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Flyers Gameday: 10/25/16 vs. BUF; Flyers Lose Late to Habs, 3-1 |
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Roster Move: Raffl to IR, Leier Recalled (2:15 PM ET)
The Flyers have placed Michael Raffl on the injured reserve list. The club has called up left winger Taylor Leier from the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
Also, as expected, Michal Neuvirth will get the nod in goal for the Flyers. With Radko Gudas entering the lineup, Nick Schultz will be a healthy scratch.
Preview: Flyers vs. Sabres
Returning home for the second half of back-to-back games and the final portion of home-away-home stretch of three games in four nights, Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers (2-3-1) play host to Dan Bylsma's Buffalo Sabres (1-2-1) on Tuesday night. Game time at the Wells Fargo Center is 7:30 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on CSN Philadelphia.
This is the first of three meetings between the clubs this season, and the lone game in Philadelphia. Last season, the Flyers went 1-1-1 against the Sabres.
The Flyers dropped a 3-1 decision in Montreal on Monday after earning a 6-3 home win over Carolina on Saturday. The Sabres are a much more rested team having last played on Oct. 20, dropping a 2-1 road verdict to the Vancouver Canucks.
Flyers Outlook
Michal Neuvirth is the likely starting goaltender for the Flyers with the team on the second half of a back-to-back. Steve Mason has gotten each of the last three starts for the Flyers, and responded with solid efforts -- especially in the last two games.
Matt Read and Wayne Simmonds saw their respective four-game goal-scoring streaks come to an end in the 3-1 loss to the Canadiens on Monday. Jakub Voracek brings a four-game point streak (three goals, four assists, seven points) into the game while team captain Claude Giroux, still looking for his first goal of the season, has assists (six overall) in the team's last four games.
Radko Gudas has served out his six-game NHL suspension. With the Flyers unlikely to have a morning skate on Tuesday, Hakstol's lineup decision will probably not be revealed until game time. Although Nick Schultz skated the least ice time among Flyers' defensemen on Monday -- which is frequently a predictor of whom is the likeliest to sit, based on play relative to their roles, Mark Streit or Andrew MacDonald are also candidates to be scratched.
Formed for Saturday's game against the Hurricanes, the defense pairing of Brandon Manning and rookie Ivan Provorov has been very good in back-to-back games. Shayne Gostisbehere's lineup spot is also safe, despite some defensive issues in the early going of the season.
On Tuesday, Dale Weise will serve the final match of his own three-game NHL suspension.
Sabres Outlook
After losing on home ice to Montreal to start the regular season, the Sabres went 1-1-1 on their western Canada road trip through Edmonton (6-2 win), Calgary (4-3 OT loss) and Vancouver (2-1 loss).
On Thursday against the Canucks, Vancouver held a 2-0 lead until midway through the third period. Nicholas Baptiste was credited with the lone Buffalo goal on an initially disallowed goal that was reversed after a challenge from the Sabres -- the puck initially ruled to have swatted into the net by Nicolas Deslauriers turned out to have missed Deslauriers and pinballed in off Jack Skille and then off the skate of Alexander Edler.
Buffalo, however, could not find an equalizer against Jacob Markström (26 saves). Robin Lehner stopped 18 of 20 shots in a losing cause for the Sabres.
Two-way center Ryan O'Reilly leads the Sabres in scoring thus far with five points (three goals, two assists) through the team's first four games. Lehner has started all four games in goal.
Projected Lineups (will be updated)
FLYERS (Monday's lineup)
24 Matt Read - 28 Claude Giroux - 17 Wayne Simmonds
11 Travis Konecny - 14 Sean Couturier - 93 Jakub Voracek
25 Nick Cousins -76 P-E Bellemare - 10 Brayden Schenn
76 Chris VandeVelde - 27 Boyd Gordon - 13 Roman Lyubimov
32 Mark Streit - 3 Radko Gudas
9 Ivan Provorov - 23 Brandon Manning
47 Andrew MacDonald - 53 Shayne Gostisbehere
30 Michal Neuvirth
[35 Stave Mason]
Scratches: Michael Del Zotto (LTIR), Scott Laughton (LTIR), Michael Raffl (IR, upper body), Dale Weise (final game of three-game NHL suspension), Nick Schultz (healthy), Taylor Leier (healthy).
Sabres
23 Sam Reinhart – 90 Ryan O'Reilly – 21 Kyle Okposo
82 Marcus Foligno – 22 Johan Larsson – 12 Brian Gionta
26 Matt Moulson – 28 Zemgus Girgensons – 44 Nicolas Deslauriers
63 Tyler Ennis – 27 Derek Grant – 52 Hudson Fasching
4 Josh Gorges – 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
29 Jake McCabe – 47 Zach Bogosian
77 Dmitri Kulikov – 6 Cody Franson
31 Anders Nilsson
[40 Robin Lehner]
Scratches: Jack Eichel (high ankle sprain), Evander Kane (three cracked ribs), Cody McCormick (LTIR), Casey Nelson (healthy).
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Wrapup: Flyers Lose Late to Canadiens, 3-1
In every game played to date this season, the Philadelphia Flyers have either led (2-0-0) or have been tied (0-3-1) within the third period but only have two wins to show for it. The club has yielded the game's first goal in all but one game this season.
On Tuesday in Montreal, the visiting Flyers played the Montreal Canadiens fairly evenly for most of the night but came away empty as the Habs stepped up in crunch time to convert a latter third period power play and later add an empty-net goal to seal a 3-1 final.
Both Steve Mason (31 saves on 33 shots) and Carey Price (31 saves on 32 shots) were excellent in net for their respective teams. All three goals were scored on deflections in which the netminders had no realistic chance at a save.
After a scoreless opening period, defenseman Shea Weber opened the scoring for Montreal at 5:28 of the middle frame. Weber's point shot with traffic in front deflected off the stick of Flyers' forward Brayden Schenn (breaking it in the process) and re-directed through a maze of bodies and into the net.
The Flyers got the goal back at 11:47. Jakub Voracek and linemate Travis Konecny moved into screening/deflecting position in front of price as Claude Giroux wristed a center point shot inside the blueline. Konecny (monetarily credited with the goal) did not get a piece of the shot but Voracek did and re-directed it past a helpless Price.
The game remained knotted at 1-1 until moments after Sean Couturier was called for an accidental trip in the neutral zone. Boyd Gordon (who went 10-for-12 on the faceoff overall) lost the draw cleanly and a right point blast by Alexander Radulov was deflected near the net by Brendan Gallagher. Radulov later added an empty net goal moments after Price came up big to keep Montreal ahead by a goal.
The Couturier line was Philadelphia's most effective for much of the game. However, apart from the Voracek deflection goal, the unit was unable to solve Price despite prime scoring chances of all three of its line members. A 2-on-1 rush with Konecny joining Voracek with a chance to re-tie the game in the third period resulted in a missed one-timer.
The Flyers received only one power play in the game, going 0-for-1. Montreal went 1-for-4, making good in its final power play for the game-winning goal by Gallagher.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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