Wanna blog? Start your own hockey blog with My HockeyBuzz. Register for free today!
 

Flyers Gameday: 10/20/16 vs. ANA, Home Opener

October 20, 2016, 8:15 AM ET [603 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Preview: Flyers vs. Ducks

Playing the home opener of the franchise's 50th anniversary season, Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers (1-1-1) take on Randy Carlyle's Anaheim Ducks (0-3-1) at the Wells Fargo Center on Thursday night. Game time is 7 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on CSN Philadelphia.

This is the first of two meetings between the inter-Conference teams, and the lone game in Philadelphia. Last season, the Flyers lost both games against the Ducks: 4-2 in Anaheim on Dec. 27 and 4-1 at home on Feb. 9.

Overall, the Ducks have won their last six games against the Flyers, with Philly's most recent win, a 4-3 road overtime win, coming on Dec. 2, 2011. The Flyers last home win against the Ducks came on Feb. 2, 2008. The Ducks have won each of their last five games at the Wells Fargo Center.

Both the Flyers and Anaheim last played on Tuesday; the Flyers lost a wild 7-4 road decision to the Chicago Blackhawks, while the Ducks dropped a 2-1 road verdict to the New Jersey Devils.

Flyers Outlook

The Flyers staged a dramatic four-goal rally in a span of just 5:26 of game time late in the second period and early in the third period to tie the Chicago Blackhawks at 4-4 in Tuesday's game at the United Center. However, things fell apart again as the final stanza progressed and Philadelphia went down to a 7-4 defeat. The Flyers have allowed 11 goals in the last two games.

Matt Read scored his second and third goals of the young season in the Chicago game, while Sean Couturier also netted his third and Wayne Simmonds scored his second. Philly scored two power play goals (Read and Simmonds) but also yielded a pair to the Blackhawks.

The Flyers were collectively a defensive disaster on Tuesday. Much of the individual public scrutiny was trained on 19-year-old rookie Ivan Provorov, because of the minus-five he had by the end of the night. While the youngster, who was playing in his third NHL game, had a few costly gaffes, what happened in the game was truly a team effort. Veterans such Provorov's partner, Mark Streit, fared no better. The blueline as a whole had an especially awful game.

Starting goaltender Michal Neuvirth lasted just 25:04, yielding four goals on 16 shots. In relief, Steve Mason had little chance on either of the two goals he allowed on 11 shots, both of which turned into 2-on-1s in prime shooting position, but he ended up absorbing the loss.

Brayden Schenn has finished his three-game NHL suspension and will make his first appearance of the season in the home opener. Just as Schenn was serving his final game of his Department of Players Safety sentence, the Flyers lost left winger Michael Raffl for 10 days to two weeks to an upper-body injury. CSN Philadelphia's Tim Panaccio reported the injury as an abdominal muscle strain.

The Flyers held an optional skate on Wednesday. Three skaters and Neuvirth participated. Line combinations will be updated after Thursday's morning skate. Radko Gudas will serve the fourth game of his six-game NHL suspension.

Ducks Outlook

The Ducks brought back Randy Carlyle for a second tenure behind the bench, hoping he could regenerate the spark that boosted the team to the Stanley Cup championship in 2006-07. Thus far, however, the team is still looking for its first win of the regular season heading into its fifth game.

Last season, too, the Ducks got off to a terrible start that lasted until the Christmas break. It was actually a dominating win over the Flyers at the Honda Center in the first game after the schedule break that started Anaheim's turnaround and eventual berth in the playoffs. However, the team's seven-game loss to the Nashville Predators in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs served to cost Bruce Boudreau his head coaching job and brought about the return of Carlyle.

Although Anaheim is winless thus far in the season, the team has had stretches of every game in which they controlled the play. All four games thus far have been one-goal outcomes, including a 3-2 overtime loss to the New York Islanders. Against both the Dallas Stars on opening night and the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday, the Ducks had good first periods (Anaheim outshot Dallas by a 17-1 margin in the opening stanza).

