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Flyers Gameday: 12/30/15 @ SJ |
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PREVIEW: FLYERS @ SHARKS
Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers (15-13-7) will play the middle game of their three-game California road trip as the take on Peter DeBoer's San Jose Sharks (17-16-2) on Wednesday. Game time at the SAP Center is 10:30 p.m. ET. The game will be televised CSN Philadelphia.
This is the second and final meeting of the season between the teams. On Nov. 19 in Philadelphia, the clubs played to a 0-0 deadlock through regulation before prevailing on Melker Karlsson's two-on-one goal in overtime.
The Flyers have only played one game since Dec. 21. On Sunday, the team sustained a 4-2 loss to the Anaheim Ducks in the first game of the Flyers' California road trip. This is the Flyers' final game of the 2015 calendar year. The road trip concludes on Saturday afternoon with a game against the Los Angeles Kings.
On Monday, the Sharks returned from a five-night break as they dropped a 6-3 decision to the visiting Colorado Avalanche. As with the Flyers, this game is the final one for the Sharks during the 2015 calendar year. On Saturday, the Sharks will play the third game of their current five-game homestand as they play host to the Winnipeg Jets.
Flyers Outlook
In their return game from the Christmas break, the Flyers got outplayed in most facets of the game but particularly on special teams as they lost 4-2 in Anaheim.
The game was tied at 1-1 after the first period and 2-2 at the second intermission as both clubs held a short-lived one goal lead. The Ducks then proceeded to go ahead to stay in the opening minute of the third period and never looked back.
Former Hart Trophy winner Corey Perry scored power play and even strength goals for the Ducks. Forner Hart finalist Ryan Getzlaf's opened the scoring with a 5-on-3 power play goal. Shawn Horcoff put a stranglehold on the game with a shorthanded breakaway goal. John Gibson stopped 24 of 26 shots to earn the win in goal.
For the Flyers, Jakub Voracek converted a friendly bounce the puck off the end boards on an intentionally errant shot by Nick Schultz to tie the game at 1-1 in the middle stages of the first period. Michael Raffl briefly gave the Flyers a 2-1 lead with a pinballing rebound goal on the power play early in the second period. Sean Couturier assisted on both Flyers' tallies.
Losing goaltender Steve Mason (33 saves on 37 shots) had no chance on either of the first two Anaheim goals and was oustanding in stopping 27 of 29 shots through the first and second periods. He gave the Flyers a chance to come away with one or two points from the game. In the third period, however, Mason failed to come up with critical momentum saves.
Flyers captain Claude Giroux has gone five games without posting a point. That is the longest point drought he has had since the first five games of the 2013-14 season.
Nevertheless, Giroux still leads the Flyers with 11 goals, 17 assists and 28 points. He is followed by Voracek (four goals, 20 assists, 24 points), Wayne Simmonds (nine goals, 10 assists, 19 points, 82 penalty minutes) and Brayden Schenn (seven goals, eight assists, 15 points). Offensive-minded rookie defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere has contributed six goals (four on the power play, three in overtime), eight assists and 14 points. Sean Couturier rounds out the top six with five goals, nine assists and 14 points.
In goal, Mason has made 22 appearances, posting a 2.79 goals against average, .912 save percentage and 7-9-5 record. Michal Neuvirth has made 16 appearances, posting a 2.06 GAA, .937 save percentage and 8-4-2 record. Mason has posted two shutouts and a regulation shutout in a 1-0 OT loss, while Neuvirth has authored three shutouts.
Veteran offensive defenseman Mark Streit has been activated from the long-term injured reserve list after undergoing surgery on Nov. 17 to repair a detached pubic plate. In his return to the Flyers' lineup, Streit is expected to be paired with Nick Schultz.
On Tuesday, the Flyers placed veteran forward Sam Gagner on waivers both for salary cap purposes and to get the active roster down to the maximum 23 players. If Gagner clears waivers, he wil be assigned to the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms and the Flyers will get a $950,000 cap saving that will enable them to keep both Gostisbehere and Scott Laughton in the NHL. If Gagner is claimed by another team, the remainder of his cap hit comes off the books for Philadelphia.
Defenseman Michael Del Zotto is the Flyers' lone injury-related scratch. He is day-to-day with a hand or wrist injury sustained on Dec. 21.
