FLYERS VS MAPLE GAME PREVIEW (9:00 A.M. EDT)
Needing a win to halt a two-game slide, the Philadelphia Flyers (38-27-7) return home to take on the Toronto Maple Leafs (36-30-8). Game time is 7 p.m. EDT. The match will be televised on Comcast Sportsnet Philadelphia.
This is the third and final meeting of the season between the teams, and the second in Philadephia.
On the Flyers' opening night, Oct. 2, Peter Laviolette coached what would prove to be his final home game behind the Philadelphia bench in a 3-1 loss to the Leafs. Brayden Schenn scored the lone Flyers goal in a game that entered the third period tied at 1-1. A pair of third period goals by Dave Bolland won the game for Toronto.
With Craig Berube at the helm. the Flyers traveled to the Air Canada Centre on March 8. Philly dug deep enough to outscore enough of their own sloppy defensive mistakes to battle back from deficits of 2-0 and 3-2 but suffered one final breakdown in overtime that ultimately cost the team a 4-3 overtime loss.
Kimmo Timonen scored a pair of goal for the Flyers and also hit the post on two other attempts. Braydon Coburn tied the game in the third period.
For Toronto, the top line trio of Phil Kessel, James van Riemsdyk and Tyler Bozak did not end up getting on the scoreboard despite generating numerous scoring chances. The damage was done by other lines, as Joffrey Lupul scored the overtime winner and assisted earlier on a Nazem Kadri goal. The Leafs also got a goal from defenseman Jake Gardiner and third liner Mason Raymond. Jonathan Bernier stopped 28 of 31 shots to earn the win.
After tonight's game, the Flyers have another series of brutally difficult games upcoming. First, they will host the Eastern Conference leading Boston Bruins on a nationally televised Sunday afternoon. On Tuesday, the Flyers are in St. Louis to take on the Western Conference leading Blues.
FLYERS OUTLOOK
The Flyers are 8-4-1 after the Olympic break and 13-5-1 over their last 19 games. However, the team is coming off a pair of disappointing regulation losses this week. On Monday, Philly sustained a 3-2 home loss to the Los Angeles Kings. On Wednesday, the Flyers dropped a 3-1 road decision to the New York Rangers.
After winning a run of games against top-notch opposition -- Pittsburgh, Chicago, and St. Louis -- the Flyers got away in the last two games from doing the things that enabled them to beat those clubs. First and foremost, Philadelphia got outnumbered around the puck and lost most of the key battles in long stretches of the game.
Although the Flyers have produced just a three goals over the last two games -- two by Jakub Voracek, one by Matt Read -- offense has generally not been a problem for the Flyers since their early-season struggles to put the puck in the net. Through the first 15 games of the season, the Flyers scored just 22 goals (1.47 per game). Since that time, Philly has tallied 184 goals in 57 games (3.23 per game).
No player in the NHL has been hotter offensively than Giroux has over the last several months. However, he had a six-game point streak snapped by the Kings and was held without a shot on goal by the Rangers. The Flyers captain has 38 points (13 goals and 25 assists) in the 31 games played since January 4, which was the first game after the last time he was held pointless in back-to-back games.
In the first five games after the Olympic break, the Flyers yielded 21 goals. However, they have allowed just 16 in the last eight games. The goaltending of Steve Mason and Ray Emery has generally been strong.
Steve Downie (upper body injury, suspected concussion) remains sidelined. Defenseman Nicklas Grossmann (foot) took a maintenance day from practice on Tuesday and has been sporting a walking boot but has stayed in the lineup after a painful shot block last Saturday against the Blues. Similarly, defenseman Kimmo Timonen missed several shifts in the Rangers game but returned to the ice. Both Timonen and Grossmann are expected to be available to play tonight.
Based on the morning skate, the Flyers are likely to feature different forward line combinations tonight than in recent games. See the projected lineups below, which are of course subject to change.
