbus, the Flyers dressed 11 forwards and seven defensemen. In the latter game, with both Frost and Cam Atkinson scratched, the Flyers only used nine forwards regularly throughout the game. In Saturday's rematch with the Flames, the Flyers went back to starting 12 forwards. However, by the third period, the bench was shortened again.

Fourth-line left wing Nic Deslauriers, who has struggled mightily in recent weeks, was a healthy scratch in Edmonton (the first time he was not in the starting lineup this season). He returned in the Columbus and Calgary games. However, he was used very sparingly overall and did not skate a single shift in either game.

Ryan Poehling had spent several weeks as either the second-line or third-line center (this season, while there's been clear-cut first-line and fourth-line designations, the second and third lines have been pretty much interchangeable labels from game to game). On Saturday, Poehling moved back down to the fourth line, swapping lineup spots with Laughton. Poehling saw a couple of short shifts in the third period but was not regularly part of the rotation in crunch time.

Then there's the case of Bobby Brink. In recent weeks, Tortorella has been publicly critical of Brink's checking game. Previously, he said there'd been a dip in the rookie's pacing. Lately, Brink's ice time has been declining. In the Columbus game, Brink skated just 11 shifts at 5-on-5 although he also had four power play shifts and a turn in the 3-on-3 overtime for 12:39 of ice time. His ice time went down further against Calgary. Brink started the game on a line with Frost and Foerster at 5-on-5 as well as on the second power play unit. However, after the second period, Brink sat on the bench the rest of the game. He totaled 11 shifts and 9:36 of ice time, with 2:19 (four shifts) coming on the power play.

With Deslauriers and Brink out of the rotation entirely in the third period and Poehling only getting a couple shifts, Garnet Hathaway played with Frost and Foerster in the final period.

For the last month-plus, the Flyers have been burning the candle at both ends with their top line. It's understandable why it's happened, especially since Joel Farabee was promoted to the top line. The trio has been playing outstanding hockey, while the middle six have been markedly inconsistent and the fourth line has been getting caved of late (regardless of whether it's been Laughton or Poehling in the middle). Even so, it's neither ideal nor sustainable to squeeze 20-plus minutes a night nearly every game from Couturier in particular.

In the game against Columbus, the Couturier line was downright dominant. The rest of the lineup was just OK to less-than-OK at five-on-five. Konecny (26:18 across 28 shifts) and Couturier (23:36 in 27 shifts) logged ice time more akin to top-pair defensemen or a Stanley Cup playoff game. Farabee, who does not currently play on the PK, skated 20:29.

The match against the Blue Jackets went 65 minutes to a tie through overtime. However, the Calgary game was decided in regulation and there was a lot of special teams play. Couturier skated 24:01 across 29 shifts. Konecny played 23:31 across his 27 all-situations shifts.

In the Flyers last 16 games (dating back to the start of December), Couturier has averaged 20:34 of ice time per game. Konecny has averaged 19:52, which be an even tad higher if he hadn't been forced to leave game due to illness. Right now, the Flyers are just trying to get through an extremely busy January schedule and see where they are in the standings come the bye week/ All-Star break at the end of the month.

Moving forward, though, it needs to be a priority for Flyers to at least slightly alleviate some of Couturier's workload. He's healthy now, and playing great. But he's also had two back surgeries and is 31 years old. There's a very real danger of him running out of gas for the stretch drive in the short term. For the long term, the Flyers need to do their part to maximize the chance of him staying healthy and continuing to play at his highest level of effectiveness.

On an immediate basis, I fully expect the Farabee-Couturier-Konecny line to carry a massive ice time share again against the Penguins. It wouldn't surprise me if the bench gets shortened yet again and there's further rotating around of wingers into and out of the middle six.

As far as the power play goes, Tortorella has made it clear that he's been pleasantly surprised with the work of Egor Zamula on a PP point (now on PP1) and that the Russian rookie will stay there at least for now. The PP1 forwards, for now, are Couturier, Konecny, Farabee and Tippett.

Frost started Saturday's game off the power play entirely. When the Flyers lost Farabee to 17 minutes in penalties, Frost went to PP1 on the left half wall. In the third period, with Brink on the bench throughout, Frost was on PP2 during their lone power play of the final frame. It remains be seen how PP2 will be arranged against Pittsburgh. The starting PP2 unit very recently has also included Foerster, Laughton and Cam York.

The Flyers did not practice on Sunday. They'll have a morning skate in Voorhees at 10:30 AM. This week, the Flyers have four games in six nights, meaning that both Carter Hart and Samuel Ersson will see action. They'll no doubt split the back-to-back road games in Minnesota on Friday and Winnipeg on Saturday. But it's unclear so far who will this game against Pittsburgh, much less Wednesday's home game against Montreal. Tortorella will name his starter shortly before the morning skate.

Penguins Outlook

The Penguins wrapped up the December portion of their schedule with a 5-0-1 run. However, since the calendar has flipped to January, the team is 1-2-0 in its last three games. On Saturday, the Penguins dropped a 3-1 decision on home ice against the Buffalo Sabres.

With the exception of veteran winger Matt Nieto (knee surgery), the Penguins are largely a healthy team so far this season. Their top five scorers -- Jake Guentzel, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Erik Karlsson, and Kris Letang -- have dressed in every game played to date. The Penguins have the oldest roster in the NHL, with 39-year-old Jeff Carter as the seniormost member and 11 players in all who are age 31 or older.

