FLYERS-PREDATORS GAME PREVIEW (10:00 AM EST)
Kicking off a six-game road trip and playing the second half of back-to-back games, the Philadelphia Flyers (11-12-2) are in Music City to take on Barry Trotz's Nashville Predators (13-11-2). Game time is 8:00 p.m. EST. The match will be televised locally on Comcast Sportsnet Philadelphia.
This is the first of two meetings between the inter-conference clubs. They will face off in Philadelphia on Jan. 16. The Flyers have not won a game in Nashville since March 21, 2000, but that losing streak is a rather deceptive stat, as the clubs have only played five times in Nashville in the 13 years since then (Philly is 0-2-1-1 in those games).
The teams last saw each other on Feb. 2, 2012, in Philadelphia. On that night, a pair of Wayne Simmonds goals and a Matt Read breakaway tally powered the Flyers to a 4-1 win. Overall, the Flyers 3-1-0-1 in their last five games against the Predators; with all three wins coming in Philadelphia.
There was no real history of rivalry between the teams until the Flyers signed Shea Weber to an offer sheet in July 2012. This is the first time the teams have played each other since then.
The Flyers are back in action on Monday for the third time in four nights. They will play in Minnesota on Monday then play the Detroit Red Wing at Joe Louis Arena on Wednesday-- a venue that has truly been a house of horrors for the Flyers over the years.
FLYERS OUTLOOK
Philadelphia is coming off a solid if unspectacular 2-1 win over the Winnipeg Jets in the Flyers' annual Black Friday matinee at the Wells Fargo Center.
Scott Hartnell cashed in a Winnipeg giveaway in the opening minute of the game, and Sean Couturier added to the lead with a second period shorthanded breakaway goal. Steve Mason continued his stellar play by turning back 25 of 26 shots. The lone puck to elude him was a Michal Frolik goal on a loose puck scramble around the slot.
In yesterday's game, the Flyers held the Jets without a shot for the final 15-plus minutes of the first period and also did a good job of slamming the door late in the third period after their lead was reduced to one goal.
Over the last 13 games, the Flyers have allowed just 1.77 goals per game. That will need to continue if the team is to have success on the six-game road trip that starts tonight. With just 54 goals scored to date this season -- an average of 2.16 per game -- the Flyers rank 29th among the NHL's 30 teams. Only Buffalo (48 goals in 27 games) has scored less. On the positive side, the Flyers have allowed the 7th-fewest goals in the NHL (61) to date this season.
The Flyers spent a little too much time in the penalty box yesterday, especially in the third period. The bright side was that the club -- which had yielded at least one opposition power play goal in seven of the previous nine games -- killed off all six man disadvantages it faced against the Jets.
The Flyers had scored at least one power play goal of their own in eight straight games heading into yesterday. That streak was snapped on Black Friday. The Flyers went 0-for-4 on the power play, including a failed 5-on-3 for the first 1:36 of the second period. During the 5-on-3, the Flyers twice inexplicably dumped the puck into the offensive zone -- where it was soon cleared down the ice by the Jets -- when they had plenty of room to carry the puck in the zone on their attempted entry.
Matt Read returned to the lineup on Friday after missing Wednesday's game in Tampa due to a suspected foot injury. Michael Raffl remained in the lineup, moving down to the fourth line. Jay Rosehill was a healthy scratch. Additionally, Erik Gustafsson was removed from the defensive lineup in favor of Andrej Meszaros.
With the Flyers playing in a back-to-back situation and the middle game of a 3-in-4, Ray Emery may get the nod in net tonight with Mason getting the game in Detroit on Monday. Emery let in one leaky goal in the Tampa game, but was otherwise strong in making 31 saves on 34 shots.
PREDATORS OUTLOOK
The Predators had Black Friday off after getting shut out 3-0 on Thanksgiving in Ilya Bryzgalov's debut for the Edmonton Oilers. Nashville mustered 33 shots on goal but could not find the net. Marek Mazanec stopped 25 of 27 Edmonton shots (the Oilers added a late empty net goal). The turning point of the game was a pair of second period goals by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Taylor Hall spaced just 51 seconds apart.
Heading into the Edmonton game, however, the Predators had won five of their previous six games, including two by shutout. Earlier this month, Nashville knocked off Chicago, Detroit and Toronto in succession.
Veteran forward David Legwand, who has spent his entire 920-game NHL career in Nashville, leads the Predators in scoring this season. The 33-year-old center has 20 points (five goals, 15 assists) in 26 games, including a goal and assist in the team's wins over Phoenix and Columbus that preceded the shutout loss to the Oilers.
Today's game is the third and final game of a three-in-four stretch for the Predators. It's the second game of a four-game homestand and the third match of a light-travel stretch of six of seven games at home.
With a modest 60 goals scored to date, the Predators rank 24th offensively in the NHL. However, the Predators' power play ranks eighth in the NHL with a 21 percent (17-for-81) success rate to date. Defensively, the team's 72 goals against ranks 17th in the League. The Nashville penalty kill ranks ninth, surviving 84.5 percent of their manpower disadvantages.
On the injury front, the status of Weber for today is uncertain as of this writing. He is officially day-to-day after taking a puck near his right eye in the loss to Edmonton. At 15:24 of the second period, Weber was struck by a wrist shot off the stick of Edmonton's David Perron. He skated directly to the locker room and did not return to the game. Weber leads his team in goal scoring with seven tallies to date.
The Predators are definitely without star goaltender Pekka Rinne, who is sidelined long-term after undergoing hip surgery. Promising young forward Filip Forsberg is day-to-day with an upper body injury. So is Patric Hörnqvist; one of the Preds' better goal scorers.
PROJECTED LINE COMBINATIONS (Subject to change)
FLYERS
19 Scott Hartnell - 28 Claude Giroux - 93 Jakub Voracek
10 Brayden Schenn - 40 Vincent Lecavalier - 17 Wayne Simmonds
24 Matt Read - 14 Sean Couturier - 9 Steve Downie
12 Michael Raffl - 18 Adam Hall - 36 Zac Rinaldo
44 Kimmo Timonen - 5 Braydon Coburn
8 Nicklas Grossmann - 32 Mark Streit
41 Andrej Meszaros - 22 Luke Schenn
29 Ray Emery
[35 Steve Mason]
Potential Scratches: Jay Rosehill (healthy), Erik Gustafsson (healthy), Hal Gill (healthy), Chris Pronger (LTIR, post-concussion syndrome).
PREDATORS
33 Colin Wilson - 12 Mike Fisher - 24 Eric Nystrom
57 Gabriel Bourque - 11 David Legwand - 25 Viktor Stalberg
13 Nick Spaling - 7 Matt Cullen - 15 Craig Smith
16 Richard Clune - 28 Paul Gaustad - 26 Matt Hendricks
59 Roman Josi - 42 Mattias Ekholm
64 Victor Bartley - 3 Seth Jones
8 Kevin Klein - 4 Ryan Ellis
39 Marek Mazanec / 30 Carter Hutton
Potential scratches: Shea Weber (eye, day-to-day), Filip Forsberg (upper body, day-to-day), Patric Hörnqvist (upper body, day-to-day), Pekka Rinne (IR, hip surgery).
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