|
Flyers Gameday: 10/8/15 @ TB |
|
|
|
|
|
PREVIEW: FLYERS @ LIGHTNING
In the opening game of the 2015-16 regular season for both teams, new Philadelphia Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol will make his NHL (and pro hockey) regular season coaching debut as the team is on the road on Thursday to take on Jon Cooper's defending Eastern Conference Champion Tampa Bay Lightning.
Game time at Amalie Arena is 7:30 p.m. ET. The game will be televised locally on CSN Philadelphia.
Last season under Craig Berube, the Flyers finished with a 33-31-18 record and missed the playoffs. Tampa Bay finished second in the Atlantic Division with a 50-24-8 record in the regular season before falling two victories shy of winning the Stanley Cup.
The Flyers have struggled mightily against the Bolts in recent years, especially on the road. Philadelphia is 2-9-0 over its last 11 games overall against the Lightning and have lost seven in a row (0-6-1) in Tampa dating back to Feb. 15, 2011. However, the Flyers did win the final game of last year's season series with a 7-3 blowout victory at the Wells Fargo Center.
Thursday's game is the only time in the three-game season series that these two teams will see each other until after the All-Star break. The Flyers and Lightning will square off again on March 6 in Philadelpha before the season series wraps up on March 11 in Tampa.
After this game, the Flyers head to Sunrise, FL to play the Florida Panthers on Saturday night before returning to Philadelphia for Monday's return match with the Panthers in the home opener at the Wells Fargo Center. The Bolts go on the road for their next two games, playing the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday and Boston Bruins on Monday.
Flyers outlook
With the exception Hakstol behind the bench and the NHL regular season debut of 33-year-old Russian import defenseman Evgeny Medvedev, the entire Flyers' opening night lineup consists of players who were with the team for all or a portion of last season.
Hakstol has made a few adjustments to the team's previous system. Most notably, he has tweaked the team's coverage through the neutral zone. Look for defense to cover over the top on the middle with back-checking forwards responsible for the wings. The coach has also encouraged more motion to activate defensemen in the offensive zone and tried to instill a greater puck-challenging penalty on the penalty kill.
Personnel wise, the Flyers have moved first line left winger Michael Raffl on the top power play unit and moved Brayden Schenn to the second unit. The rest of the first unit (Claude Giroux, Jakub Voracek, Wayne Simmonds and Mark Streit) remains the same. The second unit also features Sean Couturier, R.J. Umberger and point men Michael Del Zotto and Medvedev.
Overall, the Flyers need players such as Couturier and Brayden Schenn to have their long-awaited NHL offensive breakthrough season. They will also need bounceback years from players such as former 20-goal scorers Matt Read and Umberger. In order to free Couturier of some of the heavy defensive burdens he typically performed in previous years, the Flyers hope players such as second-year pro Scott Laughton emerge as strong two-way supporting cast members.
Last season, the Philadelphia Flyers ranked 21st in the NHL with 212 goals scored; a dropoff of 21 goals and 13 spots in the league rankings. Much of the scoring drop-off came during 5-on-5 play but the team actually had a better goal differential at even strength in 2014-15 than it did the previous year when the Flyers reached the playoffs.
In 2013-14, the Flyers scored 151 goals with both teams skating at full strength (15th in the NHL) and yielded 157 (10th in the NHL). Last year, Philly notched 138 goals at 5-on-5 (25th in the NHL) and yielded 137 (9th in the NHL).
Unfortunately for the Flyers, the team's penalty killing efficiency dropped precipitously from 2013-14 (48 PPGA, 8 SHG, 84.8% PK, ranked 7th in the NHL) to 2014-15 (61 PPGA, 3 SHG, 77.1% PK, ranked 27th in the NHL). More than anything else, the PK problems were what sank the Flyers' fortunes, especially on the road.
The Flyers even-strength goal-scoring leader last season was Raffl, who notched 18 of his 21 goals (two power play, one shorthanded) at even strength. He was followed by Simmonds (14 ESG, 14 PPG), Couturier (13 ESG, 1 PPG, 1 ESG), Voracek (11 ESG (nine at 5-on-5), 11 PPG), Giroux (11 ESG (nine at 5-on-5), 14 PPG), Brayden Schenn (11 ESG (10 at 5-on-5), 7 PPG), Chris VandeVelde (9 ESG), Del Zotto (8 ESG, 1 PPG, 1 SHG), Umberger (7 ESG, 2 PPG), Vincent Lecavalier (7 ESG, 1 PPG), Matt Read (6 ESG, 2 PPG), Pierre-Edouard Bellemare (6 ESG), Streit (5 ESG, 4 PPG) and since-traded defenseman Nicklas Grossmann (5 ESG).
In terms of overall production at even strength, Voracek's 48 even-strength points topped the team in 2014-15, and his 46 points at 5-on-5 were tied for 21st in the NHL. Giroux was second on the club with 36 total even strength points, and ranked tied for 95th in the NHL with 34 points at 5-on-5.
In order for the Flyers collectively to improve their even-strength scoring differential in 2015-16, they will have to start by getting better puck possession: breakouts that do not require multiple attempts, consistent forechecking and back pressure, winning more battles on the walls, etc.
