PREVIEW 8:00 AM
The month of March will be critical to the fate of the Philadelphia Flyers (10-11-1) in the 48-game regular season. The pacing of the games will slow down a little, but the overall difficulty level is extremely high. The next 12 games will be packed with meetings against the top teams in the Eastern Conference.
It all starts today with a noontime clash with the Ottawa Senators (12-6-3). The game will be broadcast nationally on NHL Network and locally on Comcast Sportsnet Philadelphia.
This is the first of three meetings between the teams this season, and the first of two in Philadelphia. The clubs will play again on April 11 (Philadelphia) and April 27 (Ottawa). Last season, the two clubs split a four-game season series evenly. The Flyers blew out the Sens in Ottawa in the first game, and road a Danny Briere hat trick to victory in the front end of a home-and-home. Ottawa took the next two games.
The Flyers have yet to attain even a .500 record this season, because winning streaks have been elusive. They have won back-to-back games three times but have yet to pull together a single three-game winning streak. Today, the Flyers will try for two in a row after having little trouble dispatching the Washington Capitals, 4-1, on Wednesday night.
In the game against Washington, Claude Giroux got Philly on the board in the opening half minute. The team built its lead on goals by Wayne Simmonds (power play), Simon Gagne (power play) and Max Talbot. Ilya Bryzgalov carried a shutout bid until a late-game goal by Joel Ward broke it up.
Philadelphia dodged an injury bullet this week. Defenseman Erik Gustafsson left Wednesday's game early after blocking a shot that struck him in the shin. However, he will play today.
Ottawa comes into the game with a 5-1-1 record since losing Norris Trophy winning defenseman Erik Karlsson for the season. They've even managed to win two of three since starting goaltender Craig Anderson (8-4-2, 1.49 GAA, .952 save percentage) went down with an ankle injury. Anderson skated yesterday and may be able to return soon, but it won't be today.
The list of key injuries for the Sens goes on and on. Most notably Jason Spezza (back) is out for today. So are Guillaume Latendresse (whiplash), Peter Regin (upper body) and Milan Michalek (knee). Defenseman Mike Lundin (flu) is listed as questionable.
No matter who has been in/out of the lineup, the Senators have been one if the stingiest defensive teams in the NHL. Only Boston (36 GA) has yielded fewer goals than the Senators (39), and the Bruins have played four fewer games. The Senators rank third in the NHL with a penalty killing percentage of 88.5 percent. Although the Flyers' have managed to get their power play up to sixth in the NHL (22.0 percent), they'll have to be very sharp in their puck movement after the two off-days to generate chances today.
FLYERS
19 Scott Hartnell - 28 Claude Giroux - 93 Jakub Voracek
48 Danny Briere - 10 Brayden Schenn - 17 Wayne Simmonds
12 Simon Gagne - 14 Sean Couturier - 25 Max Talbot
36 Zac Rinaldo - 26 Ruslan Fedotenko - 37 Harry Zolnierczyk
44 Kimmo Timonen - 22 Luke Schenn
8 Nicklas Grossmann - 5 Braydon Coburn
29 Erik Gustafsson - 27 Bruno Gervais
30 Ilya Bryzgalov
[33 Brian Boucher]
SENATORS
Jakob Silfverberg- Kyle Turris - Daniel Alfredsson
Colin Greening - Mika Zibanejad - Erik Condra
David Dziurzynski - Zack Smith - Chris Neil
Kaspars Daugavins - Peter Regin - Jim O'Brien
Patrick Wiercioch - Sergei Gonchar
Chris Phillips - Andre Benoit
Marc Methot - Eric Gryba
Ben Bishop
[Robin Lehner]
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