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Flyers Gameday: 12-26-09 vs. Carolina |
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PREVIEW (8:30 AM)
The Flyers have a golden opportunity to string together back-to-back wins when they take on the cellar-dwelling Carolina Hurricanes at the RBC Center tonight. Philly is coming off an uneven, but desperately needed victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning prior to the two-day Christmas break. For Carolina, a hard-fought loss to the New York Rangers on Monday was followed by an awful performance in a 5-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens.
Fomer Carolina goaltender Michael Leighton, who turned in a creditable performance in the Tampa game, figures to get the call again tonight unless Brian Boucher (ring finger laceration on his right hand) is definitely ready to go. It certainly helps the Flyers that they finally have a healthy lineup in place, but the club cannot afford to take periods off, as they did even in the win on Wednesday.
Philly also needs to show that it is getting its special teams back in order. The penalty killing stands at a mere 77.9% success rate and the power play is at 21%. Carolina (15.3% power play, 78% penalty kill) could potentially be an opponent who helps the Flyers moving in the right direction.
Starting lineup (subject to change)
Hartnell - Carter - Briere
Gagne- Richards- Giroux
JVR - Powe - Asham
Carcillo - Betts - Laperriere
Coburn - Pronger
Carle - Timonen
Bartulis - Parent
Leighton/Boucher
*****
Today's
Daily Drop at Versus.com is a mini-preview of the World Junior Championships. The Daily Drop format is designed to be a quick read so I didn't go too in-depth. I plan to include some WJC commentary in Meltzer's Musings blogs on Hockeybuzz over the course of the tournament.
Click
here for a good jump-off point for the webcasts of all the games at the tournament.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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