Pittsburgh Penguins (11-6-0) vs. Philadelphia Flyers (5-10-1) 8 PM at CONSOL Energy Center

The Flyers and Penguins will meet for the second time this year on Wednesday night. Tonight’s game will be on national TV as a part of NBCSN’s rivalry series. In the first matchup of the year the Penguins beat the Flyers 4-1. Evgeni Malkin scored the 4th goal of the game and that has been the last time he has scored a goal this season.

Lots of things have changed since the last time the two teams have met. Nobody knew if Olli Maatta was going to stick in the NHL, Beau Bennett and James Neal were still not in the lineup, Deryk Engelland was still just a defenseman, Kris Letang had yet to play a game, Megnatron had yet to surface, and Rob Scuderi was still a regular nuisance for the opponents top players.

A lot has changed for the Flyers as well. Superstar Max Talbot is no longer wearing the enemy orange and black, Vinnie Lecavalier and Scott Hartnell are back in the lineup, and Claude Giroux has finally broken through in the goal scoring department.

The Penguins have lost two straight games and a matchup against the rival Flyers after 3 days off should be enough to get the juices going.

The 3 days off should have provided ample time for the Penguins injured players (Neal, Bennett) to regain chemistry back with their linemates.

The Flyers played what is probably their best game of the season last night against the Ottawa Senators. The Flyers beat the Senators 5-0 behind Steve Mason’s 24 save shutout, Jakub Voracek’s 2 goals, and Claude Giroux’s 2 assists. I believe that the goal Claude Giroux scored on Saturday will do wonders for his confidence level and his offensive production numbers will see a boost because of it.

The funny thing about Giroux’s slump is that it is not uncommon for him to hit a dry spell of that length. The fact that his cold stretch started at the very beginning of the year made it more noticeable. Cold stretches only last so long with the extremely talented players in the league, expect Giroux to make his mark on the game this evening against the Penguins.

Most times the Penguins and Flyers are at odds with one another but the Shero family drew both franchises together on Monday night as the hockey world celebrated Fred Shero’s contributions to the sport with his induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Ray delivered a very nice speech about his father and did a nice job touching on all the great Flyer moments, players, and memories from his father’s tenure as coach. Fred Shero's opportunity to coach the Flyers has no doubt been a huge influence on the Shero family and specifically Ray. Without Fred's experiences in Philadelphia the Penguins would not be on the right end of Ray's excellent leadership right now.

My favorite story from his speech was the following:


The story was about going fishing on Bernie Parent's fishing boat with Fred, Bernie and his brother. Fred was sick and below deck, but when he told Parent that he was feeling ill, Bernie asked him if he remembered all those hard drills he had made the players take part in, and then said, "Well, screw you," and they kept fishing.


You can see Ray’s entire speech about his father here:





Perhaps one day Ray will be able to join his father as a member of the Hall of Fame.

Injuries

Paul Martin is day to day with a lower body injury.

Tanner Glass was given a maintenance day yesterday, he is probable for tonight’s game.

No other updates on Scuderi, Vokoun, or Kobasew

Newly acquired Steve Downie has returned to action for the Flyers after suffering a concussion in his season debut for Philadelphia last week.

Line Combos

Penguins line combos at the morning skate were as follow:

Kunitz-Crosby-Dupuis
Bennett-Malkin-Neal
Jokinen-Sutter-D'Agostini
Adams-Vitale-Glass
(Megna-Jeffrey)

The noticeable change is that it will be Beau Bennett on the 2nd line with Malkin and Neal. Jussi Jokinen will play on the third line.

The defense rotated through with one another and there were no set pairings.

Power Play

Penguins power play is 6th overall at 21.7%.

Flyers have the 26th power play in the NHL with 11.9%.

Penguins are 20th in the NHL with 60 opportunities while the Flyers are 11th with 67.


Penalty Kill

Penguins are 13th overall at 83.7%

Flyers are 8th overall at 85.5%

Fenclose%

The Penguins are 5th overall with 55.1%

The flyers are struggling a little bit in this department and are ranked 23rd with 47.5%

Even Strength Save %

The Penguins are 21st sitting at .917%. Marc Andre Fleury is at .922%

The Flyers are 8th overall at .928%, a full .11 better than Pittsburgh. Steve Mason has an EVSV% of .930%

Steve Mason has been one of the bright spots throughout all the ups and mostly downs for the Flyers this season.

Trends

Penguins are 6-2 in their last 8 vs. Metropolitan.

Penguins are 9-4 in their last 13 games playing on 3 or more days rest.

Flyers are 8-3 in the last 11 meetings in Pittsburgh.

Flyers are 1-4 in the last 5 meetings.

Road team is 4-1 in the last 5 meetings.

Stats courtesy of Covers.com

Flyers and Penguins might be on opposite sides of the Metropolitan Division standings but that doesn’t mean it won’t be a game.

Penguins Flyers Gameday, enjoy.

Thanks for reading!

Join the Discussion: » 195 Comments » Post New Comment

» Getting your Penguins fix

» My thoughts on Penguins thoughts

» It's their fault

» Still alive, for now

» Going to need some help now