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Flyers Exhibition Gameday: 7/28/20 vs. PIT (@ TOR) |
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In a dress rehearsal before the start of postseason play, Alain Vigneault's Philadelphia Flyers (41-21-7 in the regular season) will play Mike Sullivan's Pittsburgh Penguins (40-23-6) at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on Tuesday. Game time is 4:00 p.m. ET. The game will be televised locally on NBCSP+ and nationally on NBCSN.
The Flyers are the designated "home" team for this game, meaning they have last line change and they will wear their home uniforms. Both teams are permitted to dress 20 skaters (13 forwards and seven defensemen) for this game.
On Monday, Vigneault indicated that Carter Hart would go the first two periods in goal for the Flyers and Brian Elliott would come in at the start of the third period. It is probable that Sullivan will do the same for the Penguins with Tristan Jarry and Matt Murray, but he was not asked about his goaltending plan during his media availability on Monday via Zoom.
In their practice in "the Bubble" on Monday, the Flyers used the same forward line combinations they featured in Saturday's practice in Voorhees. The coaches kept the same defense pairs together throughout the duration of training camp (as well as for the vast majority of the regular season's second half). Vigneault said the forward lines would stay intact for Monday but the defense would look somewhat different for the exhibition game.
Specifically, Shayne Gostisbehere, Mark Friedman and 20-year-old prospect defenseman Egor Zamula will all dress for the exhibition game. Gostisbehere and Friedman were a pairing throughout training camp. Zamula was paired for most of camp with veteran Andy Welinski, who will not dress for this game. With both Friedman and Zamula playing in addition to Gostisbehere, the Flyers will hold out two other defensemen until the start of the round-robin for playoff seeding. The logical candidates to rest would be Matt Niskanen and Justin Braun; the two oldest and most playoff-experienced defensemen on the team.
Gostisbehere had an excellent camp. He's had two arthroscopic surgeries (first on his left knee then on the right in the 2020 calendar year), and now looks healthy. There was a noticeable difference in his skating, especially moving laterally. While Robert Hägg presently holds down the third pairing left D spot, there is competition from Gostisbehere to regain a starting job.
Zamula also had a strong camp, especially for a player coming off mid-season back surgery and who has yet to play a professional game except for the NHL preseason. His inclusion on the postseason roster, and the opportunity to start in the exhibition game, speaks to how highly the Flyers organization regards his potential.
On the Penguins side, Sidney Crosby was a full participant in Monday's practice. He is officially a game-day decision according to Sullivan.
FLYERS PRACTICE LINES
28 Claude Giroux - 14 Sean Couturier - 93 Jakub Voracek
21 Scott Laughton - 13 Kevin Hayes - 11 Travis Konecny
25 James van Riemsdyk - 38 Derek Grant - 18 Tyler Pitlick
49 Joel Farabee/ 12 Michael Raffl - 44 Nate Thompson - Raffl/ 62 Nic Aube-Kubel
9 Ivan Provorov - 15 Matt Niskanen
6 Travis Sanheim - 5 Phil Myers
8 Robert Hägg - 61 Justin Braun
53 Justin Gostisbehere - 59 Mark Friedman
54 Egor Zamula - 3 Andy Welinski
79 Carter Hart
37 Brian Elliott
Extra forwards: 48 Morgan Frost, 82 Connor Bunnaman, 10 Andy Andreoff.
Extra defensemen: Welinski, two regulars among normal top three pairs.
Extra goalies: 34 Alex Lyon, 67 Kirill Ustimenko.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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