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Flyers Gameday: 11/7/15 vs. WPG |
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PREVIEW: FLYERS @ JETS
Looking to snap a six-game winless streak, Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers (4-6-3) return to action on Saturday night against Paul Maurice's Winnipeg Jets (8-4-2). Game time at the MTS Centre is 7:00 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on CSN Philadelphia.
This is the first of two meetings between the inter-conference clubs and the Flyers' lone visit to Winnipeg. The teams will rematch in Philadelphia on March 28. Last season, the Flyers won both games against the Jets, capturing a 4-3 overtime road win and a 5-2 home victory.
For the Flyers, Saturday's game is the final one of a five-game game road trip, including a four-game-in-six night tour of western Canada. The Flyers last played on Thursday. The club returns to home ice on Tuesday night, hosting the Colorado Avalanche.
The Jets are playing their third game in four nights. The team's stay at home will be brief. Saturday's game is the Jets' lone game at the MTS Centre over a nine-game stretch (four away games, one at home, the next four away). The Jets played back-to-back games in Toronto on Wednesday and Ottawa on Thursday.
Flyers Outlook
The last six games have not been kind to the Flyers. The team gone 0-4-2 in that span, including a 0-3-1 mark on the current road trip. Philadelphia enters this game coming off a 2-1 overtime loss to the Calgary Flames.
Calgary's Josh Jooris and the Flyers' Michael Raffl scored the lone regulation goals for the two teams. Mikael Backlund won the game for the Flames just 35 seconds into the 3-on-3 overtime.
From an all-situations Corsi point of view, the Flyers had a considerable puck possession advantage against Calgary, especially in the third period. The Flyers finished with 63 attempted shots, including 22 that got blocked and 14 that missed the net compared to 42 for the Flames, including nine that were blocked and three that missed that the net. By Fenwick standards, the Flyers had a 41-33 non-blocked shot attempt edge.
From the perspective of what actually matter at the end of the night, the Flames put two pucks in the net to just one for the Flyers and also put more of their shot attempts on goal (30-27) than Philadephia.
Ultimately, the Flyers wasted another strong goaltending performance from Michal Neuvirth (28 saves on 30 shots). Neuvirth had earned another start after a stellar 45-save performance in Edmonton on Tuesday. With Steve Mason under the weather, starting Neuvirth was an easy call for Flyers' head coach Dave Hakstol.
Mason practiced on Friday after missing Thursday's morning skate. He will be available to play against the Jets but it should be noted that he's only played once since Oct. 29 due to splitting back-to-back games and then his minor illness. For the same reasons, Friday's practice was the only one Mason been able to put in all week since stopping 30 of 33 shots in Monday's 4-1 loss in Vancouver.
On Thursday in Calgary, Hakstol left himself open to second guessing by starting Vincent Lecavalier over Sam Gagner and then, in the third game of a three-in-four stretch, shortening his bench early in the game. Lecavalier received only nine shifts and 4:37 of ice time, playing ineffectively. Hakstol benched the veteran for the final 28:56 of the game.
Team captain Claude Giroux (four goals, three assists) and defenseman Mark Streit (three goals, four assist) share the team's point-scoring lead through 13 games, while Giroux and Brayden Schenn share the goal-scoring lead.
Jakub Voracek (zero goals, four assists, minus-five at even strength), Wayne Simmonds (one goal, five assists, minus-nine) and offensive-minded defenseman Michael Del Zotto (zero goals, one assist, minus-eight) head the list of the many players from whom the Flyers need to get much more offensive production. Brayden Schenn (six points for the season) does not a point during the road trip.
Fourth line center Pierre-Edouard Bellemare has been out since suffering a lower-body injury sustained on Oct. 27. Defenseman Evgeny Medvedev (upper body) returned to Philadelphia on Nov. 3. The Russian defenseman is officially day-to-day.
Jets Outlook
The Jets went 2-1-1 during their four-game road swing leading up to this game. The club captured a 4-2 win in Toronto on Wednesday and then settled for one point in a 3-2 shootout loss in Ottawa. As iis the norm for all NHL teams after playing back-to-back games, the Jets did not practice on Friday.