Long-term the Penguins are in deep trouble. They've traded a slew of first-round picks to extend their Cup window as long as possible but are now a bubble team in terms of playoff contention with no projected high-end prospects on the pipeline. Pittsburgh struck gold with Guentzel in the third round, but even he is now 29 years old.

In the short term, though, the Penguins remain a dangerous and formidable opponent who can beat any team in the NHL on a given night. Last Thursday, the Penguins went into Boston and knocked off the Bruins (who already have 54 points) by a 6-5 score. Pittsburgh is 6-3-1 over its last 10 games. While there definite drawbacks to icing such an old roster, there's also plenty of big-game experience throughout and there's still a very strong top end of the lineup.

The Flyers won both games of their home-and-home set against Pittsburgh in early December but both games went beyond regulation. Philly won a 4-3 (1-0) shootout win at PPG Paints Arena on Dec. 2 and a 2-1 overtime win at the Wells Fargo Center two nights later.

Projected Lineups

FLYERS (confirmed)

86 Joel Farabee - 14 Sean Couturier - 11 Travis Konecny
74 Owen Tippett - 21 Scott Laughton - 89 Cam Atkinson
71 Tyson Foerster - 48 Morgan Frost - 10 Bobby Brink
44 Nicolas Deslauriers - 25 Ryan Poehling - 19 Garnet Hathaway

6 Travis Sanheim - 8 Cam York
24 Nick Seeler - 26 Sean Walker
5 Egor Zamula - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen

79 Carter Hart
[33 Samuel Ersson]

PENGUINS (confirmed)

59 Jake Guentzel - 87 Sidney Crosby - 67 Rickard Rakell
10 Drew O'Connor - 71 Evgeni Malkin - 17 Bryan Rust
19 Riley Smith - 20 Lars Eller - 48 Valtteri Puustinen
43 Jansen Harkins - 55 Noel Acciari - 77 Jeff Carter

28 Marcus Pettersson - 58 Kris Letang
73 Pierre-Olivier Joseph - 65 Erik Karlsson
27 Ryan Graves - 2 Chad Ruhwedel

39 Alex Nedeljkovic
[35 Tristan Jarry]

********

Wrap: Phantoms Drop 2-1 OT Decision in Hershey

The Hershey Bears (29-7-0) are running away with the Atlantic Division and have an 11-point margin leaguewide over the second-closest team in the AHL (the Cleveland Monsters, who have 47 points). As such, the key objective for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms (now 14-13-6) this weekend was to get as many points as possible from their back-to-set in order to draw a little closer to the rest of the Atlantic Division field in potential playoff contention below Hershey.

On Saturday in Wilkes-Barre, the Phantoms pulled off a two-goal comeback in the third period and went on to defea]}t the W-B/S Penguins in overtime, 4-3. Two goals by rookie winger Samu Tuomaala, including the OT winner, led the way.

On Sunday, the Phantoms were in Hershey. Lehigh Valley put forth a valiant effort, grabbed a 2-1 lead late in the second period on goals by Jordy Bellerive (3rd) and Adam Brooks (1st), and received strong goaltending from Cal Petersen (26 saves).

unfortunately, the Phantoms were unable to nurse a one-goal lead through the final 20 minutes of regulation to pull off an upset win. Hershey's Mike Sgarbossa (7th) scored at 14:40 to knot the score at 2-2. The Phantoms actually had some of their better pressure of the latter half of the game following Sgarbossa's goal. The game went to overtime.

In OT, the Phantoms got a temporary reprieve as Tuomaala made an outstanding backchecking play to break up a developing breakaway chance for Hershey's Joe Snively. However, at 2:04, the Bears' Alex Limoges (10th) scored to end the game.

Mitch Gibson (22 saves on 24 shots) earned the win in goal for the Bears. Bogdan Trineyev (5th) broke a scoreless deadlock early in the second period. The Phantoms were 0-for-3 on the power play but 4-for-4 on the PK.

All in all, it was a successful weekend for the Phantoms to claim three of four possible points. However, Lehigh Valley still has ground to make if they are to ultimately pull out a playoff spot. The 6th-place Springfield Thunderbird are three points ahead of the Phantoms, with the 5th place Charlotte Checkers holding a four-point edge over Ian Laperriere's club. The fourth-place W-B/S Penguins are up by six (Phantoms hold a game in hand). It's too early to worry about tiebreakers, but the Phantoms are currently in tiebreaker disadvantages over every team they're chasing.

This coming weekend, the Phantoms have back-to-back home games against the Hartford Wolf Pack on Friday and Hershey on Saturday.

The Phantoms' starting lineup on Sunday was as follows:

16 J.R. Avon - 9 Tanner Laczynski - 19 Wade Allison
17 Garrett Wilson - 91 Elliot Desnoyers - 27 Samu Tuomaala
28 Olle Lycksell - 22 Rhett Gardner - 20 Cooper Marody
24 Adam Brooks - 56 Jacob Gaucher - 15 Jordy Bellerive

6 Emil Andrae - 7 Louie Belpedio
98 Victor Mete - 12 Ronnie Attard
37 Adam Ginning - 5 Ethan Samson

40 Cal Petersen
[32 Felix Sandström]

Join the Discussion: » 704 Comments » Post New Comment

» Quick Hits: Briere, Media Day, Camp Schedule

» Quick Hits: Flyers Daily, Camp Highlights this Week

» Flyers Earn Rookie Series Split vs. Rangers

» Rookie Series: Game 1 Wrap, Game 2

» Rookie Series Game One: Flyers vs. Rangers