|
Flyers Gameday w/ Updates: 10/16/10 vs. Penguins |
|
|
|
|
|
UPDATE 11:45 AM ET (10/16/10)
Projected lineups -- subject to change
FLYERS
JVR/Carcillo - Richards - Carter
Hartnell - Briere - Leino
Carcillo/JVR - Giroux - Zherdev
Shelley - Betts - Powe
Carle - Pronger
Coburn - Timonen
Meszaros - O'Donnell
Bobrovsky
[Boucher]
PENGUINS
Kunitz - Crosby - Dupuis
Tangradi - Comrie - Malkin
Cooke - Talbot - Kennedy
Rupp - Letestu - Godard
Martin - Letang
Goligoski - Lovejoy
Engelland - Hutchinson
Fleury
[Johnson]
PREVIEW 11 PM (10/15/10)
The Flyers (2-1-1) will look to get back to their winning ways when they face off with the archrival Pittsburgh Penguins (2-3-0) for the second time in the young season. The Penguins are coming off a 3-2 overtime home win on Friday night against the Islanders last night. Brent Johnson stopped 22 of 24 shots for the Penguins, who got regulation goals from Michael Rupp, Philadelphia area native Eric Tangradi, and the overtime game winner on the powerplay by defenseman Alex Goligoski, which is already his third tally of the season.
It appears that Sergei Bobrovsky will be back in goal for the Flyers. He defeated the Penguins on opening night, but now the Pens have film on him and a little bit of a sense of his style in goal. It will be interesting to see if he can match his opening night performance against the likes of Sidney Crosby (1 G, 1A in the first four games) and Evgeni Malkin (1 G, 1A).
On the flip side, Penguins starting goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, who struggled in the playoffs last year, is off a terrible start this season. He has stopped just 85.3% of the shots fired his way while getting off to an 0-3-0 start. He has been vulnerable to long shots and boxing rebounds into the slot. With Johnson playing the Friday game, it seems likely that Fleury will get the nod again versus the Flyers.
It's no secret that the Flyers need to get their powerplay going if they are to be successful. The only club in the NHL to convert better than 20% of its powerplay opportunities in each of the last three seasons is off to a 1-for-17 (5.9%) start this season. But the Flyers PK has been stellar (91.3%) and the Penguins haven't really been clicking yet on the man advantage in their own right (14.3%).
The Flyers top forward line and the top defensive pairing of Chris Pronger and Matt Carle are coming off subpar games in the 3-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday. They will likely need to be the club's best players for the Flyers to down the Penguins, along with Danny Briere (3 goals on season, including one on opening night).
Reminder: Due to the Phillies-Giants playoff game, the start time of the Flyers-Penguins game has been moved up to 6 PM eastern time.
*****
The Phantoms (2-2-0) won their home opener on Friday night, downing the Syracuse Crunch, 3-2. The Phantoms got goals from Patrick Maroon (3rd of the season), a Jon Kalinski powerplay goal and a game-winning goal from Eric Wellwood (his first AHL goal) in the third period. Johan Backlund faced just 19 shots for the game, stopping 17. Eric Gustafsson picked up a pair of assists on the game.
After a scoreless first period, Maroon put the Phantoms ahead 1-0 early in the second stanza, hammering a one-timer into the net. The lead held until 14:09 when Syracuse struck back for the first of two goals in a 21-second span. First, Kyle Palmieri tied the game and then ex-Phantom Joe DiPenta gave his club the lead.
In the third period, Kalinski knotted the game, 2-2, on a powerplay goal at the 11:32 mark. Maroon and Gustafsson drew the assists. Thirty-four seconds later, Wellwood broke in down the left wing and put a shot over J.P. Levasseur’s right shoulder for the game winner.
Three star selection was #3 Mike Testwuide (0 PTS, 2 shots), #2 Eric Wellwood (GWG, 2 shots), #1 Patrick Maroon (1 G, 1A, 3 shots).
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
Join the Discussion:
»