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Flyers Gameday: 3/11/19 vs OTT

March 11, 2019, 9:57 AM ET [158 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Game 69 Preview: FLYERS vs. SENATORS

Interim head coach Scott Gordon's Philadelphia Flyers (33-27-8) are home on Monday to take on interim head coach Marc Crawford's Ottawa Senators (23-40-6). Game time at the Wells Fargo Center is 7:00 p.m. ET.

The game will be televised on NBCSP. The radio broadcast can be found on 97.5 FM The Fanatic with an online simulcast at FlyersRadio247.com.

This is the third and final meeting of the season between the teams, and the second and final one in Philadelphia. The Flyers are 1-1-0 in the two games to date.

On Oct. 10 in Ottawa, the Flyers overcame deficits of 1-0 and 2-1 as well as three Ottawa power play goals to earn a 7-4 win. The line of Claude Giroux (power play goal, two assists), Jakub Voracek (power play and 2-on-1 even strength goals, three assists) and Sean Couturier (went to the net and was rewarded for a second time early this season) dominated for Philly.

Scott Laughton was also a tower of strength even apart from scoring a nifty backhanded goal and adding an empty netter. Robert Hägg rounded out the goal scoring for the Flyers, while Shayne Gostisbehere bagged a pair of power play helpers and Radko Gudas set a career single-game high with three assists.

Now-former Flyers goaltender Cal Pickard made his starting debut with the team in the game in Ottawa. He was shaky at times early but settled in and earned the win with 31 saves on 35 shots. He would have liked to have back a Brady Tkachuk wrister from the top of the right circle using Travis Sanheim as a partial screen.

Ottawa goaltending counterpart Craig Anderson had an up-and-down effort in taking the loss. He stopped 38 of 44 shots. Tkachuk scored power play and even-strength goals, while Max Lajoie had two power play goals and a power play assist. Chris Tierney had a pair of helpers, including one that he kicked toward the net and probably would have been a disallowed goal had it not been touched by Tkachuk first.

The second meeting of the season, Nov. 27 in Philadelphia, was overshadowed by the Flyers' firing of general manager Ron Hextall one day earlier. The game itself saw two points that were firmly in the Flyers control slip away late and become a 4-3 regulation loss that the team will rue if it falls one or two point short of making the playoffs.

The Flyers dominated for two period and still held a 3-1 lead midway through the third period against a Senators team that played the previous night in New York and had lost four straight games by multi-goal margins. Instead of slamming the door, the Flyers collapsed. Ottawa got a few bounces their way but the Flyers had only themselves to blame for what turned into a 4-3 regulation loss.

A rebound of a shot off the post by now ex-Senator Mark Stone was potted by Brady Tkachuk to cut the gap to 3-2 with 8:28 left. Then Tkachuk (2nd goal of the period) deflected home a Thomas Chabot point shot to tie the game at 3-3 with 6:34 remaining. Finally, a Sanheim turnover on an attempted pass to ex-Flyer Dale Weise led to a counterattack. After a blocked shot, former Senator Matt Duchene improbably batted the puck on the backhand and into the net to give Ottawa the lead with 2:59 left.

Philly's final desperation push fell short. Veteran goaltender Mike McKenna, then with the Senators and now in the AHL with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms after a stint as Flyers backup and one start for Philly, earned the win with 34 saves on 37 shots.

Giroux's slick stickhandling and patience enabled him to set up Travis Konecny for a shot that deflected off Ottawa's Tierney and past goaltender McKenna. Ottawa then evened the game on a Thomas Chabot shot that severely deflected off Flyers forward Oskar Lindblom and turned into a knuckleball that fluttered into the Flyers' net. Former Flyers goaltender Anthony Stolarz, tagged with a hard-luck loss, had no chance on the play.

In the second period, the Flyers played another strong stanza against an Ottawa team that wasn't putting up much resistance. This time, Philly got rewarded with taking a two-goal lead to the locker room.

The Flyers 2-1 go-ahead goal at 3:22 of the second period officially went as a 6-on-5 goal. Laughton drew a delayed tripping penalty behind the net. On the delayed call, Voracek scored from the mid slot. At the 6:00 mark of the second period, a seeing-eye point shot by Gudas made its way through layers of traffic and past McKenna for a 3-1 lead.

Philly had several chances to further build on the lead against the team with by far the poorest team goals against average in the NHL but were unable to do so. In the third period, the Flyers did less attacking and Ottawa found a surge of energy. Everything seemed manageable right up until it slipped away and the Senators skated off with a win.


Flyers Outlook

The Flyers are 18-5-2 over their last 25 games. The team has claimed points in nine of their last 12 games (8-3-1). Unfortunately, time is running out rapidly to pull off a miraculous comeback from having been mired dead last in the NHL standings with only 38 points entering January 14. There are only 14 games left in the regular season, and the Flyers toughest three-in-four gauntlet of the season looms on the other side of this game.

