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Flyers Gameday: 10/22/16 vs. CAR |
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Preview: Flyers vs. Hurricanes
Looking to snap a three-game winless stretch, Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers (1-2-1) take on Bill Peters' Carolina Hurricanes (1-1-2) at the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday night. Game time is 7 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on CSN Philadelphia.
This is the first of five meetings between the Metropolitan Division clubs this season and the first of three in Philadelphia. The teams will next clash in Raleigh on Oct. 30. Last season, the Flyers went 3-1-0 against the Hurricanes.
Saturday's game is the first segment of a three-in-four for the Flyers and the start of run of six games in nine nights. The team will return to action on Monday in Montreal. The Hurricanes started the season with four games in Western Canada. After this game, the Canes' road trip ends in Detroit on Tuesday
Flyers Outlook
The Flyers have many areas of their game to clean up if they are to get on the winning track. The team has led (opening night in Los Angeles) or been tied within the third period of every game to date, but has only one win to show for it.
Philadelphia has been prone to sluggish starts thus far. In Saturday's 3-2 loss to Anaheim, gap control through the neutral zone was a costly issue, as was a 1-for-7 night on the penalty kill that saw the Flyers generate just five shot attempts that reached the net.
On Friday evening, the NHL announced that Flyers forward Dale Weise has been suspended for three games for a head shot on Anaheim's Korbinian Holzer in Thursday's game. Holzer stayed in the game and went on to set up Ryan Garbutt for the game-winning goal. Radko Gudas still has two games remaining on his six-game NHL suspension.
On the bright side for Philly, Matt Read scored his fourth goal of the season in Thursday's game as he used his speed off the rush to forge a brief 2-1 lead in the second period. Earlier, Wayne Simmonds scored on a power play for his third goal of the year.
Thus far in the regular season, the Flyers goaltending has been just OK. Both Steve Mason and Michal Neuvirth can play better than they have in the early going. At practice on Friday, Neuvirth took extra reps after most players had left the ice.
Hurricanes Outlook
On Thursday, the Hurricanes earned their first win of the season and broke an eight-game losing streak in Calgary as they skated off with a 4-2 win. Jeff Skinner led the way with two points (one goal, one assist) while goalie Eddie Läck turned back 24 of 26 shots.
The Canes had to sweat out the win. Carolina built a 3-2 lead and then withstood a push from the Flames. The win came as a relief to Peters' team, as the club has already coughed up a pair of three-goal leads and eventually lost in overtime.
Against Calgary, the Hurricanes went 2-for-8 on the power play. Overall, the team is fifth in the NHL at 31.3 percent power play efficiency to date.
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
25 Nick Cousins -76 P-E Bellemare - 24 Matt Read
76 Chris VandeVelde - 27 Boyd Gordon - 13 Roman Lyubimov
47 Andrew MacDonald - 53 Shayne Gostisbehere
9 Ivan Provorov - 23 Brandon Manning
55 Nick Schultz - 32 Mark Streit
35 Steve Mason
[30 Michal Neuvirth]
Scratches: Radko Gudas (fifth game of six-game NHL suspension), Michael Del Zotto (LTIR), Scott Laughton (LTIR), Michael Raffl (upper body), Dale Weise (first game of three-game NHL suspension).
Hurricanes (per DailyFaceoff.com)
53 Jeff Skinner - 49 Victor Rask - 21 Lee Stempniak
42 Joakin Norström - 11 Jordan Staal - 34 Phi Di Giuseppe
20 Sebastian Aho - 16 Elias Lindholm - 86 Teuvo Teräväinen
29 Bryan Bickell - 18 Jay McClement - 25 Viktor Stålberg
65 Ron Hainsey - 27 Justin Faulk
74 Jaccob Slavin - 22 Brett Pesce
5 Noah Hanifin - 6 Klas Dahlbeck
31 Eddie Läck
[30 Cam Ward]
Scratches: Martin Frk, Andrej Nestrasil, Jakub Nakladal.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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