Sharks Outlook
The Sharks stumbled out of the post-Christmas gate, too. On Monday, San Jose played from behind most of the night against Colorado.
Although the Sharks pushed back from deficits of 1-0, 3-1 and 4-2 to draw back within one goal in the third period, a three-goal attack by Colorado in the final stanza was too much to overcome. A Nathan MacKinnon goal scored just 37 seconds after the Sharks cut the gap to 4-3 was a dagger to the heart of the Sharks' comeback bid. MacKinnon later added an empty net goal to seal the final score and complete a hat trick.
In a losing cause, Patrick Marleau, Karlsson and Tomas Hertl scored for the Sharks against the Avalanche. Martin Jones stopped 20 of 25 shots. San Jose generated 30 of its 38 shots over the final 40 minutes of the game but could not find an equalizer against Calvin Pickard after a Carl Söderberg power play goal in the latter first period put the Avs ahead 2-1.
San Jose's top scorer, Joe Pavelski, took a maintenance day off from practice on Tuesday. He is battling the flu. Nevertheless, Pavelski is expected to play on Wednesday. Another key player, Logan Couture, may be ready to return to the Sharks' lineup after missing seven games due to arterial bleeding in his right thigh. He is now considered day-to-day and is questionable for this game.
Couture has only played five games this season (zero goals, two assists). Even without Couture, the Sharks rank in the top one-third of the NHL offensively and have five players with 20 or more points and nine with 13 or more points. Keeping the puck out of their own net -- the Sharks rank 24th in the NHL in goals against average -- has been the bigger problem.
Pavelski leads the way with 36 points (18 goals, 18 assists) in 35 games. He is followed by roving offensive defenseman Brent Burns (14 goals, 18 assists, 32 points, -12 at even strength), veteran forward Marleau (14 goals, 12 assists, 26 points), power forward Joel Ward (10 goals, 24 points), Joe Thornton (six goals, 18 assists, 24 points) and defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic (four goals, 11 assists, 15 points).
Key team stat comparisons (NHL overall ranking)
Non-shootout goals per game: Flyers 2.14 (29th), Sharks 2.71 (T-9th)
Non-shootout goals against per game: Flyers 2.66 (18th), Sharks 2.86 (24th)
5-on-5 Goals For/Against Ratio: Flyers 46/52, Sharks 39/57
Power play efficiency: Flyers 16.5% (25th), Sharks 20.4% (T-7th)
Penalty killing efficiency: Flyers 79.0% (21st), Sharks 80.9% (14th)
Shots per game: Flyers 30.4 (9th), Sharks 30.2 (10th)
Shots against per game: Flyers 32.5 (29th), Sharks 28.5 (8th)
Faceoff percentage: Flyers 49.3% (23rd), Sharks 51.5% (T-4th)
Projected lineups (subject to change, will be updated)
Flyers
12 Michael Raffl - 28 Claude Giroux - 10 Brayden Schenn
93 Jakub Voracek - 14 Sean Couturier - 17 Wayne Simmonds
76 Chris VandeVelde - 78 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - 25 Ryan White
24 Matt Read - 21 Scott Laughton - 20 R.J. Umberger
82 Evgeny Medvedev - 3 Radko Gudas
55 Nick Schultz - 32 Mark Streit
53 Shayne Gostisbehere - 22 Luke Schenn
35 Steve Mason / 30 Michal Neuvirth
Scratches: Vincent Lecavalier (healthy), Brandon Manning (healthy), Michael Del Zotto (day-to-day, hand).
Sharks
9 Dainius Zubrus - 19 Joe Thornton - 8 Joe Pavelski
83 Matthew Nieto - 12 Patrick Marleau - 42 Joel Ward
27 Joonas Donskoi - 50 Chris Tierney - 57 Tommy Wingels
68 Melker Karlsson - 48 Tomas Hertl - 21 Ben Smith
44 Marc-Edouard Vlasic - 61 Justin Braun
7 Paul Martin - 88 Brent Burns
4 Brenden Dillon - 74 Dylan DeMelo
31 Martin Jones / 32 Alex Stalock
Scratches: Logan Couture (questionable, thigh surgery), Mike Brown (healthy), Matt Tennyson (healthy).
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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