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Flyers Gameday: 12/4/17 @ CGY |
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GAME 27 PREVIEW: FLYERS @ FLAMES
Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers (8-11-7) embark upon a three-in-four road trip through western Canada, beginning with a Monday night game against Glen Gulutzan's Calgary Flames (14-11-1). Game time at the Saddledome is 9:00 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on NBCSP.
This is the second and final meeting of the season between the inter-conference teams, and the lone game in Calgary. On Nov. 18 at the Wells Fargo Center, the Flyers were their own worst enemies as repeated discipline lapses and a barrage of second period Calgary power play goals -- after the Flyers had entered the game on a 14-for-15 run on the penalty kill -- turned the tide of a game in which the Flyers had been in near-total control.
Even after the Flames rallied back from deficits of 1-0, 3-1 and 4-3, the Flyers had ample opportunity to win the game in the third period. Instead, Philly settled for a single point as they fell in overtime, 5-4. A Flyers turnover after controlling the puck throughout the opening minute of OT, a defensive error by Jakub Voracek and a 2-on-1 goal ended the game.
Brandon Manning, Sean Couturier, Ivan Provorov and Nolan Patrick scored for the Flyers. Ex-Flames goalie Elliott played a better game than an unsightly stat line (26 saves on 31 shots) would suggest. Sean Monahan (three power play goals), Johnny Gaudreau and overtime scorer Michael Frolik tallied for Calgary. Mike Smith stopped 35 of 39 Flyers shots to earn the win.
Living legend Jaromir Jagr, a Flyer during the 2011-12 season, will play his 100th career game against Philadelphia on Monday night per HockeyReference.com. If he ultimately retires after this season, this could be his final game versus the Flyers. For his career, he has 47 goals and 120 points against Philly.
FLYERS OUTLOOK
Dragging a 10-game winless streak (0-5-5) into Monday's tilt, the Flyers are desperate for something positive off which to build. They are going into three tough buildings in a four-night span.
In some ways, the last game against Calgary was the one where the snowball really started to roll downhill fast during the phase of the winless streak in which winnable games kept slipping away. That game was the one where the penalty kill, which had been at 83.3 percent for the month, crashed and burned; an issue that carried over on virtually a game-after-game basis. It was also the second game in a row where the Flyers blew a multi-goal lead; another issue that would rear its ugly head again as the winless streak kept growing and growing.
The last three games -- an OT road loss in Pittsburgh and back-to-back home regulation losses to the San Jose Sharks and Boston Bruins -- saw an all-new unwelcomed issue arise. Until that point, the Flyers could at least take some encouragement from having yielded the fewest 5-on-5 goals in the NHL.
Over the last three games, however, the Flyers have hemorrhaged five-on-five goals, yielding seven of them: two against Pittsburgh (5-4 loss), two against San Jose (3-1 loss) and three against Boston (3-0 loss). On Saturday afternoon, the Boston Bruins parlayed a counterattacking breakaway, a Flyers' icing turned goal off the next faceoffs and another Flyers icing turned goal off a board battle in which the Flyers lost the battle and had four skaters caught on one side of the ice.
Even so, the 39 opposing five-on-five goals the Flyers have yielded for the season is still the fewest in the NHL. The next fewest are LA, Boston and San Jose at 41 apiece. This stat is meaningless, however, unless the Flyers pick up their recent play a variety of areas on both sides of the puck.
The Flyers have also been shut out six times this season; a ridiculously high number through 26 games. Too often, if the top line/ 1st power play unit doesn't carry the offense (or the defense chips in with a goal or two, which had been starting to happen in mid-Nov.), the Flyers simply don't score at all.
Jordan Weal, a healthy scratch against Boston and San Jose, returned to the Flyers' lineup on Saturday. He skated just 8:33 and was minus-two. With the Flyers trailing by three goals in the third period, Weal and Travis Konecny (four shots on goal, including a breakaway) were stapled to the bench for much of the period.
It remains to be seen which winger will be scratched on Monday among Taylor Leier (scratched each of the last three games), Weal, Dale Weise and Jori Lehterä.
Notably, the veteran line of Scott Laughton, Lehterä and Weise was the forward trio on the ice during the third Boston goal in which Philly had all three forwards caught along the defensive left side half wall in a lost 4-on-3 board battle. Someone needed to be over the middle. If a line is going to be deployed in the manner of an old-school defensive checking line, they cannot afford to have a breakdown like that one that ends up in the net and turns a still somewhat manageable deficit into a mountain to climb.
Veteran defenseman Radko Gudas will serve the eighth game of his 10-game NHL suspension for a slashing incident against Winnipeg Jets' forward Mathieu Perrault on Nov. 16.
FLAMES OUTLOOK
The Flames have been a better road team (7-4-1) than home (7-7-0) so far this season. The club has posted a 5-4-1 record overall in the last 10 games.
Calgary enters this game coming off a wild 7-5 home loss to arch-rival Edmonton on Saturday. The Flames trailed 6-1 in the third period and then rallied to get back within 6-5 before a late empty netter sealed the game for the Oilers.
Micheal Ferland tallied his 9th and 10th goals of the season in a losing cause on Saturday. The last time the Flames played the Flyers, it was Ferland who made a gorgeous lead pass to spring Gaudreau for a breakaway goal in the first period.
The Gaudreau goal was very much in line with what the Flyers need to contend with in Monday's game: Calgary is a club that relies heavily on its transition game.
The last time the Flyers played Calgary, Flames agitator Matthew Tkachuk (four goals, 16 points, 29 PIM) was serving a one-game NHL suspension. Flyers forward Konecny and Tkachuk had a non-stop chirping and behind-the-play slashing battle last season in a game in Philadelphia; a running rivalry that goes back to the 2015-16 Ontario Hockey League season when Tkachuk was with the London Knights and Konecny was with the Ottawa 67s and Sarnia Sting.
On the injury front, ex-Flyers forward Kris Versteeg is out IR after undergoing hip surgery.
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 - 11 Travis Konecny
20 Taylor Leier - 21 Scott Laughton - 22 Dale Weise
9 Ivan Provorov - 47 Andrew MacDonald
53 Shayne Gostisbehere - 8 Robert Hägg
6 Travis Sanheim - 23 Brandon Manning
37 Brian Elliott
[30 Michal Neuvirth]
Scratches: Jori Lehterä (healthy), Radko Gudas (NHL suspension, game 8 of 10), Mark Alt (healthy).
FLAMES
13 Johnny Gaudreau - 23 Sean Monahan - 79 Micheal Ferland
19 Matthew Tkachuk - 11 Mikael Backlund - 67 Michael Frolik
93 Sam Bennett - 77 Mark Jankowski - 68 Jaromir Jagr
21 Garnet Hathaway - 18 Matt Stajan - 36 Troy Brouwer
5 Mark Giordano - 27 Dougie Hamilton
7 T.J. Brodie - 24 Travis Hamonic
61 Brett Kulak - 26 Michael Stone
41 Mike Smith
[33 David Rittich]
Scratches: Curtis Lazar (healthy), Matt Bartkowski (healthy), Freddie Hamilton (healthy), Kris Versteeg (IR, hip surgery).
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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