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Flyers Gameday: 12/10/16 vs. DAL |
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PREVIEW: FLYERS VS. STARS
Looking to build an eight-game winning streak, Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers (16-10-3) play host to Lindy Ruff's Dallas Stars (11-11-6) in a Saturday matinee at the Wells Fargo Center. Game time is 1 p.m. ET. The game will be televised locally on CSN Philadelphia and in Texas on Fox Sports Southwest.
This is the first of two meetings between the inter-conference teams this season. The clubs will rematch next Saturday afternoon (Dec. 17) at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. Last season, the Stars swept the season series with a 2-1 regulation win in Philadelphia and a 3-1 decision at the American Airlines Center.
Flyers Outlook
The Flyers, playing their 30th game of the season and 18th at home, bring a 10-5-2 home record into this game. The team is action for the seventh time in less than 12 nights. Saturday's game represents the middle game of a home-home-road, three-games-in-four-nights stretch and the start of yet another weekend back-to-back. The Flyers travel to Detroit after this game to play the Red Wings on Sunday at 5 p.m. ET.
The two most recent wins in the Flyers' seven-game winning streak were accomplished by very different means. On Tuesday, Steve Mason cranked out a 42-save gem, supplemented by a pair of Wayne Simmonds goals and a Jakub Voracek tally in the final nine seconds of overtime to steak a 3-2 overtime home win against the Florida Panthers.
On Thursday, Mason (playing for the sixth time in 10 nights and fighting the puck at times) was not at his best. This time, the team in front of him stepped up to rally from a pair of two-goal deficits (2-0 and 5-3) to earn a 6-5 regulation home win over the Edmonton. Voracek had a four-point game (one goal, three assists), while linemates Claude Giroux (two goals, one assists) and Michael Raffl (game-winning goal) also stepped up big to lead the charge. Mark Streit and Pierre-Edourd Bellemare scored goals during the Flyers' rapid-fire second period turnaround from a 2-0 deficit to a sudden but short-lived 3-2 lead.
The Flyers had an optional practice on Friday at the Skate Zone in Voorhees, NJ. The primary lineup decisions facing Hakstol for Saturday are: 1) whether to give Mason a rest and give Anthony Stolarz his second NHL start and 2) whether to reinsert Michael Del Zotto, a healthy scratch against Edmonton, and whom to sit if so.
Shayne Gostisbehere, a rookie sensation and Calder Trophy finalist last season, has struggled with inconsistency this season especially in his play without the puck. A healthy scratch in one game this season, Gostisbehere is coming off an especially rough game on Thursday, both with and without the puck. With the puck, he was charged with five giveaways and managed only one shot on goal in four attempts. However, he did pick up an assist on the Voracek power play goal that started the Flyers' third period comeback. Without the puck, Gostisbehere misread a pair of coverages on plays that turned dangerous.
With their respective monster games against the Oilers, Voracek (10 goals, 18 assists) and Giroux (nine goals, 19 assists) took over shares of the Flyers' overall scoring lead from Wayne Simmonds. The bounces just weren't going Simmonds way in the Oilers game after he'd racked up four goals in the previous two tilts. He leads the Flyers with a team-high 15 goals among the 26 points he's compiled in 29 games.
Brayden Schenn is fourth on the Flyers' scoring leaderboard with 16 points (four goals, 12 assists) in 26 games. He's followed by rookie Travis Konecny (four goals, 11 assists), Streit (five goals, 10 assists), Gostisbehere (four goals, 11 assists).
Rookie defenseman Ivan Provorov has 13 points (three goals, 10 assists) while dressing in all 29 games. Along with the Pierre-Edouard Bellemare line, it is likely that Provorov will be matched up against the Jamie Benn line. Provorov has faired well overall recently in matchups against other teams' top lines, particularly his performance in containing Aleksander Barkov and frustrating the legendary Jaromir Jagr in the win against Florida.
On the injury front, Matt Read (midsection), Sean Couturier (knee) and Michal Neuvirth (lower body) remain on injured reserve. Neuvirth is the closest to being ready to return, and is skating daily.
Stars Outlook
The Stars in the same boat this week as the Flyers schedule-wise: This game is the start of a weekend back-to-back and the middle game of a three-in-four. The Stars remain on the road after this game, traveling to Chicago to take on the Blackhawks on Sunday.
After winning the Central Division last season and advancing to the second round of the playoffs for the first time since the Dave Tippett-coached 2007-08 team reached the Western Conference Finals, the Stars seemed poised to be top contenders in the Western Conference in 2016-17. Thus far, it has not happened. However, the team has won two of its last three games and has been playing improved hockey overall in the month of December to date.
The Stars enter this game coming off a 5-2 home win against the Nashville Predators. Ruff pooled his resources by stacking Jason Spezza up on the top line with team captain Jamie Benn and perpetual scoring threat Tyler Seguin. it worked. All three members of the line scored a goal.
Benn notched his eighth goal of the season (200th of his NHL career), while assisting on tallies by Spezza (fifth of the season) and Seguin (10th). Young power forward Brett Ritchie notched his seventh goal of the season, while agitating forward Antoine Roussel chipped in his fifth.
