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Flyers Gameday: 1/7/14 @ New Jersey

January 7, 2014, 7:56 AM ET [842 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
FLYERS-DEVILS GAME PREVIEW (6:30 A.M. EST)

Wrapping up a six-game road trip with a stop near home, the Philadelphia Flyers (21-17-4) are in Newark to take on the New Jersey Devils (17-18-8). Game time is 7:30 p.m. EST. The match will be televised locally on The Comcast Network, nationally in the U.S. on NBC Sports Network and nationally in Canada on TSN2 in English and RDS2 in French.

This is the third of four meetings between the teams this season, and the last of two at the Prudential Center. The teams will wrap up the season series in Philadelphia on Tuesday, March 11.

On Nov. 2, the Flyers were coming off a 7-0 shellacking at home by Washington as they headed to Newark. Philly mustered only a Brayden Schenn goal in the first period but limited New Jersey to 14 shots for the game as Ray Emery recorded a shutout. Both teams went 0-for-5 on the power play in this game.

Five nights later, the Devils returned the favor by shutting out the Flyers in Philadelphia and breaking a team-wide goalless drought that reached 151:03 minutes of hockey. Adam Henrique put the Devils ahead just 1:57 into the first period and the Devils led the rest of the way. Cam Janssen added some insurance by scoring just his 4th career goal in his 133rd NHL regular season game. Martin Brodeur made 22 saves and the Devils went to win 3-0. Afterwards, the Flyers held closed-door team meeting in the locker room.

After tonight's game, the Flyers are right back in action tomorrow night. As they did at the conclusion of their six-game post-Thanksgiving road trip, the Flyers have a home meeting with the Montreal Canadiens one night after the concluding game of the trip. Game time tomorrow is 7:30 p.m. EST.

FLYERS OUTLOOK

The Flyers finished the western portion of their road trip with a 4-1-0 record. On Saturday in Phoenix, the Flyers overcame second-period deficits of 2-0 and 3-1 to roar back for four unanswered goals en route to a 5-3 victory.

The second-line trio of Brayden Schenn, Scott Hartnell and Wayne Simmonds (power play goal) all scored in the Coyotes game. So did top line forwards Jakub Voracek and Claude Giroux (empty net goal). Steve Mason struggled a bit with rebound control but battled through en route to a 26-save performance.

The Flyers started out the season by averaging a pathetic 1.47 goals per game (22 goals) through the first 15 games of the season. Game 15 was the 3-0 shutout loss at the hands of the Devils. The loss dropped the club's record to 4-10-1.

Since that time, they have brought their season average up to 2.64 goals per game (111 goals in 42 games) by averaging 3.296 goals per game (89 goals) over the last 27 games. In that span, the club has posted a record of 17-7-3.

Hartnell has points in seven straight games, posting three goals and five assists over that span. Linemate Simmonds has been scorching hot of late, with nine goals in his last nine games. Additionally, he's recorded at least one point in eight of the last nine games.

In the Phoenix game, Giroux recorded his first point after going pointless in back-to-back games following a career-best nine-game point streak. Voracek's goal and assist snapped a string of three straight games without a point on the heels of a career-best nine-game point streak of his own.

The Flyers may get Michael Raffl (concussion) back in the lineup tonight. He participated fully in practice yesterday morning, skating on the fourth line, and was scheduled to meet with a doctor in the afternoon. The Austrian winger told the media after practice that he has felt fine since the day after the concussion. If he gets medical clearance, he is likely to quickly return to the Giroux and Voracek line despite skating with the fourth line group yesterday.

Matt Read (upper body) did not participate in practice yesterday. Erik Gustafsson (sprained knee) practiced with the team but said he still has 10 to 15 percent to go before he's ready to play again.

With the Flyers playing on back-to-back nights and Emery having played well in two previous starts against the Devils this season, Craig Berube may give "Razor" the nod tonight and then come back with Mason against Montreal tomorrow.

At yesterday's practice, several Flyers veterans preached the need for the Flyers to be patient against New Jersey and to avoid turnovers around both the offensive and defensive bluelines in particular. Voracek said the club has to be "ready to expect a boring game" and Hartnell noted that a big part of the reason why the Devils often seem to get the better of the Flyers is that they have outworked Philly in the trenches.

Philly's penalty kill has been excellent of late, killing off 12 straight disadvantages. On the power play, the club has connected on 23.9 percent (19-for-80) of its road opportunities. By contrast, Philly ranks next to the bottom in the NHL (9-for-76, 11.8 percent) in its power play efficiency at home.

