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Flyers Gameday: 12/18/17 vs. LA; Phantoms Update |
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GAME 33 PREVIEW: FLYERS VS. KINGS
Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers (14-11-7) host John Stevens' Los Angeles Kings (20-14-4) on Monday night. Game time is 7:00 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on NBCSP in the Philadelphia and nationally on NHL Network.
This is the second and final meeting between the teams this season, and the lone game in Philadelphia. On Oct. 5 in LA, the Kings earned a 2-0 win.
In the first game, Trevor Lewis and Tyler Toffoli scored for the Kings, while Jonathan Quick notched a 35-save shutout. The Flyers forechecked well and attacked with speed, but LA largely prevented open looks in the higher-percentage areas below and between the dots. When there were good scoring chances, Quick erased them. Michal Neuvirth was excellent in his first game of the regular season. He had no chance on either Kings goal and made numerous good saves among the 25 stops he made on 27 shots.
The Flyers play just six Monday home games the entire season; three at home and three away. After this game, there will be one remaining Monday road tilt (Feb. 26 in Montreal) and one more at home (March 12 vs. Vegas).
FLYERS OUTLOOK
This match is the fourth of a five-game homestand. Philadelphia has won six straight games overall, five in regulation and one in overtime.
The team enters this game five points (figuring a ROW tiebreaker disadvantage) behind both the Rangers and Islanders for wildcard spots, with one game in hand on both clubs. The Flyers are three points (ROW tiebreaker factored) behind Pittsburgh with two games in hand.
The Flyers opened the current homestand with a strong 60-minute effort in a 4-2 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs last Tuesday and followed it up with a less impressive performance in a 2-1 victory over the Buffalo Sabres two nights later. On Saturday, the Flyers claimed a hard-fought 2-1 overtime win against the Dallas Stars.
In the game against Dallas, Shayne Gostisbehere notched a pair of power play goals. Jakub Voracek collected his NHL-leading 32nd and 33rd assists of the season. Brian Elliott, making his 10th straight start in goal, turned back 27 of 28 shots to earn the win, including a pair of excellent saves on the ever-dangerous Tyler Seguin.
Veteran goaltender Michal Neuvirth is close to being ready to be reactivated from the injured reserve list. That could happen as soon as Monday, in which case he would back up Elliott against the Kings. If not, rookie Alex Lyon will serve one additional game as the backup. Otherwise, Lyon will be reassigned to the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
In each of the six games of the current winning streak, the Flyers have taken no more than two minor penalties that left them shorthanded. They are 8-for-9 on the penalty kill over the current stretch, with the lone goal being a double-deflection credited to Toronto left wing James van Riemsdyk.
Through 32 games, the Flyers have scored 91 goals while yielding 88. The club has allowed the fewest goals against in the NHL at five-on-five (46) but their 29th-ranked penalty kill at 76.9 percent (80-for-104), four opposing shorthanded goals yielded and three losses during 3-on-3 sudden death overtime have hurt the overall goal differential. The Flyers power play enters Monday's game at an 19.4 percent (21-for-108, 15th overall) success rate.
KINGS OUTLOOK
The Kings are not a happy hockey team right now. Monday night's game is the finale of a four-game east coast road trip against Metro Division teams, and the team's third game in four nights (albeit with an off-day on Sunday). Thus far, the Kings are 0-2-1 on the trip after coming into it riding an eight-game winning streak.
Last Tuesday in Newark, the normally defensively stingy Kings yielded a five-spot to the Devils while only scoring once in a clunker performance that brought LA's winning streak to a crashing end. On Friday, the Rangers defeated the Kings, 4-2. The next night, the Kings dropped a 4-3 overtime verdict to the Islanders.
Now, the Kings have had a day to rest and hit the mental reset button before coming to Philly to try to end the trip on a high note before a travel day and a practice prior to hosting the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday.
Via both ROW tiebreaker and points percentage, the Kings have been overtaken by the first-year expansion Vegas Golden Knights for first place in the Pacific Divison. Both teams have 44 points but LA has played two more games and has one fewer (19 to 18) regulation or overtime win.
Anze Kopitar is having an excellent two-way season for the Kings. He has posted 39 points (17 goals, 22 assists) in 33 games and is also plus-12 despite the fact that 11 of his points have come on the power play. Superstar defenseman Drew Doughty has posted 25 points (five goals, 20 assists) thus far.
Veteran netminder Quick enters this game with a 15-10-1 record, 2.33 GAA, .924 save percentage. He's had one additional shutout (at Montreal on Oct. 26) since blanking the Flyers in the Kings' home opener.
The Kings have been without veteran forward Jeff Carter most of the season. The ex-Flyer remains on injured reserve after undergoing emergency surgery on an ankle tendon cut by the skate blade of Montreal Canadiens defenseman Jeff Petry in an Oct. 18 game.
For the season, despite having yielded 13 goals over the last three games, the Kings still have the NHL's lowest goals against average (2.38). The Kings have outscored opponents by a margin of 101-81.
