Game 9 Preview: Flyers vs. Avalanche
Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers (4-4-0) are home on Monday evening to take on Jared Bednar's Colorado Avalanche (5-1-2). Game time at Wells Fargo Center is 7 p.m. EDT.
The game will be televised on NBCSNP. The radio broadcast can be found on 97.5 FM The Fanatic with an online simulcast at
FlyersRadio247.com.
This is the final meeting of the season between the inter-conference clubs. On Oct. 6 in Denver, the Flyers erased a pair of one-goal deficits but paid the price for sloppy defensive zone play and late third-period penalty trouble in a 5-2 loss to the Avalanche.
Colin Wilson scored even strength and power play goals for Colorado. Gabriel Landeskog scored the game-winner at 7:18 of the second period on a deflection goal from the blue paint. The Flyers challenged the goal, claiming goalie interference but the call on the ice was upheld. Nathan MacKinnon assisted on the Landeskog goal and later added an empty-net goal.
Sean Couturier scored his first goal of the season, tying the game at 1-1 at 7:30 of the first period, cleaning up in front on a Travis Konecny rebound. Early in the second period, Mikhail Vorobyev tied the game at 2-2, benefiting on a gifted chance as Colorado defenseman Mark Barbiero accidentally took out goaltender Semyon Varlamov on a routine dump-in and cover, leaving Vorobyev with an empty net. Additionally, the Flyers lost James van Riemsdyk to a late first-period lower-body injury. He remains out of the lineup.
Flyers Outlook
The Flyers are coming off a 5-2 home win against the New Jersey Devils on Saturday afternoon. Philly needed a 60-minute, two-way performance of this nature in which they controlled the pay at five-on-five for most of the game and got a goal from the second power play unit.
Konecny (2nd, power play), Nolan Patrick (1st), Jakub Voracek (3rd), Wayne Simmonds (6th, empty net) and Scott Laughton (4th, empty net) scored for the Flyers. Voracek, Claude Giroux and Ivan Provorov had two assists apiece. Voracek and Giroux share the team scoring lead with 11 points apiece. Both players have three goals and eight assists.
Saturday's game saw a few new developments in the lineup rotation. He moved Robert Hägg from second pair left defense to play the right side with Ivan Provorov (two assists, plus-two, four blocks in 23:24), while Shayne Gostisbehere moved from right defense with Provorov to the left side of Folin. Additionally, the second power play unit received significantly more ice time per man advantage than in previous games, but this was largely due to the game circumstances -- the top unit was not in synch on this day, while the second unit was -- as it was to design.
Offensively, the Flyers have averaged 3.63 goals per game thus far; tied with the Avalanche for 7th in the NHL. Through a combination of spotty team defense and erratic goaltending -depending on the game -- the Flyers' have yielded 4.13 goals per game thus far to rank 30th defensively. Only Detroit (4.38 GAA) has hemorrhaged more opposing goals per game thus far.
Saturday's tilt was the only one this season so far where the Flyers were good in pushing play offensively with goal output to show for it, played well defensively at 5-on-5 and got decent goaltending all in the same game. Whether that game marked the start of a good groove for the team remains to be seen. It was, after all, just one game.
Veteran goaltender Michal Neuvirth (lower-body injury) is close to being ready to be activated from injured reserve. When he's activated, the Flyers will have to clear a roster space.
On Sunday, the Flyers had an off-day. The club will hold a morning skate at the Wells Fargo Center on Monday at 10:30 a.m. ET.
Avalanche Outlook
The Avalanche are playing the final match of a four-game eastern road trip. It has been a successful trip so far for Bednar's team. The club is 2-0-1 on the trip. On Thursday, the Avalanche handed the Devils their first loss of the season. On Saturday, Colorado defeated the Carolina Hurricanes, 3-1.
In the game in Raleigh, Philipp Grubauer earned the win with 42 saves. Landeskog scored even strengh and power play goals (his 6th and 7th tallies of the season), while MacKinnon added further insurance with his 8th goal of the young season. A Micheal Ferland goal with 2:33 remaining in the third period broke up Grubauer's shutout bid but otherwise was meaningless to the outcome of the game.