MAPLE LEAFS OUTLOOK
Things have turned ugly in Toronto in the three weeks since the Leafs' 3-2 overtime win over the Flyers in a Hockey Night in Canada game. The Maple Leafs bring a six-game losing streak into tonight's match, which has put their playoff hopes in jeopardy.
The Leafs are coming off a 5-3 home loss to the Blues on Tuesday. Things started out well enough as ex-Flyer Joffrey Lupul opened the scoring with a mid first period power play goal. Thereafter, it went downhill in a hurry. Toronto trailed 2-1 by the end of the first period and then 4-1 by the second intermission. In the third period, the Leafs rallied for goals by Carl Gunarsson and ex-Flyer James van Riemsdyk to narrow the gap to 4-3 but could not come up with the equalizer before the Blues sealed the game on an empty net goal.
Jonathan Bernier was peppered with 48 shots by the Blues. He stopped 44 in a losing cause.
Over the course of the Leafs' six-game losing streak, the club has been suffering defensive breakdowns with regularity. Correspondingly, the team has yielded at least three goals in every game of the stretch and in seven of their last eight games. In the last eight games, the Leafs have been outscored by a margin of 32-20.
If there is a bright spot amid the team's struggles, it is the fact that the Leafs are still very much in the hunt for a wildcard spot. They enter tonight's game with 80 points; same as Columbus, Detroit and Washington. However, all of those teams hold at least one (Detroit and Washington) or two (Columbus) games in hand.
Tonight's game is even more of a must-win for Toronto than for Philly. At least the Flyers still have a three-point lead on Columbus and Washington (plus a game in hand with the head-to-head season series finished). With a loss, however, the Flyers could easily slip into their own desperation mode with two games against Boston, a road game against revenge-minded St. Louis and a head-to-head game with Columbus sandwiched in between road games against the Blues and Bruins.
On the Toronto injury front, defenseman Paul Ranger (concussion) remains sidelined indefinitely.
KEY STAT COMPARISONS (NHL OVERALL RANKING)
Non-shootout goals per game: Flyers 2.82 (9th), Maple Leafs 2.80 (10th)
Non-shootout goals against per game: Flyers 2.76 (18th), Maple Leafs 3.07 (26th)
Even strength Goals For/Against Ratio: Flyers 0.96 (16th), Maple Leafs 0.94 (19th)
Power play efficiency: Flyers 19.5% (10th), Maple Leafs 21.0% (3rd)
Penalty killing efficiency: Flyers 84.9% (5th), Maple Leafs 78.5% (28th)
Faceoff percentage: Flyers 50.1% (16th), Maple Leafs 48.2% (24th)
PROJECTED LINEUPS (Subject to change)
FLYERS
19 Scott Hartnell - 28 Claude Giroux - 93 Jakub Voracek
15 Tye McGinn - 10 Brayden Schenn - 17 Wayne Simmonds
24 Matt Read- 14 Sean Couturier - 12 Michael Raffl
36 Zac Rinaldo - 40 Vincent Lecavalier - 18 Adam Hall
44 Kimmo Timonen - 5 Braydon Coburn
8 Nicklas Grossmann - 32 Mark Streit
47 Andrew MacDonald - 22 Luke Schenn
35 Steve Mason
[29 Ray Emery]
Potential Scratches: Steve Downie (upper body), Erik Gustafsson (healthy), Jay Rosehill (healthy), Hal Gill (healthy), Chris Pronger (LTIR, post-concussion syndrome).
MAPLE LEAFS
21 James van Riemsdyk - 42 Tyler Bozak - 81 Phil Kessel
19 Joffrey Lupul - 43 Nazem Kadri - 41 Nikolai Kulemin
12 Mason Raymond - 63 Dave Bolland - 71 David Clarkson
40 Troy Bodie - 11 Jay McClement - 28 Colton Orr
36 Carl Gunnarsson - 3 Dion Phaneuf
4 Cody Franson - 51 Jake Gardiner
44 Morgan Rielly - 8 Tim Gleason
45 Jonathan Bernier
[34 James Reimer]
Potential Scratches: Paul Ranger (concussion).
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