UPDATE: LECAVALIER OUT
Vincent Lecavalier will miss at least tonight's game. He is day-to-day with back spasms. Michael Raffl will move up to the second line, and Andrej Meszaros will work a point on the second power play unit. The lineup is updated below.
Also, there was some shocking news today as Peter Luukko announced his resignation as the COO of Comcast-Spectactor, the Comcast subsidiary that operates the Flyers. David Scott will take over in his place.
NEW FLYERS LINES
19 Scott Hartnell - 28 Claude Giroux - 93 Jakub Voracek
12 Michael Raffl - Brayden Schenn - 17 Wayne Simmonds
24 Matt Read - 14 Sean Couturier - 9 Steve Downie
37 Jay Rosehill - 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]
FLYERS-WILD GAME PREVIEW (9:30 AM EST)
In the second installment of their six-game, cross-country road trip, the Philadelphia Flyers (12-12-2) are in St. Paul to take on the Minnesota Wild (15-8-5). Game time is 8:00 p.m. EST. The match will be televised locally on Comcast Sportsnet Philadelphia and nationally on NBC Sports Network.
This is the first of two meetings between the inter-conference clubs. The teams will rematch at the Wells Fargo Center on Dec. 23.
Tonight marks the 14th all-time game between the Flyers and Wild. The Flyers are 8-3-1-1 against the Wild in franchise history. On the road, however, Philly is just 2-2-1-0 against Minnesota. It has been at home -- where the Flyers are 6-1-0-1 -- that Philly has built its impressive head-to-head record in the infrequent meetings with Minnesota.
The Flyers are back in on Wednesday in Detroit. On Saturday, they have a road matinee on the docket against the Dallas Stars.
FLYERS OUTLOOK
Philadelphia kicked off its current road trip with a 3-2 shootout win in Nashville on Saturday. Claude Giroux and Sean Couturier scored in regulation, while Vincent Lecavalier notched the lone tally of the shootout for either team. The Flyers were outshot in every period, but Steve Mason authored 34 saves in regulation and overtime.
Tonight, the Flyers are back in action for the third time in four nights. This is always a difficult energy management challenge for any club, but the Wild are in the same boat as Philly. Minnesota played a home-and-home with the Colorado Avalanche on Friday and Saturday nights.
Lately, goals have been a little hard to come by again for the Flyers. The club has scored just seven goals in regulation over the last four games, and the club has been outplayed for significant stretches of three of the last matches. However, the club brings a two-game winning streak into tonight's match -- owed largely to the goaltending of Mason.
Heading into tonight's game, only the Buffalo Sabres and Carolina Hurricanes have produced less offensive output among NHL teams this season than the Flyers' team 2.19 goals-per-game. On the flip side, the Flyers' greatly improved goaltending and team defense has allowed 2.42 opposition goals per game; ranking third-best in the Eastern Conference and seventh in the NHL.
The Flyers recently enjoyed a streak of eight straight games in which the club scored a power play goal; however, they came up blank the last couple games. For the season, the Philadelphia power play ranks 23rd in the NHL at 15.2 percent.
However, after a downturn on the penalty kill that was the lone significant trouble spot during the team's 6-0-1 stretch of play in November, the Flyers have killed off 13 penalties in a row to improve their league ranking to 15th (83.3 percent).
On the downside, the Flyers have put themselves shorthanded 11 times in the last two games and 15 in the last three games. That has meant a lot of hard minutes for the team's penalty killing units of late. For the full season to date, only the Ottawa Senators have had to play shorthanded more than the 108 times the Flyers have had a manpower disadvantage in their 26 games played.
Mason played on back-to-back days/nights in the Flyers' Black Friday home win over Winnipeg and the Saturday night shootout victory in Nashville. As such, the call may go for Ray Emery tonight.
WILD OUTLOOK
The Wild got just one point from their holiday weekend home-and-home with Colorado; dropping a 3-1 game in St. Paul on Friday and then getting a point out of a 3-2 shootout loss in Denver on Saturday.
In latter game, the Wild trailed 2-0 heading into the final four minutes of regulation. Matt Cooke cut the deficit in half with 3:27 left on the clock. With six ticks left on the third period
clock and goaltender Josh Harding pulled for an extra attacker, Mikko Koivu corralled a loose puck between the circles and fired it past Semyon Varlamov to force overtime in a game where Minnesota outshot Colorado by a 37-25 margin.
Minnesota brings a four-game winless streak into tonight's match. That includes back-to-back regulation losses on home ice, where the Wild have otherwise been a dominant club this season. The Wild are 10-3-2 at the XCel Energy Center this season.
Leading scorer Zach Parise (11 goals, 23 points in 27 games) was initially expected to miss one to three weeks with a foot injury. Instead, he only missed one game. However, the former New Jersey Devils forward is still not close to one hundred percent as he muddles through the ailment. He had one assist in the home-and-home set with Colorado.
Former Buffalo Sabres forward Jason Pominville paces the Wild in the goal scoring department, notching 13 goals to date. However, he has just one goal in his last eight games and snapped a four-game point drought with an assist in Colorado on Saturday.
Former Nashville Predators standout defenseman Ryan Suter's 15 assists trails on Koivu's 16 for the team lead in helpers. His ability to trigger the rush with tape-to-tape breakout passes or either join or lead the attack remains a dangerous weapon. In the meantime, young teammate Jonas Brodin has quietly become of the NHL's fastest-rising young blueliners.
In goal, Harding has been on the NHL's best stories this season while dealing with the onset of multiple sclerosis. His play has been absolutely stellar thus far and he's had to do most of the heavy lifting with Niklas Bäckström frequently injured. Harding played both ends of the Friday/Saturday home-and-home set.
The Wild have been one of the better NHL clubs on the power play this season, bringing a 20.6 percent success ratio (8th-best in the League) into tonight's game. On the penalty kill, however, the team has struggled. The club's 78.5 success ratio ranks in the bottom five of the NHL. The Wild have played shorthanded 93 times to date; the 13th most in the League.
On the injury front, the team is missing promising young forward Mikael Granlund (head) as well as agitator/faceoff specialist Zenon Konopka (facial lacerations).
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).
WILD
11 Zach Parise - 9 Mikko Koivu - 29 Jason Pominville
22 Nino Niederreiter - 56 Erik Haula - 15 Dany Heatley
27 Mike Rupp - 3 Charlie Coyle - 14 Justin Fontaine
24 Matt Cooke - 21 Kyle Brodziak - 17 Torrey Mitchell
20 Ryan Suter - 46 Jared Spurgeon
6 Marco Scandella - 25 Jonas Brodin
4 Clayton Stoner - 2 Keith Ballard
37 Josh Harding
[32 Niklas Bäckström]
Potential scratches: Matt Dumba (healthy), Nate Prosser (healthy), Zenon Konopka (facial lacerations, day-to-day), Mikael Granlund (IR, head).
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