PREVIEW 8 AM EST

Winners of three consecutive games and eight of their last 10, the Flyers (30-11-5) take on the struggling Ottawa Senators (17-23-7) tonight at the Wells Fargo Center. This has a been a disastrous season so far for Ottawa, and coach Cory Clouston is on the hot seat one year after earning wide acclaim for turning the Sens around and getting them in the playoffs. Ottawa has won just one of its last 10 games (1-6-3) and brings a three-game losing streak into tonight's game.

This is the second of four meetings between the teams this season. The Flyers handled Ottawa with ease on Nov. 15, cruising to a 5-1 victory on home ice behind two goals from Mike Richards, a three-point effort from Claude Giroux and 28 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky. The teams will meet in Ottawa on Feb. 26 and April 5.

Clearly, this is a game that the Flyers ought to win as long as they come out with sufficient energy and put in the work in the trenches to take control of the game early. Ottawa is just 3-16-5 when giving up the first goal of a game, 2-11-4 when trailing after the first period and 0-14-3 when trailing after two. Like any NHL team, the Sens become more dangerous if the Flyers let them hang around in the game or if Philly waits too long to play with a sense of urgency and has to play catch-up.

The Flyers will welcome Chris Pronger back into the lineup tonight. The Senators remain banged up and will be without forwards Jason Spezza (shoulder) and Alex Kovalev (knee) ans well as goalie Pascal Leclaire (lower body). Backup goalie Mike Brodeur is also nursing an injury and may be replaced by callup Robin Lehner if necessary.

PROJECTED LINEUPS

FLYERS

Zherdev - Richards - Nodl
Hartnell - Briere - Leino
JVR - Carter - Giroux
Shelley - Betts - Powe

Pronger - Carle
Coburn - Timonen
Meszaros - O'Donnell

Bobrovsky/Boucher


SENATORS

Michalek - Kelly - Alfredsson
Foligno - Fisher - Butler
Ruutu - Shannon - Regin
Smith - Winchester - Neil

Phillips - Gonchar
Karlsson - Kuba
Campoli - Carkner

Elliott
[Brodeur/Lehner]

*****

Today's Daily Drop at Versus.com looks at whether the NHL should revise its current requirement that teams that sign in-season free agents who have been released from European teams place the players on waivers before being allowed to add them to their NHL rosters. The St. Louis Blues recently lost free agent signees Marek Svatos (to Nashville) and Kyle Wellwood (to San Jose) because of this rule. The waiver rule also effectively blocks Evgeni Nabokov from returning to the NHL this season despite his release from his KHL club.

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