PREVIEW 7:30 AM EST
In the first leg of a four-game road trip that will take them west through the Great White North and conclude in San Jose, the Philadelphia Flyers (32-19-7) will look to break their recent run of futility against the Winnipeg Jets (29-26-6). The game starts at 7 PM EST and will be broadcast locally on CSN Philly.
This is the fourth and final meeting of the season between the teams. The Jets have won all three games to date, prevailing in the now-infamous 9-8 game at the Wells Fargo Center on Oct. 27, winning another high-scoring affair (6-4) in Winnipeg on a Saturday matinee a few weeks later and squeaking by (2-1) via shootout in Philadelphia in the first game after the All-Star break.
The Flyers have been finding ways to self-destruct of late, and enter this game having won only three of their last 10 games (3-5-2). The team's defensive play and goaltending have to get better.
In their last game, two goals by Jaromir Jagr staked the team to a 2-1 lead over the Pittsburgh Penguins but two shorthanded goals for the Pens turned the tide. After Eric Wellwood knotted the game, 3-3, late in the second period, the Flyers imploded in the third period and went on to lose, 6-4.
In order to shore up the blueline, the team went out and acquired Nicklas Grossman and Pavel Kubina. Grossman made his debut on Saturday. Kubina, a former NHL All-Star and three-time Olympian, will play his first game in orange and black tonight.
The Jets bring a three-game winning streak into tonight's tilt, and the Atlanta/Winnipeg franchise has won 10 of its last 11 games against the Flyers. They will be looking for their second season series sweep of the Flyers in the last three seasons.
Twelve different Jets players have scored at least one goal in the season series against the Flyers this season. They have been led by two tallies apiece from Nik Antropov, Andrew Ladd, Bryan Little (not counting his shootout winner in Philadelphia) and Jim Slater. Antropov and Blake Wheeler both have five points apiece.
On Sunday, Winnipeg dismantled Colorado by a 5-1 count. Despite their middling overall record, the Jets have been a formidable home team this season, posting an 18-9-2 mark at the MTS Centre. But the Flyers have been one of the NHL's best road teams this season, generally playing their best hockey away from the Wells Fargo Center.
After a rough start this season, Winnipeg starting goaltender Ondrej Pavelec has settled in and played very good hockey more often than not. He has lowered his season GAA to 2.73 and raised his save percentage to .911. In the shootout game against the Flyers, the native of Kladno, Czech Republic, lived out a boyhood dream by stopping Jaromir Jagr in a one-on-one duel.
On the injury front, the Flyers should have a complete lineup dressed tonight minus the players on LTIR. However, a host of Philadelphia players are pretty banged up right now, as is the norm by this point in the season. Winnipeg defenseman Zach Bogosian is questionable with a foot injury, but the team will otherwise have its usual lineup intact.
PROJECTED LINEUPS (subject to change)
FLYERS
Hartnell - Giroux - Simmonds
Read - Briere - Jagr
JVR - Schenn - Voracek
Talbot - Couturier - Rinaldo
Timonen - Coburn
Carle - Kubina
Grossman - Meszaros
Bryzgalov
[Bobrovsky]
JETS
Ladd - Little - Wheeler
Kane - Burmistrov - Wellwood
Stapleton - Antropov - Fehr
Glass - Slater - Thorburn
Byfuglien - Enström
Hainsey - Jones
Stuart - Oduya
Pavelec
[Mason]
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