Offensively, the Avalanche rank tied for 7th in the NHL with an average 3.63 goals per game through their first eight game. Defensively, the team's 2.25 goals against average ranks 2nd-best in the NHL in the early going of the season. Nashville's 1.88 team GAA so far leads the league.
The Avalanche top line of 2017-18 Hart Trophy finalist MacKinnon (14 points), Mikko Rantanen (two goals, 12 assists) and Landeskog (10 points, +10 at even strength) has emerged among the very best in the NHL. In terms of the supporting cast, Carl Söderberg, Colin Wilson and J.T. Compher (who has missed three games) have all chipped in three goals apiece so far.
PROJECTED LINEUPS (Subject to change)
FLYERS
28 Claude Giroux - 14 Sean Couturier -17 Wayne Simmonds
21 Scott Laughton - 19 Nolan Patrick - 93 Jakub Voracek
23 Oskar Lindblom - 40 Jordan Weal -11 Travis Konecny
12 Michael Raffl - 15 Jori Lehterä -22 Dale Weise
9 Ivan Provorov - 8 Robert Hägg
53 Shayne Gostisbehere - 26 Christian Folin
6 Travis Sanheim - 3 Radko Gudas
37 Brian Elliott
[33 Calvin Pickard]
Scratches: 24 Mikhail Vorobyev (healthy), 47 Andrew MacDonald (healthy), 10 Corban Knight (healthy), 25 James van Riemsdyk (IR, lower body), 30 Michal Neuvirth (IR, lower body), 5 Sam Morin (ACL surgery).
AVALANCHE
92 Gabriel Landeskog - 29 Nathan MacKinnon - 96 Mikko Rantanen
83 Matthew Nieto - 34 Carl Söderberg - 11 Matt Calvert
56 Marko Dano - 17 Tyson Jost - 57 Gabriel Bourque
10 Sven Andrighetto - 13 Alexander Kerfoot - 22 Colin Wilson
49 Samuel Girard - 6 Erik Johnson
28 Ian Cole - 4 Tyson Barrie
16 Nikita Zadorov -12 Patrik Nemeth
1 Semyon Varlamov
[31 Philipp Grubauer]
Scratches: 18 Conor Timmins (IR, head), 37 J.T. Compher (upper body), 44 Mark Barberio (healthy), 91 Vladislav Kamenev (healthy).
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Phantoms drop shootout in Bridgeport, 4-3
The Lehigh Valley Phantoms went 1-1-1 on a weekend 3-in-3 set of games against the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins and Bridgeport Sound Tigers. On Friday, the Phantoms dropped a 5-4 decision to the Pens at the PPL Center. The next night in Wilkes Barre, the Phantoms overcame an early 2-0 deficit to earn a 6-3 victory. On Sunday in Bridgeport,Lehigh Valley took a 2-0 lead to the first intermission but ultimately had to settle for one point from a 4-3 shootout loss.
Rookie goalie Carter Hart got the start in net for the Phantoms on Sunday. While his performance was not spotless and his stat line (25 saves on 28 shots) was ordinary, the game was a step forward from his previous two outings.
Hart had no chance on two of the three regulation goals he allowed on Sunday, and came up with multiple tough saves. His best portion of the game was a five-save sequence at the start of the third period when the Sound Tigers kept the Phantoms hemmed in their own zone for a staggering three-plus minutes. Hart also erased a 2-on-1 and made several tough saves off deflections or with layers of traffic in front of him. In OT, after Mike Sislo went around Phantoms defenseman Mark Friedman, Hart made an excellent save to keep the game going.
There were a few saves where Hart could have been a little cleaner. In the second period, he allowed a fat rebound on one harmless looking initial shot, but was bailed out by the defense getting to it first. A Devon Toews goal from the left circle through the five-hole was not an awful goal -- Toews released the shot quickly and it was nicely placed -- but one that Hart would probably think was stoppable.
The rookie had no chance on a point-blank goal by Steve Bernier on a power-play deflected cross-ice pass that accidentally found Bernier alone in the slot. Hart also had no prayer of stopping a Bernier deflection goal of a Kieffer Bellows shot at 17:15 of the third period off a Bridgeport faceoff win.
The Phantoms got first period goals from David Kase (2nd, power play) and Phil Varone (3rd, power play) to take an early 2-0 lead. In the third period, on the shift after Bernier gave the Sound Tigers a 3-2 lead, the red-hot T.J. Brennan scorched a one-timer home to tie the game and force OT.