One area of greatly underrated strength for the Flyers is in goal. Steve Mason is coming off a statistical career year in 2014-15. He played well for the Flyers on a consistent basis ever since his arrival late in the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season. Mason by far was the Flyers' best and most consistent player during the preseason this September. He will have a new backup this season in unrestricted free agent signing Michal Neuvirth.
Two former Tampa players -- longtime franchise icon Vincent Lecavalier and hard-nosed defenseman Radko Gudas -- are healthy scratches on opening night. Flyers general manager Ron Hextall has said that the key to the team getting back to the postseason this season is reliant on improvement from within even with a few new additions such as Sam Gagner (a healthy scratch in the opener).
Tampa Bay outlook
The Lightning are a team than can beat opponents in many different ways: off the line rush, in transition, on special teams, by the defense joining the rush or in somewhat tighter-checking affairs. The Bolts are a talented and hard-working squad with elements of speed, finesse and just enough grit to keep from getting pushed around.
General manager Steve Yzerman has assembled a deep team. The Lightning boast an array of dangerous forwards -- led by one of the league's deadliest snipers, Steven Stamkos -- and a talented blueline anchored by Norris Trophy caliber defenseman Victor Hedman. To top it off, the club has a high-quality starting goaltender in Ben Bishop.
While all NHL teams tend to have much better records when scoring first than when trailing first, the Bolts have proven especially deadly when they get an early jump on the opposition. Last year, in games where Tampa scored first, the Bolts posted a gaudy 35-7-4 record. On a leaguewide basis, Tampa was even of the better teams when yielding the game's first goal (15-17-4). By way of comparison, the 2014-15 Flyers were 22-4-6 when scoring first but just 11-27-12 when their opponents scored first.
For much of the early part of his carer, Stamkos lacked sufficient support around his line atop the Tampa lineup. That is no longer the case, as opponents can no longer key solely on stopping the Stamkos unit. For example, no opponent can afford to overlook the young trio of Tyler Johnson, Nikita Kucherov and Ondrej Palat. Last year, both Johnson and Kucherov scored 29 goals, while Palat racked up 47 assists.
On the blueline, the gifted but somewhat injury-prone Hedman has sometimes dominated against the Flyers, especially in recent years. The Swede has plenty of talent around him in the top six but is the engine that drives the team's puck-moving game while also blossoming into a fine two-way player. He was outstanding in the Stanley Cup playoffs last year.
The Tampa blueline features a pair of longtime ex-Flyers in Braydon Coburn and Matt Carle. Whereas they were relied upon to eat a lot of minutes at or near the top of the rotation during their Philadelphia tenures, both are supporting cast members with the Bolts.
On the injury front, highly regarded young goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy will open the season on injured reserve due to a blood clot near his left collarbone. The rest of the Tampa lineup enters the season reasonably healthy. Johnson missed practice in Estero on Monday, but has since returned to fully participate. Similarly, Cedric Paquette was hurt on Sept. 25 but appears to be ready to go for opening night.
Key team stat comparisons (2014-15 NHL overall ranking)
Non-shootout goals per game: Flyers 2.59 (21st), Lightning 3.16 (1st)
Non-shootout goals against per game: Flyers 2.72 (21st), Lightning 2.51 (12th)
Power play efficiency: Flyers 23.4% (4th), Lightning 18.8% (T-14th)
Penalty killing efficiency: Flyers 77.1% (27th), Lightning 83.7% (T-7th)
Faceoff percentage: Flyers 51.1% (13th), Lightning 49.7% (16th)
Projected lineups (Subject to change, will be updated)
FLYERS
12 Michael Raffl - 28 Claude Giroux - 93 Jakub Voracek
10 Brayden Schenn - 14 Sean Couturier - 17 Wayne Simmonds
24 Matt Read - 21 Scott Laughton - 20 R.J. Umberger
76 Chris VandeVelde - 78 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - 25 Ryan White
55 Nick Schultz - 32 Mark Streit
15 Michael Del Zotto - 23 Brandon Manning
82 Evgeny Medvedev - 22 Luke Schenn
35 Steve Mason
[30 Michal Neuvirth]
Scratches: Sam Gagner (healthy), Vincent Lecavalier (healthy), Radko Gudas (healthy).
LIGHTNING
27 Jonathan Drouin - 91 Steven Stamkos - 24 Ryan Callahan
18 Ondrej Palat - 9 Tyler Johnson - 86 Nikita Kucherov
17 Alex Killorn - 51 Valtteri Filppula - 22 Erik Condra
90 Vladislav Namestnikov - 11 Brian Boyle - 23 J.T. Brown
77 Victor Hedman - 6 Anton Strålman
5 Jason Garrison - 25 Matt Carle
55 Braydon Coburn - 62 Andrej Sustr
30 Ben Bishop
[35 Kevin Poulin]
Scratches: Cedric Paquette (healthy), Nikita Nesterov (healthy), Andrei Vasilevskiy (IR, blood clot).
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
Join the Discussion:
»