UPDATE 12:30 PM EDT
Today's morning skate was conducted a little more like a regular practice than a typical gameday skate. The Flyers did some five-on-five game simulations and did special teams work at the end of the session.
Craig Berube on first practice/game day skate as head coach
Claude Giroux on expectations for Berube's coaching style
Scott Hartnell on Peter Laviolette and Berube
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UPDATE 11:05 AM EDT
Steve Mason was the first goalie off the ice in morning skate, so he's likely tonight's starter.
UPDATE 10:30 AM EDT
The Flyers have made changes to all four forward lines and all three defense pairings at the morning skate. I updated the line combinations below.
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GAME PREVIEW (8:15 AM EDT)
With new head coach Craig Berube and new assistant bench/PK coach Ian Laperriere behind the bench for their first game in their new roles, the Philadelphia Flyers (0-3-0) will look for their first win of the 2013-14 season. Tonight, the club takes on Kevin Dineen's Florida Panthers (1-1-0) at the Wells Fargo Center.
Game time is 7 p.m. eastern. The game will be televised locally on Comcast Sportsnet Philadelphia.
Tonight's game marks the first of three meetings between the teams this season, and the lone match in Philadelphia. The teams will play each other in Sunrise, Fla., on Nov. 25 and April 8.
Last season, the Flyers hammered the Panthers, 7-1, in an early season matchup on Florida. The Panthers responded by beating the Flyers twice in Philadelphia. First, the Panthers staged a third-period comeback and won 3-2 via shootout. That was followed by an all-too-easy 5-2 win for the Panthers in which the team took a shutout into the final six minutes of regulation.
After tonight's game, the Flyers are off until Friday. Former Flyers player Dave Tippett will bring his Phoenix Coyotes to town in the Flyers' first of many Inter-Conference games this season.
FLYERS OUTLOOK
The Flyers are playing for the third time (in three different cities) in four nights. They are coming off a pair of terrible all-around performances in weekend road losses to Montreal and Carolina. With an off-day from practice yesterday, the team fired Peter Laviolette as head coach and promoted Berube from assistant to head coach.
Philly has scored just one goal in each of its first three games and has only a single even strength goal (by defenseman Luke Schenn) in nine periods of hockey thus far. The top line has generated insufficient pressure, and there has already been juggling of three of the team's four lines. Most notably, Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek are still looking for their first point of the season.
One bright spot in the early going has been Philly's goaltending. Both Steve Mason and Ray Emery have generally played well in the three games to date. Last game, Mason allowed one weak five-hole goal from a distance but otherwise kept his team closer than they deserved to be in a 2-1 loss to the Hurricanes.
With no practice yesterday, I am listing Sunday's line combinations as the team's projected starting lineup. I will update the lines after today's morning skate (10:30 a.m. at the Skate Zone in Voorhees).
PANTHERS OUTLOOK
Last Thursday, the Panthers rallied from behind in the third period for three unanswered goals in a 4-2 road win over the Dallas Stars. Florida was powered by a pair of third period goals by Marcel Goc. Highly touted rookie Aleksander Barkov tied the game in the final stanza, while veteran reclamation project Scott Gomez opened the scoring for his team.
Things didn’t go nearly as well for the Cats on Sunday in their second game. The St. Louis Blues proved to be quite the inhospitable host in a 7-0 shellacking.
Tim Thomas, who performed solidly in the opener, was strafed for five goals on 28 shots over two periods. Jacob Markström mopped up in the third period, stopping four of six shots.
At the offensive end of the ice, the Panthers went 0-for-7 on the power play in the St. Louis game. Couple that with the team’s 0-for-4 performance and Brenden Dillon’s go-ahead shorthanded goal for Dallas in the third period of the opener, and there is an instant need for improvement. Florida ranked sixth in power play efficiency in the NHL last year, connecting at 20.4 percent.
PROJECTED STARTING LINEUPS (Subject to change)
FLYERS
19 Scott Hartnell - 28 Claude Giroux - 17 Wayne Simmonds
10 Brayden Schenn - 40 Vincent Lecavalier - 93 Jakub Voracek
25 Max Talbot - 14 Sean Couturier - 24 Matt Read
37 Jay Rosehill - 18 Adam Hall - 36 Zac Rinaldo
44 Kimmo Timonen - 22 Luke Schenn
32 Mark Streit - 41 Andrej Meszaros
8 Nicklas Grossmann - 5 Braydon Coburn
35 Steve Mason
[29 Ray Emery]
Scratches: Kris Newbury (healthy), Erik Gustafsson (healthy), Hal Gill (healthy), Chris Pronger (LTIR, post-concussion syndrome).
PANTHERS
11 Jonathan Huberdeau – 57 Marcel Goc – 32 Kris Versteeg
14 Tomas Fleischmann – 16 Aleksander Barkov – 24 Brad Boyes
17 Jesse Winchester – 18 Shawn Matthias – 82 Tomas Kopecky
19 Scottie Upshall – 23 Scott Gomez – 21 Krys Barch
51 Brian Campbell – 77 Tom Gilbert
7 Dmitry Kulikov – 43 Mike Weaver
44 Erik Gudbranson – 6 Ryan Whitney
34 Tim Thomas
[25 Jacob Markström]
Possible scratches: Matt Gilroy (healthy), Joey Crabb (healthy), Drew Shore (healthy), Ed Jovanovski (IR, hip surgery), Sean Bergenheim (IR, abdominal/ hip surgery), Nick Bjugstad (IR, concussion), Steve Pinizzotto (IR, hip).
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