With a win over Ottawa, the Flyers will be three points (plus a ROW tiebreaker disadvantage that is currently 34-31) behind the idle Montreal Canadiens. A Flyers win plus a Columbus Blue Jackets regulation loss to the New York Islanders would put the Flyers three points plus a ROW tiebreaker disadvantage (currently 37-31) behind the Blue Jackets for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

The Flyers enter this game coming off a 5-2 road win over the Islanders in Uniondale on Saturday night. Philly received goals from Ryan Hartman (1st as a Flyer), James van Riemsdyk, Sean Couturier, Nolan Patrick and Travis Konecny.

Jakub Voracek and Travis Sanheim combined to set up the JVR and Couturier goals. Claude Giroux collected his 53rd helper of the season, while the team also got one assist apiece from Ivan Provorov, van Riemsdyk, and Scott Laughton. Shayne Gostisbehere had two assists. Brian Elliott bounced back from a rough game against Washington. He earned the win with 25 saves on 27 shots, and authored some key momentum saves in the second period especially.

Voracek, in his first game back after a two-game absence due to a lower-body injury, was in beast mode throughout Saturday's game. He was excellent on the forecheck, heavy on the puck, earned two primary assists on nice plays up ice, and ornery as well.

In the third period, Islanders defenseman Johnny Boychuk steamed in toward Voracek with the puck in the Flyers zone. Rather than absorbing a big check, Voracek instead turn delivered a heavy back-first hit of his own. Because the puck was not there, Voracek received an interference penalty, and mostly because Boychuk sustained an apparent shoulder injury on the play, the refs made it a major.

On Sunday, the NHL's ever-capricious and arbitrary "Department of Player Safety" suspended Voracek for two games. He will miss the Ottawa game as well as Thursday's rematch at home against Washington. The latter game is the start of a brutally difficult three-in-four for the Flyers, who will have to turn around the next night and play a road game against a more rested Toronto Maple Leafs team. On Sunday, the Flyers are in Pittsburgh to play the Penguins.

To have a legit shot at pulling themselves into striking position for a playoff spot as the season winds down to its final 10 games, the Flyers will probably need to claim seven of eight possible points over the four games between Monday and Sunday. One thing the Flyers absolutely cannot afford to do: look past the Senators. Philly needs two points, and preferably in regulation; although an OT win would have the same impact on the standings and ROW.

The Flyers did not practice on Sunday. It remains to be seen whether Carter Hart will start, back up, or serve as the third goaltender for one additional game. Brian Elliott will either start or back up against Ottawa. Cam Talbot will likely either back up or be scratched.

With Voracek suspended, the Flyers will either recall Justin Bailey from the Phantoms or they will go back to the 11 forward/ 7 defensemen arrangement they used several times recently.

Senators Outlook

Over the last couple years, it's been one calamity after another for the Senators. Saddled with arguably the worst owner in the league in Eugene Melnyk and having to deal with various internal dramas that went public, the franchise as a whole is in complete disarray. A plan for a downtown arena blew up in Melnyk's face. Most of the team's top players of recent years are now gone. Most recently, general manager Pierre Dorion scapegoated head coach Guy Boucher by firing him.

One of the few bright spots has been the play of rookie forward Tkachuk (16 goals, 36 points, 65 penalty minutes). The team has at least played hard and competed to the best of their ability of late, despite routinely coming out on the losing end of games (1-8-1 in the last 10 games, fewest wins and fewest points in the NHL this season).

Plain and simple, the Senators will come into Philadelphia in a spoiler role. They have no pressure and a group of players who want to win jobs, whether in Ottawa or elsewhere.


Projected Lines (Subject to change)

FLYERS

23 Oskar Lindblom - 14 Sean Couturier - 28 Claude Giroux
25 James van Riemsdyk - 19 Nolan Patrick - 11 Travis Konecny
12 Michael Raffl - 21 Scott Laughton- 38 Ryan Hartman
44 Phil Varone -10 Corban Knight

9 Ivan Provorov - 6 Travis Sanheim
53 Shayne Gostisbehere - 61 Phillipe Myers
8 Robert Hägg - 3 Radko Gudas
47 Andrew MacDonald

37 Brian Elliott
[72 Carter Hart]

Scratches: 93 Jakub Voracek (NHL suspension, game 1 of 2), 33 Cam Talbot (healthy), 5 Sam Morin (healthy), 30 Michal Neuvirth (IR, lower body).

SENATORS

7 Brady Tkachuk - 44 Jean-Gabriel Pageau - 10 Anthony Duclair
15 Zack Smith - 36 Colin White - 9 Bobby Ryan
17 Brian Gibbons - 24 Oscar Lindberg - 89 Mikkel Boedker
38 Rudolfs Balcers - 71 Chris Tierney - 56 Magnus Pääjärvi​

72 Thomas Chabot - 2 Dylan DeMelo
86 Christian Wolanin - 5 Cody Ceci
74 Mark Borowiecki - 67 Ben Harpur​

41 Craig Anderson
[31 Anders Nilsson​]

Scratches: 83 Christian Jaros (questionable, hamstring).
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