Game 10 Preview: Flyers vs. Capitals
Alain Vigneault's Philadelphia Flyers (5-2-2) will be in action for the 10th time this season when they face Peter Laviolette's Washington Capitals (5-1-4) at Capital One Arena in DC on Saturday. Game time is 7:00 p.m. ET (NBCSP, 93.3 WMMR).
This is the first of four meetings between the Metro Division rivals this season. The Flyers enter this game coming off a 3-2 overtime road loss to a severely undermanned Pittsburgh Penguins team. The Capitals are come off a game that saw them battle back from a 4-1 deficit against the Florida Panthers before losing in overtime. 5-4.
For a detailed game preview that looks at the impact of Ryan Ellis' absence, the need for a bounceback game from Derick Brassard's line, the challenges that the Caps present even while currently dealing with a wave of injuries, comparative team stats, players to watch and more, see the
Five Things feature on the Flyers' official website.
PROJECTED LINEUPS
FLYERS
28 Claude Giroux - 14 Sean Couturier - 11 Travis Konecny
86 Joel Farabee - 19 Derick Brassard - 89 Cam Atkinson
23 Oskar Lindblom - 21 Scott Laughton - 25 James van Riemsdyk
38 Patrick Brown- 44 Nate Thompson- 17 Zack MacEwen
9 Ivan Provorov - 61 Justin Braun
6 Travis Sanheim -70 Rasmus Ristolainen
3 Keith Yandle - 24 Nick Seeler
35 Martin Jones
[79 Carter Hart]
CAPITALS
8 Alex Ovechkin - 92 Evegeny Kuznetsov - 43 Tom Wilson
29 Hendrix Lapierre - 20 Lars Eller - 10 Daniel Sprong
62 Carl Hagelin - 26 Nic Dowd - 21 Garnet Hathaway
73 Conor Sheary - 24 Connor McMichael - 49 Brett Leason
42 Martin Fehervary - 74 John Carlson
9 Dmitry Orlov - 3 Nick Jensen
57 Trevor van Riemsdyk -2 Justin Schultz
41 Vitek Vanecek
[30 Ilya Samsonov]
********
Phantoms Open B2B in Charlotte
After finally getting their first win of the 2021-22 American Hockey League season with a 4-0 home shutout victory over the WB/S Penguins on Wednesday, Ian Laperriere's Lehigh Valley Phantoms (1-5-2) will now open a four-game road trip.
First up: Back-to-back road games against the Charlotte Checkers (3-3-1) on Saturday and Sunday. Tonight's game at the Bojangles Coliseum is set for a 6:00 p.m. ET start. Tomorrow's tilt is an afternoon match slated for 1:00 p.m. ET.
In the two games preceding the win over WB/S, the Phantoms played from ahead in much of the game although they were still unable to get over the two-goal hump in any game up to that point. Third periods saw the leads relinquished and ended up as one regulation loss and one OT defeat. On Wednesday, the Phantoms finally carried it through for 60 minutes. They also scored four goals for the first time.
The goaltending for Lehigh Valley has been strong in most of the games so far. Felix Sandström earned the shutout victory last game with 25 saves. Even if he hadn't gotten the shutout, though, his play has been one of the team's bright spots early in the season. The lack of a previous win was not a goaltending issue.
Morgan Frost played his best all-around game of the season to date in the victory over the Pens. Apart from his two assists in the game, Frost had his feet moving consistently. He played with pace. He made several good defensive plays, especially in penalty killing situations. He also came close to his second goal of the season amid his five shots on net, but was denied. Frost also played a pretty good game in his previous outing, even apart from registering a goal and an assist.
Hopefully, Frost can continue to build on the last two outings. If he does those things on a regular basis, he'll work himself back into NHL callup consideration. In the meantime, the Phantoms certainly need Frost's A game from him because the team has dug an early hole for itself in the standings.
Tyson Foerster scored a 5-on-3 power play goal last game (assisted by Cam York and Frost), much to the 19-year-old's palpable relief. Although he scored a power play goal on opening night, the early part of the season has been an overall struggle in a tougher AHL than the competition pool Foerster faced in 2020-21.
German Rubtsov, at least for now, seems to have gained some confidence from the goal and assist he collected on back-to-back shifts a couple games ago. He played a strong two-way game against the Pens on Wednesday and set up the goal-starved Maksim Sushko (1st goal of the 2019-20 season, and first AHL goal since March 2020) for the marker that opened the scoring.
Young defensemen Cam York and Egor Zamula are still feeling their way through the early going of the season. There was some progress last time out although neither played a spotless game.
AHL veteran Gerry Mayhew seems to have clicked with Frost since Laperriere put them together. Garrett Wilson is on the line to do the dirty work and create space. The early returns have shown promise.
In the meantime, the Phantoms need veteran center Cal O'Reilly to find his form. A veteran of 750-plus American Hockey League games and one of the top-10 playmakers in league history, O'Reilly is pointless and minus-five through the first eight games of this season despite playing a top-six role at 5-on-5 and getting regular power play time. The line of O'Reilly centering Max Willman and Foerster (Frost's linemates to start the season once Willman returned from his NHL recall) was ineffective against WB/S; one of the few disappointments from that game.
There are other players the Phantoms need to get going: Isaac Ratcliffe (a healthy scratch a couple games again) looked confident and ready for a good season during training camp but it's been another AHL struggle for him in the early part of this season. Sushko, who had a promising rookie season in 2019-20 and an injury-riddled struggle (and eventual surgery) last season despite his first NHL recall, desperately needed the goal he got last game against WB/S to restore some lost confidence. He seemed to be another player who was in his own head.
Connor Bunnaman and Jackson Cates have been deployed in fourth-line roles by Laperriere, so point totals aren't a particularly good measure for their seasons so far. But they've had a few overall ups and downs like most of the team and it'd be nice to get one or both of them on the scoresheet this weekend.
Eighteen year old Samu Tuomaala struggled in the two AHL games in which he dressed this season. He's been scratched from the other six. There's only so much he can gain from practicing with the team. If there's no lineup spot for him soon, it would make more sense to send him to the Ontario Hockey League.
Although the Phantoms bagged a 5-on-3 power play goal last game, the power play has been very slow to come around so far this season. Entering Saturday, the team is just 3-for-37 (8.1 percent) to rank at the bottom of the 31-team league.
On a more encouraging note, the Phantoms have killed off 27 of 31 penalties (87.1 percent, ranked 5th leaguewide). Lehigh Valley has also scored a shorthanded goal; tallied by Willman on a breakaway sprung by Frost after intercepting a puck. Since then, the Frost-Willman penalty killing tandem has had three other prime shorthanded chances.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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