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Flyers Gameday: 10/15/16 @ ARI; Flyers-Kings Wrapup |
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PREVIEW: FLYERS VS. COYOTES
Playing the second half of their first set of back-to-back games of the 2016-17 season, Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers (1-0-0) are in Glendale on Saturday night to take on Dave Tippett's Arizona Coyotes (0-0-0). Game time at Gila River Arena is 9 p.m. ET. The game will televised on CSN Philadelphia.
This is the first of two meetings between the inter-conference teams, and the lone game in Arizona. Last season, the Flyers went 1-1-0 against the Coyotes, with both teams winning on their home ice.
After this game, the Flyers return to action on Tuesday in Chicago. The Coyotes are on the road in Ottawa on Tuesday.
Flyers Outlook
The Flyers earned a 4-2 opening night win in Los Angeles on Friday (see game report below). Philly got very little going offensively for the first 13-plus minutes of the opener but took over the game in the second period and held on for the win.
Steve Mason will get the start in net for the Flyers in Arizona after Michal Neuvirth played well in the opener. Brayden Schenn will serve the second game of his three-game suspension while Radko Gudas will serve the second game of his six-game banishment.
Shayne Gostisbehere and the Flyers had a scare early in the first period of opening night in LA as Gostisbehere suffered a facial cut from a skate. Thankfully, the cut was relatively minor and was across his right cheek to the bridge of his nose, rather than around his eyes or near his throat. Gostisbehere was tended to on the bench and quickly rejoined the game.
Coyotes Outlook
Saturday's game is opening night for the host Coyotes. After going 35-39-8 last season, the club enjoyed a strong preseason, posting a 5-1-2 record.
Rookie general manager John Chayka, the youngest GM in NHL history at age 27, signed veteran former Dallas Stars defenseman Alex Goligoski and ex-Flyers defenseman Luke Schenn during the offseason. Up front, the team added veterans Radim Vrbata, Jamie McGinn and former Flyer Ryan White.
Additionally, top prospect Dylan Strome, the Coyotes first-round pick in 2015, made the opening night roster but is said to be a likely healthy scratch for the opener. However, power forward Lawson Crouse will make his NHL debut after being acquired by the Coyotes in the deal that also so the team take on unhealthy veteran Dave Bolland in a deal that took Bolland's contract off the Florida Panthers' hands.
Puck-moving defenseman Jakob Chychrun, the Coyotes' 2016 first-round pick and the son of former Flyers defenseman Jeff Chychrun, also made the team's opening night roster. Holdover young veteran Connor Murphy is the son of Flyers assistant coach and former Flyers defenseman Gord Murphy.
Speedy young forwards Max Domi (18 goals, 52 points as a rookie last season) and Anthony Duclair (20 goals, 44 points as a rookie) were dubbed "the Killer Ds", and added a dimension to what had previously been a rather shallow attack. Dynamic defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson remains the team's catalyst from the back end and in joining the attack.
Veteran Martin Hanzal is entering his 10th NHL season; all with the Coyotes. Limited to just 64 games last season, Hanzal produced 13 goals and 41 points. There was bad blood last season between the Flyers and Coyotes stemming from incidents in their meeting in Glendale that saw Hanzal drill Philadelphia captain Claude Giroux from behind in retaliation for a questionable hit by Gudas on Arizona captain Shane Doan.
The 40-year-old Doan, whom the former Winnipeg Jets drafted seventh overall in the 1995 NHL Draft, has spent his entire career in the Jets/Coyotes organization. He is entering his 21st season in the National Hockey League. After seeming to be in twilight of his career in 2014-15, he bounced back last season for a 28-goal campaign despite missing 10 games. He is four goals away from 400 and five points away from 950 for his regular-season career.
Considered one of the top goalies in the NHL a few seasons ago, Mike Smith had an awful 2014-15 season and an inconsistent, injury-plagued 2015-16. However, the 34-year-old netminder remains arguably the best puckhandling goaltender in the league. He will be pushed for playing time this season by righthanded catching 24-year-old Louis Domingue.
Projected Lineups (subject to change)
FLYERS (based on Friday night)
12 Michael Raffl - 28 Claude Giroux - 17 Wayne Simmonds
11 Travis Konecny - 14 Sean Couturier - 93 Jakub Voracek
25 Nick Cousins -76 P-E Bellemare - 22 Dale Weise
76 Chris VandeVelde - 27 Boyd Gordon - 24 Matt Read
47 Andrew MacDonald - 53 Shayne Gostisbehere
9 Ivan Provorov - 32 Mark Streit
55 Nick Schultz - 23 Brandon Manning
35 Steve Mason
[30 Michal Neuvirth]
Scratches: Brayden Schenn (suspended by NHL for first three games), Radko Gudas (suspended by NHL for first six games), Michael Del Zotto (LTIR), Scott Laughton (LTIR), Roman Lyubimov (healthy).