At five-on-five, the Kings have a 65-51 goal advantage on the season. On the power play, the Kings are ranked just 26th (17-for-103, 16.5 percent) and have yielded two opposing shorthanded goals. On the penalty kill, LA is tops in the NHL at 86.7 percent (98-for-113) and has scored a pair of shorthanded goals by Doughty and Trevor Lewis.
Present road trip excepted, part of what makes LA so tough to play against is how good the team has been in third periods. That goes a long way in a league where most games are close. The Kings lead the NHL with a 44-21 goal differential in third periods; tied with the Rangers for the most third period goals scored and ranked second (San Jose has only yielded 18) for the fewest opposing third period goals.
When leading after two periods, LA is 10-1-1 on the season. The team is 3-8-3 when trailing after two periods; by points percentage, 6th best in the NHL in pulling off third period comebacks this season.
PROJECTED LINEUPS
Flyers
28 Claude Giroux - 14 Sean Couturier - 17 Wayne Simmonds
12 Michael Raffl - 51 Valtteri Filppula - 93 Jakub Voracek
40 Jordan Weal - 19 Nolan Patrick - 22 Dale Weise
20 Taylor Leier - 21 Scott Laughton - 11 Travis Konecny
9 Ivan Provorov - 47 Andrew MacDonald
53 Shayne Gostisbehere - 8 Robert Hägg
6 Travis Sanheim - 3 Radko Gudas
37 Brian Elliott
[49 Alex Lyon]
Scratches: Jori Lehterä (healthy), Mark Alt (healthy), Brandon Manning (IR, right hand), Michal Neuvirth (IR, lower body).
KINGS
19 Alex Iafallo - 11 Anze Kopitar - 23 Dustin Brown
70 Tanner Pearson - 9 Adrian Kempe - 73 Tyler Toffoli
12 Marian Gaborik - 71 Torrey Mitchell - 36 Jussi Jokinen
13 Kyle Clifford - 21 Nick Shore - 22 Trevor Lewis
6 Jake Muzzin - 8 Drew Doughty
7 Oscar Fantenberg - 27 Alec Martinez
24 Derek Forbert - 5 Christian Folin
32 Jonathan Quick
[35 Darcy Kuemper]
Scratches: 15 Andy Andreoff (healthy), 56 Kurtis MacDermid (healthy), 17 Jonny Brodzinski (healthy), 77 Jeff Carter (IR, ankle tendon surgery).
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PHANTOMS UPDATE: GUT-CHECK WIN IN BRIDGEPORT
Missing a slew of injured players and icing a lineup largely consisting of veterans and recalls from the ECHL's Reading Royals, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms managed to take six of eight possible points over their last four games.
On the heels of Saturday night's 4-2 home win that ended Syracuse's 10-game winning streak, the Phantoms had to travel to Bridgeport for a Sunday mid-afternoon game against the Sound Tigers. It wasn't pretty, especially in a sluggish first period in which the Phantoms had very little energy, but the Phantoms found a way to grit out a 3-2 overtime win despite getting outshot by a 39-18 margin.
Veteran forward Corban Knight, who has been asked to step into a more offense-minded role with key components missing from the attack, has responded in a big way. In his nine December games, Knight has five goals and 12 points. On Sunday, he rose to the occasion again with an assist and the game-winner in overtime.
On the decisive play during the 3-on-3 OT, Knight took an outlet pass and turned into the game winner. Knight then blasted a shot that goalie Christopher Gibson was unable to catch. The assists went to fellow veterans T.J. Brennan and Matt Read.
Veteran goalie Dustin Tokarski (37 saves on 39 shots) was the Phantoms' other primary savior on Sunday. He limited Bridgeport to an unstoppable Michael Dal Colle goal midway through the first period and kept the game manageable. The Phantoms responded with second period goals by Steven Swavely (1st) and Danick Martel (retaking the AHL lead with 17, assisted by Knight) to take a 2-1 lead into the third period.
Lehigh Valley got outshot 17-2 in the third period and was hanging on by a thread through most of the stanza in trying to preserve a 2-1 win. The balloon finally burst after a latter period too many men on the ice penalty was cashed in for a Casey Bailey power play goal. Knight then pulled out the OT win at the 42-second mark on Lehigh Valley's lone shot (the only shot for either team) of sudden death.
The Phantoms played this game missing a variety of starters. Among forwards, Lehigh Valley remained without the injured Mike Vecchione, Mikhail Vorobyev and veteran captain Colin McDonald. On the blueline, the team is without injured Samuel Morin, Philippe Myers and Max Lamarche as well as Mark Alt (NHL recall). Second-season goalie Alex Lyon also remained on NHL recall with the Flyers.
An observation on Oskar Lindblom: Despite his somewhat modest rookie point totals, the young left winger has played solid hockey overall for the Phantoms and points have also been coming more frequently of late. However, many of his weaker games this season have come in the second half of back-to-back games, which are infrequent in Sweden. Apart from a shift or two, he was not noticeable very often in Sunday's game in Bridgeport, and finished at minus-one without a shot on goal.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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