In the game against the Senators, the Jets trailed 2-0 late in the second period. Andrew Ladd's fourth goal of the season cut the gap in half with 2:41 remaining before intermission and then Dustin Byfuglien knotted the score just 26 seconds into the third period.
Michael Hutchinson turned back 27 of 29 shots during regulation and then made a pair of saves during the 3-on-3 overtime to help send the game to a shootout. However, he did not fare well in the skills competition, yielding goals to Bobby Ryan, Kyle Turris (the official game-winner), and Mika Zibanejad (the shootout clincher). Blake Wheeler converted his first-round shootout attempt against Ottawa's Craig Anderson but Ladd was denied before Zibanejad scored to end the contest. Anderson finished with 38 saves on 40 shots in regulation and OT and then one of two in the shootout.
As of this writing, the Jets have not named a starter for Saturday's game, so the starter will not be clear until the team's morning skate. Over the past eight games, Maurice has alternated starts between Hutchinson and Ondrej Pavelec. If the team sticks with that pattern, it will be Pavelec tabbed to start against the Flyers.
Wheeler leads the Jets in scoring with six goals and 17 points through 14 games. His linemate Bryan Little (13 points) also has a half-dozen tallies to date while team captain Ladd has four goals among his nine points. Mathieu Perreault paces the team in assists with nine helpers among his 10 points. Byfuglien leads the blueline with eight points (four goals, four assists) and is plus-seven at even strength while partner Tobias Enström (zero goals, four assists) is plus-eight.
On the Winnipeg injury front, center Andrew Copp (upper body) remains out of the lineup. Veteran defenseman Grant Clitsome (back) is on IR.
Key team stat comparisons (NHL overall ranking)
Non-shootout goals per game: Flyers 1.85 (29th), Jets 3.00 (6th)
Non-shootout goals against per game: Flyers 3.00 (T-24th), Jets 2.64 (16th)
Even strength Goals For/Against Ratio: Flyers 18/23, Jets 31/28
Power play efficiency: Flyers 10.5% (29th), Jets 20.5% (12th)
Penalty killing efficiency: Flyers 78.0% (T-20th), Jets 84.6% (9th)
Shots per game: Flyers 31.7 (3rd), Jets 29.9 (9th)
Shots against per game: Flyers 34.3 (30th), Jets 31.5 (25th)
Faceoff percentage: Flyers 50.1% (T-16th), Jets 47.9% (26th)
Projected lineups (subject to change, will be updated)
FLYERS
12 Michael Raffl - 28 Claude Giroux - 93 Jakub Voracek
24 Matt Read - 14 Sean Couturier - 17 Wayne Simmonds
20 R.J. Umberger -10 Brayden Schenn - 89 Sam Gagner
76 Chris VandeVelde - 21 Scott Laughton - 25 Ryan White
15 Michael Del Zotto - 32 Mark Streit
55 Nick Schultz - 22 Luke Schenn
23 Brandon Manning - 3 Radko Gudas
30 Michal Neuvirth / 35 Steve Mason
Scratches: Vincent Lecavalier (healthy), Davis Drewiske (healthy), Evgeny Medvedev (upper body), Pierre-Edouard Bellemare (IR, lower body).
JETS
16 Andrew Ladd - 18 Bryan Little - 26 Blake Wheeler
85 Mathieu Perreault - 55 Mark Scheifele - 27 Nikolaj Ehlers
6 Alexander Burmistrov - 17 Adam Lowry - 12 Drew Stafford
22 Chris Thorburn - 19 Nicolas Petan - 14 Anthony Peluso
39 Tobias Enström - 33 Dustin Byfuglien
7 Ben Chiarot - 57 Tyler Myers
5 Mark Stuart - 8 Jacob Trouba
31 Ondrej Pavelec / 34 Michael Hutchinson
Scratches: Patrice Cormier (healthy), Adam Pardy (healthy) Paul Postma (healthy), Andrew Copp (IR, upper body), Grant Clitsome (IR, back).
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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