On the Kase goal, good work behind the net and a quick little centering pass from German Rubtsov enabled the Czech rookie to chip home a goal a few feet in front of the blue paint. Rubtsov, who had a two-goal game on Saturday in Wilkes Barre, also made a couple of strong defensive plays in the first period and came within a whisker of a shorthanded breakaway but was not as noticeable until he was in the middle of a 3-on-1 rush in the closing seconds of overtime. Both Mike Vecchione and Rubtsov had cracks at winning the game.
The Phantoms, who scored six power play goals over the three-game weekend set, had an OT power play opportunity but were unable to cash it in for a winning goal. At one juncture, a loose puck slid through the slot, but Rubtsov had his stick neutralized and could not get to it.
Back in the first period, Varone supplemented the earlier Kase marker with a re-direct goal as Greg Carey put the puck at the net. Brennan got a secondary helper on the Varone goal while reigning AHL MVP Varone got the secondary assist on the Kase goal. Brennan racked racked up seven points (two goals, five assists) in the three games over the weekend.
In the shootout, none among Taylor Leier, Rubtsov (who scored a shootout winner last Saturday) nor Kase were able to convert their opportunity. Future AHL Hall of Famer Chris Bourque beat Hart under the crossbar in the bottom of the first round. Hart stoned Mitch Vande Sompel in round two to give Kase a chance to prolong the skills competition.
After a rough night in the Phantoms' 7-0 shellacking by Springfield at the PPL Center on Oct. 12 -- one would be hard-pressed to find any positives from that debacle -- second year defenseman Philippe Myers has been generally solid over the past games. There have a few rough shifts, including a costly turnover in Friday's loss to the Penguins, but his overall body of work has been good and he's also scored a pair of goals. On Sunday, he didn't get onto the scoresheet but made several good plays on both sides of the puck.
The Phantoms (3-2-1) return to action to action on Wednesday, visiting the Hartford Wolf Pack.
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Prospect Updates: Ratcliffe, Wylie and O'Brien
This weekend was a busy one, with most of the Flyers prospects in Europe, the CHL and NCAA (minus injured players) in action on Friday and/or Saturday. The schedule was lighter on Sunday but there were a couple of notable performances.
* Guelph Storm captain Isaac Ratcliffe notched a power play deflection goal, an even strength assist and an empty-net goal in the team's 5-2 home win over the Kitchener Rangers on Sunday. He finished with a half-dozen shots on goal and was plus-three in Sunday's tilt. Ratcliffe now has nine goals and 17 points through 12 games.
One trend the Flyers' 2017 second-round pick needs to end: He got himself into trouble with the refs this weekend. On Friday night, he got a 10-minute misconduct. On Saturday, he got another misconduct for verbal abuse of an official. By Sunday, he clearly had a target on his back. Ratcliffe made three trips to the penalty box including a third-period unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that created a power play for Kitchener while the game was still within reach for the Rangers. Two of his three penalties in Sunday's game produced Kitchener power plays.
Combating the on-ice officials is a losing battle. Once a player gets a rep as a trouble-maker or complainer, he won't get the benefit of the doubt very often. Just as important, the Storm need Ratcliffe on the ice, not in the penalty box or back in the dressing room.
* Everett Silvertips defenseman Wyatte Wylie has quietly emerged as one of the better all-situation defensemen in the Western Hockey League in his draft-plus-one season. Wylie had an outstanding two-way game on Sunday in his team's 5-1 road win over the struggling Regina Pats on Sunday. He made multiple strong defensive plays at five-on-five and on the penalty kill, Wylie also chipped in a third period power play assist. He has points in eight of his last 10 games and, overall, 10 points in 11 games. Although he is not projected as a power play defenseman in the pro level, Wylie has been one of the most improved all-around defensemen in his league from the second half of last season through the early weeks of the new campaign.
* The news is not as good on Flyers' 2018 first-round pick Jay O'Brien. Midway through the second period of Friday's game between Providence and UConn, O'Brien was rocked on a 2nd pd charging penalty by UConn's Carter Turnbull. He sat out the third period and did not play in Saturday's game.
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