UPDATE 1 PM
Per the Flyers, Brandon Manning is day-to-day with an upper-body injury. Nick Schultz will remain in the lineup. Chris VandeVelde is also out tonight. Mike Vecchione will make his NHL debut after all. Vecchione will not play on Saturday, as he will be attending the Hobey Baker Award ceremony. Steve Mason starts in goal for the Flyers.
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PREVIEW: FLYERS @ DEVILS
Playing their third final road game of the 2016-17 season, Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers (38-33-8) are in Newark to play John Hynes' New Jersey Devils (27-37-14). Game time at the Prudential Center is 7:00 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on CSN Philadelphia.
This is the fifth and final meeting between the Metropolitan Division teams, and the third and final game in Philadelphia. New Jersey won each of the first three games: 4-0 in Newark on Dec. 22, 4-1 in Philadelphia on Jan. 21 and 6-2 in New Jersey on March 16. This past Saturday, in a game overshadowed by Flyers goaltender Michal Neuvirth collapsing during a first period stoppage of play -- he has since been released from the hospital with a clean bill of health -- the Flyers skated off with a 3-0 win.
Flyers Outlook
The Flyers were mathematically eliminated from contention for the playoffs with a 4-3 road loss to the New York Rangers on Sunday. Valtteri Filppula scored twice in a losing cause, while Brayden Schenn also tallied for Philadelphia. Anthony Stolarz sustained his first NHL loss, stopping 20 of 24 shots.
Entering their final away game, the Flyers are just 14-21-4 on the road this season. Conversely, they are 24-11-4 at home.
Radko Gudas is day-to-day with an upper body injury sustained on a high hit away from the puck by New Jersey's Dalton Prout in Saturday's often-feisty game. Gudas did not play on Sunday. Prout received a two-game suspension from the NHL.
The Flyers have recalled 2013 first-round pick Samuel Morin from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. He will make his NHL debut in place of Gudas.
It is unlikely that recently signed forward Mike Vecchione plays in this game. Hakstol has pledged to at least get the former Union College standout into one or both of the upcoming season-ending games in Philadelphia over the weekend. Hakstol wants Vecchione to be able to first participate in a couple of practices with the team. The team's 4-in-6 slate last week into the weekend precluded any full-fledged practices for the team. After this game, the Flyers are idle on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights so there will opportunity to get Vecchione into the mix at practice.
Matt Read will miss the rest of the season with an upper-body injury (believed to be an arm injury suffered blocking a shot). Michael Raffl (lower-body injury) also remains out for the season.
Devils Outlook
Mired in the Eastern Conference basement, the Devils are 15-15-8 at home this season and 12-22-6 on the road. The team had lost 10 games in a row (six straight in regulation) before beating the Flyers on March 16. Since that time, New Jersey has gone 1-6-2.
Jacob Josefson (upper body) and Miles Wood (left shoulder) are both questionable for this game. Prout will serve the first match of his two-game suspension.
Projected lineups (Subject to change)
FLYERS
11 Travis Konecny - 28 Claude Giroux - 93 Jakub Voracek
76 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - 51 Valterri Filppula - 17 Wayne Simmonds
22 Dale Weise - 14 Sean Couturier - 10 Brayden Schenn
76 Chris VandeVelde - 74 Mike Vecchione - 36 Colin McDonald
9 Ivan Provorov - 47 Andrew MacDonald
15 Michael Del Zotto - 55 Nick Schultz
50 Samuel Morin - 53 Shayne Gostisbehere
35 Steve Mason
[41 Anthony Stolarz]
Scratches: Roman Lyubimov (healthy), Brandon Manning (upper body, day to day), Matt Read (upper body), Michael Raffl (IR, lower body), Nick Cousins (day-to-day, upper body), Jordan Weal (illness), Michal Neuvirth (recuperating from illness), Radko Gudas (upper body).
DEVILS
14 Adam Henrique - 19 Travis Zajac - 21 - Kyle Palmieri
9 Taylor Hall - 37 Pavel Zacha - 13 Michael Cammalleri
64 Joseph Blandisi - 8 Beau Bennett - 23 Stefan Noesen
20 Luke Gazdic - 40 Blake Coleman - 43 Ben Thompson
6 Andy Greene - 34 Steven Santini
2 John Moore - 28 Damon Severson
7 Jon Merrill - 12 Ben Lovejoy
1 Keith Kinkaid
[35 Cory Schneider]
Scratches: Jakob Josefson (upper body), Miles Wood (questionable, shoulder), Devante Smith-Pelly (lower body), Dalton Prout (NHL suspension), Michael Kapla (healthy).
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QUICK HITS: APRIL 4, 2017
1) Flyers general manager Ron Hextall was tabbed by Hockey Canada to be the general manager for Team Canada at the 2017 IIHF World Championships. In the past Claude Giroux, Wayne Simmonds, Sean Couturier and Brayden Schenn have represented Canada at the Worlds. Hextall will try to assemble the best possible roster among available NHL players, and at least a couple figure to be Flyers players.
2) The electronic and print media members and broadcasters who vote for the Flyers team awards are not permitted to publish our votes for the various honors. We also do not discuss it among ourselves. However, I suspect that the voting will be pretty close to unanimous for both the Bobby Clarke Trophy (Flyers MVP) and Barry Ashbee Trophy (best defenseman).
The Yanick Dupre Memorial Award (formerly the "Class Guy") does not have repeat winners, so previous winners such as Simmonds and Jakub Voracek are ineligible. This year, there are several candidates with a chance to win.
While I cannot name the candidates for each of these awards -- they are easy to figure out, anyway, if one has even casually followed the team this season -- here are my thoughts on the awards in which the PHWA members do not vote.
The Pelle Lindbergh Memorial Trophy (most improved player) is voted on by the Flyers players themselves. I have no idea how they voted but think they may give it to Travis Konency since Jordan Weal has only played 21 games.
The Gene Hart Memorial Award (player who demonstrates the most heart) is voted on by the Flyers Fan Club. I don't know if they allow for repeat winners -- there's never been one -- but if it has to be a different player each year, I would think that Brandon Manning would be a worthy winner as would Pierre-Edouard Bellemare. Neither is the most skilled guy in his role but one could never accuse them of giving less than 100 percent every day.
3) On the Flyers' official website, I wrote a comprehensive playoff roundup/regular season wrapup of all Flyers prospects playing junior, collegiate or European hockey this season. It is up-to-date through Sunday's games; Philippe Myers' Rouyn-Noranda Huskies team successfully closed out its first-round QMJHL series on Monday. For more,
click here.
4) The Flyers and Flyers Alumni have an announcement forthcoming on a new charitable fundraising event planned for this offseason. I suspect that this will become an annual off-season fixture.
5) In an upcoming Meltzer's Musings blog, I will talk about Mike Milbury's inane criticisms on Sunday of Ron Hextall's slow-and-steady approach to prospect development. A GM-ing critique from the man who may have been the biggest disaster of a general manager not just in his era but the last half century of the NHL is virtually an endorsement than an organization being on the right track. Doing the exact opposite of what Mike Milbury would have done is a good start.
In the same blog, I will also discuss the frustrations that a significant percentage of fans have expressed with Dave Hakstol's handling of Travis Konencny this season among other issues pertaining to the young players in the organization.
Other upcoming blogs moving into the offseason will look at the Flyers' large-scale home/road record discrepancies in recent years, assessments of the Flyers' players and coaches this season, the NHL's upcoming exhibition games in China (this is not the first attempt to gain a foothold for increasing hockey's visibility in China), the Flyers' outlook for the upcoming NHL Draft and many other topics.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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