Even in the second half of last season and especially the year before when Dallas missed the playoffs in 2014-15, ragged team defense and inconsistent goaltending were the team's primary bugaboos. The speedy Stars, however, scored in bushels and were often able to overcome the flaws in their two-way game. Thus far in 2016-17, the scoring has been rather inconsistent itself while the defensive issues have remained.
Injuries have been part of the story, as the Stars have been riddled with man-games lost and remain without some valuable supporting cast personnel. Veteran NHL standout Patrick Sharp is making progress while out with concussion-like symptoms but is not ready to return. Nor is young two-way forward Mattias Janmark, a very pleasant surprise in 2015-16, who has missed the entire season to date after knee surgery. Young defenseman Julius Honka went down in Tuesday's 2-1 home loss to the Calgary Flames and was placed in injured reserve.
Some better news for Dallas: veteran defenseman Johnny Oduya, who has missed the last nine games with a lower-body injury, is just about ready to come off injured reserve. Ruff indicated that Oduya could be ready to play one of the team's two games this weekend but would not be stretched to play back-to-back.
Additionally, veteran forward Jiri Hudler, who was waylaid for weeks due to a virus, may also be ready to return for this game. He skated right wing on a practice line with center Cody Eakin (a healthy scratch in Thursday's game) and Lauri Korpikoski.
Patrick Eaves, who has missed some time this season and takes frequent maintenance days, did not practice before the Stars departed for Philadelphia but is expected to be in the starting lineup on Devin Shore's line. A note about Dallas' lines: Ruff frequently juggles personnel between games and combinations within games. So the team's in-game lineup frequently ends up looking different from the combos that started the game or were featured in practice.
The Stars, who bring a 4-7-4 road record into this game, are still trying in particular to find consistency on the blueline. There's been a lot of personnel rotated in and out, especially in fifth and sixth slots on the defense ice time charts.
In goal, veteran Kari Lehtonen, who finally earned his first career win against the Flyers last year, has a 6-8-0 record, 2.90 goals against average, .896 save percentage and one shutout in 16 starts and one relief appearance. Fellow Finnish vet Antti Niemi has made 12 starts and two relief appearances, posting a 5-3-0 record, 3.20 GAA, and .902 save percentage.
Both the Stars and Flyers have shown a common problem on the defensive end: vulnerability to back-door plays. Philly has corrected that issue for the most part of late, and the Stars have also taken a few positive baby-steps in this and other areas thus far in December. The win over Nashville was a potential spark to start building some momentum.
Key team stat comparisons (NHL overall ranking)
Non-shootout goals per game: Flyers 3.21 (3rd), Stars 2.57 (T-16th)
Non-shootout goals against per game: Flyers 3.10 (28th), Stars 3.18 (30th)
Power play efficiency: Flyers 23.6% (2nd), Stars 18.1% (14th)
Penalty killing efficiency: Flyers 79/8% (23rd), Stars 78.3% (27th)
Shots on goal per game: Flyers 31.9 (4th), Stars 29.7 (17th)
Shots against per game: Flyers 29.0 (T-7th), Stars 30.3 (16th)
Faceoff percentage: Flyers 50.3% (12th), Stars 49.1% (19th)
Projected Lineups (subject to change, will be updated)
FLYERS
12 Michael Raffl - 28 Claude Giroux - 17 Wayne Simmonds
11 Travis Konecny - 10 Brayden Schenn - 93 Jakub Voracek
76 Chris VandeVelde - 78 P-E Bellemare - 13 Roman Lyubimov
58 Taylor Leier - 25 Nick Cousins - 22 Dale Weise
9 Ivan Provorov - 47 Andrew MacDonald
32 Mark Streit - 3 Radko Gudas
53 Shayne Gostisbehere - 23 Brandon Manning
35 Steve Mason / 41 Anthony Stolarz
Scratches: Nick Schultz (healthy), Sean Couturier (lower body, suspected left MCL), Boyd Gordon (healthy), Michal Neuvirth (IR, lower body), Matt Read (IR, abdominal area), Michael Del Zotto (healthy).
STARS
14 Jamie Benn - 91 Tyler Seguin - 90 Jason Spezza
21 Antoine Roussel - 12 Radek Faksa - 25 Brett Ritchie
38 Lauri Korpikoski - 20 Cody Eakin - 22 Jiri Hudler
11 Curtis McKenzie - 17 Devin Shore - 18 Patrick Eaves
23 Esa Lindell - 3 John Klingberg
2 Dan Hamhuis - 28 Stephen Johns
15 Patrik Nemeth - 5 Jamie Oleksiak
32 Kari Lehtonen / 31 Antti Niemi
Scratches: Jordie Benn (healthy), Adam Cracknell (healthy), Johnny Oduya (IR, lower body, could be activated), Mattias Janmark (IR, knee), Ales Hemsky (IR, hip), Patrick Sharp (suspected concussion), Julius Honka (upper body).
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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