Veteran top line center Ryan Getzlaf has posted four points (one goal, three assists) through the first four games this season, while defenseman Cam Fowler has a pair of goals and a pair of assists. Veterans Corey Perry (one goal, one assists) and Ryan Kesler (two assists) have produced two points apiece. John Gibson has started three of the first four games in goal, while Jonathan Bernier stopped 42 of 45 shots in a losing cause in the team's 3-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins.


Projected Lineups (subject to change, will be updated)

FLYERS

10 Brayden Schenn - 28 Claude Giroux - 17 Wayne Simmonds
11 Travis Konecny - 14 Sean Couturier - 93 Jakub Voracek
24 Matt Read -76 P-E Bellemare - 22 Dale Weise
76 Chris VandeVelde - 27 Boyd Gordon - 25 Nick Cousins

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: Radko Gudas (third game of six-game NHL suspension), Michael Del Zotto (LTIR), Scott Laughton (LTIR), Michael Raffl (upper body), Roman Lyubimov (healthy).


DUCKS (per DailyFaceoff.com)

37 Nick Ritchie - 15 Ryan Getzlaf - 33 Jakob Silfverberg
7 Andrew Cogliano - 50 Antoine Vermette - 10 Corey Perry
16 Ryan Garbutt - 17 Ryan Kesler - 59 Nick Sorensen
26 Emerson Etem - 21 Chris Wagner - 40 Jared Boll

4 Cam Fowler - 42 Josh Manson
42 Josh Manson - 45 Sami Vatanen
3 Clayton Stoner- 2 Kevin Bieksa

36 John Gibson
[1 Jonathan Bernier]

Scratches: Simon Despres (suspected concussion), Korbinian Holzer (healthy), Nicolas Kerdiles (healthy), Jacob Larsson (healthy).

***********

Flyers 50th Anniversary Home Opener

As the Flyers open the home portion of their 50th Anniversary season, here are just a few of the special things to look forward to on PhiladelphiaFlyers.com (nhl.com/flyers) in the weeks to come as well as events at the games:

* Tonight, there will be special pre-game and in-game features highlighting nearly a half century of Flyers hockey.

* The Flyers A-to-Z, a compilation of career biographies of all 593 players to play in at least one game as a Flyer -- including rookies Ivan Provorov and Travis Konecny and newcomers Dale Weise, Boyd Gordon and Roman Lyubimov -- has been completed. It is currently in the production phase before it is available online.

* Today in Flyers History: A daily feature highlighting one primary story and a variety of smaller items from each calendar day.

* Each issue of Flyers Magazine (the program available on game nights at the Wells Fargo Center) this season will have 50th Anniversary elements prominently included throughout.

* There will be regular features on PhiladelphiaFlyers.com highlighting a variety of different aspects of team history. For example, one upcoming feature profiles the tenures of every Flyers head coach in franchise history. Another traces the evolution of the Flyers' American Hockey League affiliations. A third will look at every Flyers captain.

* The in-game presentation staff will be presenting archival video footage (some of which has not been seen in years), historical facts and figures about the Flyers against each opponent, 50th Anniversary-related trivia question and a whole lot more.

* Jay Greenberg's "Flyers at 50" book will be released over Thanksgiving.

* The Flyers Alumni and the Alumni website have a series of special 50th Anniversary themed events and content planned, highlighted most of all on January 14 with the Alumni Game at the Wells Fargo Center against the Pittsburgh Penguins Alumni.

* The Heritage Nights at the Wells Fargo Center -- Hall of Fame, Tough Guys, Goalies, Captains and Playoff Heroes -- will each have special guests and in-depth content in a variety of formats.

The video below is from the 40th Anniversary history of the Flyers:

Join the Discussion: » 603 Comments » Post New Comment
More from Bill Meltzer
» Flyers Gameday: 3/28/24 @ MTL
» Wrap: Flyers Lose 6-5 OT Game to Rangers
» Flyers Gameday: 3/26/24 @ NYR
» Quick Hits: Flyers-FLA Wrap, Flyers Daily, Phantoms, Bigger than Hockey
» Flyers Gameday: 3/24/2024 vs. FLA; Phantoms Update