DEVILS OUTLOOK

The Devils have lost back-to-back games since knocking off the Eastern Conference leading Pittsburgh Penguins on New Year's Eve. The glass half-full outlook is that the club has managed to take away at least one point in seven of their last 10 games (5-3-2). The glass half-empty view is that the club has dropped four of its last six games, with three of the losses coming in regulation.

New Jersey enters this game coming off a 5-3 home loss to Chicago last Friday and a 2-1 road loss to Buffalo on Saturday.

In the Blackhawks game, the score was tied 1-1 at the second intermission before the walls caved in on Jersey. A three-goal explosion by the dangerous Hawks in the first five and a half minutes of the third period decided the outcome. Devils got all three goals from their defense, as Marek Zidlicky potted his sixth and seventh goals of the season and Andy Greene notched his seventh. Martin Brodeur stopped 19 of 24 shots.

In the Buffalo tilt, the game was scoreless until the final 31 seconds of the middle stanza, when a Matt Moulson power play goal gave the Sabres a 1-0 lead. Michael Ryder even the score with a New Jersey power play goal at 7:46 of the third period but Buffalo ended up winning both the special teams battle and the game when Matt D'Agostini notched a power play goal with 8:11 remaining in regulation. Cory Schneider made 20 saves in the loss.

Buffalo defenseman Tyler Myers received a three-game suspension from the National Hockey League as a result of a high hit on Dainius Zubrus in Saturday's game. However, former Flyers forward Zubrus is OK and will be in the lineup tonight.

Patrik Elias, a Flyer-killer throughout his NHL career, will not be available to the Devils tonight. The club has placed him on injured reserve with an upper body injury. Swiss sniper Damien Brunner (sprained right knee) is also on IR.

Without those two players, most of the burden for carrying the New Jersey offense will fall on the legendary Jaromir Jagr (team-leading 13 goals and 34 points), Ryder (13 goals), defenseman Zidlicky (22 points, five power play goals) and some combination of Travis Zajac (seven goals, 19 points) and/or Henrique (nine goals, 19 points).

Jagr is six goals away from scoring the 700th regular season goal of his Hall of Fame career. He scored an empty net goal the last time the Devils played the Flyers.

As one would figure, every NHL team has a better record in game where the club scores first than in games where it trails. In the Devils' case, however, the difference is extreme this season. When the offensively challenged Devils have to chase games, they have a very tough time catching up.

New Jersey enters tonight with the NHL's second-worst winning percentage (3-13-3, .150 winning percentage) and just nine points out of the 19 games in which they have yielded the game's first goal. Conversely, in the 24 games where the Devils have scored the game's first goal, the club has come away with points in 19 of the 24 games (14-5-5).

KEY STAT COMPARISONS (NHL OVERALL RANKING)

Non-shootout goals per game: Flyers 2.57 (19th), Devils 2.35 (26th)
Non-shootout goals against per game: Flyers 2.69 (16th), Devils 2.42 (8th)
Even strength Goals For/Against Ratio: Flyers 0.92 (19th), Devils 0.91 (21st)
Power play efficiency: Flyers 18.0% (18th), Devils 18.2% (15th)
Penalty killing efficiency: Flyers 83.9% (9th), Devils 86.1% (3rd)
Faceoff percentage: Flyers 48.7% (22nd), Devils 46.0% (29th)

PROJECTED LINEUPS (Subject to change, updated after morning skate)

FLYERS

9 Steve Downie/ 12 Michael Raffl - 28 Claude Giroux - 92 Jakub Voracek
19 Scott Hartnell - 10 Brayden Schenn - 17 Wayne Simmonds
36 Zac Rinaldo / 9 Steve Downie - 14 Sean Couturier - 40 Vincent Lecavalier
12 Michael Raffl - 76 Chris VandeVelde / 18 Adam Hall - Hall/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), Matt Read (upper body), Hal Gill (healthy), Erik Gustafsson (sprained knee), Chris Pronger (LTIR, post-concussion syndrome).


DEVILS

8 Dainius Zubrus - 19 Travis Zajac - 68 Jaromir Jagr
29 Ryane Clowe - 14 Adam Henrique - 17 Michael Ryder
20 Ryan Carter - 11 Stephen Gionta - 18 Steve Bernier
15 Reid Boucher - 21 Andrei Loktionov - 9 Mike Sislo

6 Andy Greene - 7 Mark Fayne
34 Jon Merrill - 2 Marek Zidlicky
24 Bryce Salvador - 28 Anton Volchenkov

30 Martin Brodeur
[35 Cory Schneider]

Potential Scratches: Eric Gelinas (healthy), Cam Janssen (healthy), Jacob Josefson (healthy), Patrik Elias (IR, upper body), Damien Brunner (IR, sprained knee), Adam Larsson (IR, lower body), Peter Harrold (IR, broken foot).

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