COYOTES (per Dailyfaceoff.com)
16 Max Domi - 11 Martin Hanzal- 17 Radim Vrbata
8 Tobias Rieder - 18 Christian Dvorak - 10 Anthony Duclair
48 Jordan Martinook - 12 Brad Richardson - 19 Shane Doan
67 Lawson Crouse - 76 Laurent Dauphin - 25 Ryan White
23 Oliver Ekman-Larsson - 5 Connor Murphy
33 Alex Goligoski - 2 Luke Schenn
6 Jakob Chychrun - 21 Jamie McBain
41 Mike Smith
[35 Louis Domingue]
Scratches: Dylan Strome (healthy), Michael Stone (knee), Kevin Connauton (lower body, injured non-roster), Jamie McGinn (doubtful, upper body), Jarred Tinordi (20-game NHL suspension for violating the performance-enhancing drug policy), Dave Bolland (LTIR, back and ankle, unlikely to play again), Chris Pronger (LTIR/retired, salary cap floor contract acquisition), Pavel Datsyuk (KHL, salary cap floor contract acquisition).
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Wrapup: Second Period Blitz Leads Flyers to 4-2 Opening Night Win in LA
The Philadelphia Flyers got the 2016-17 campaign off to a promising start as they rode a four-goal blitz in the second period to a 4-2 victory over the LA Kings at the Staples Center on Friday night. The win marked the Flyers first opening-game win since a 2-1 victory in Boston on opening night of the 2011-12 season.
The Flyers were stymied by the Kings' smothering defense for the first 13-plus minutes of the opening period. After finishing the first period strong, Philly tore open the floodgates in the middle period to build an insurmountable 4-0 lead. A late second period and early third period goal by LA gave the Kings life, but an emphatic penalty kill and generally solid close out work preserved the two-goal win for the Flyers.
Set up twice by debuting rookie Travis Konency, Sean Couturier scored two goals on Philadelphia rushes. An unexpected goal by veteran fourth-line center Boyd Gordon, fed by Nick Cousins and fired under the crossbar from center slot, broke a scoreless deadlock at 3:55 of the second period. Just 48 seconds later, Couturier scored his first goal of the game. Later, after a nifty pass by Konecny left Couturier one-on-one with LA goalie Jeff Zatkoff, Couturier put a little shift on the goalie and slid the puck home.
The Flyers also received a goal by defenseman Mark Streit with 1:57 left in the middle stanza. On the play, he pinched down low in the zone, collected the puck as debuting rookie Ivan Provorov's possibly deliberately wide shot bounced to him off the end boards and, from a severe angle, banked the puck in off the back of Zatkoff's mask, off the topmost part of the far side post and into the net.
Reigning Norris Trophy defenseman Drew Doughty got the score back to 4-1 just 49 seconds after the Streit goal. After Anze Kopitar cleanly won a left circle faceoff to the point, Doughty ripped a shot through a screen and past Michal Neuvirth. At 3:01 of the third period, Brayden McNabb fired a shot that deflected upstairs off Flyers defenseman Streit's stick and blooped over Neuvirth's glove into the net.
Neuvirth, who finished with 23 saves on 25 shots, was strong when he had to be. He kept the game scoreless when the Kings had the better of the play in most of the period period and made a bang-bang save on Jeff Carter in the third period when LA was in comeback mode. Zatkoff, whose best save was a glove denial on Streit on a first-period power play set up by Konecny and, later stopped Konecny on a breakaway, finished with 26 saves on 30 shots.
Per the Elias Sports Bureau, Konecny was the first Flyer to post a multi-point NHL debut since David Laliberte recorded a goal and an assist in his debut on October 31, 2009 vs. Carolina.
Provorov, who had some early first period jitters, settled in nicely as the game went along. He defended well and generally made solid plays with the puck played 20:18 in his debut. He finished with four credited hits and two blocked shots in addition to assisting on Streit's goal.
Flyers defenseman Brandon Manning enjoyed an outstanding game, jumping into the play at opportune times while also defending well. Matt Read, who co-led the team with four shots on goal along with Streit, was in the middle of a few Philadelphia scoring chances although he was not able to finish them. Apart from a third period turnover on a failed clear up the middle, Read had a quietly strong game.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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