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Flyers Gameday: 12/6/16 vs. FLA |
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PREVIEW: FLYERS VS. PANTHERS
Looking to build a six-game winning streak, Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers (14-10-3) play host to Tom Rowe's Florida Panthers (12-11-3) on Tuesday nght. Game time at the Wells Fargo Center is 7 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on CSN Philadelphia.
This is the second of three meetings of the season between the clubs. The season series concludes with a rubber match in Philadelphia on March 2.
On Nov. 22 in Sunrise, the Flyers skated to a 3-1 win. Wayne Simmonds, Dale Weise (power play, first goal as a Flyer) and Nick Cousins scored for the Flyers. Steve Mason made 38 saves and flirted with his first shutout of the season for 58:09 before Reilly Smith scored an otherwise meaningless goal to get Florida on the scoresheet. Roberto Luongo stopped 25 of 28 Flyers' shots.
Flyers Outlook
The Flyers bring a five-game winning streak into this tilt. They are coming off a pair of strong performances over the weekend, downing the Chicago Blackhawks, 3-1, at the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday afternoon and then gutting out a 4-2 road win over the Nashville Predators on Sunday evening.
In the win over Nashville, Simmonds bagged a pair of power play tallies, while Michael Raffl scored a nifty goal off the rush. Mason turned aside 30 of 32 shots, with many key saves in crunch time to preserve the win. Late in the game, Mason and the Flyers benefited from a crucial block by Ivan Provorov before Chris VandeVelde iced the game with an empty net goal
Mason, named the NHL's First Star of the Week, is likely to get the start against the Panthers. It will be his fifth start in an eight-night span.
Matt Read was lost for approximately four weeks after suffering an upper-body injury in the first period of Sunday's game on a check to his ribcage area as Read was twisting around the net. On Monday, the Flyers recalled speedy two-way wing prospect Taylor Leier from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. The club also reassigned Scott Laughton to the Phantoms.
Radko Gudas missed both games over the weekend due to illness. He could return to the Flyers' lineup for Tuesday's tilt.
Simmonds enters this game leading the Flyers with 24 points in 27 games, including a team-high 13 goals. He is followed by Jakub Voracek (eight goals, 15 assists), Claude Giroux (seven goals, 16 assists), Brayden Schenn (four goals, 12 assists in 24 games), Travis Konecny (four goals, 10 assists), Mark Streit (four goals, nine assists) and Shayne Gostisbehere (four goals, nine assists).
Panthers Outlook
Shockwaves were sent through the NHL on Nov. 28 when Rowe hastily fired 2015-16 Jack Adams Award finalist Gerard Gallant with the team off to an 11-10-1 start and appointed himself as the interim head coach. Since that time, the team has gone 1-1-2.
On paper at least, the Panthers could be a tired team heading into this tilt. Tuesday's game is the final match of a six-game road trip, the team's fourth game in six nights, third in four nights and the back end of a back-to-back set. The trip started with a 3-2 loss in Carolina in Gallant's final game behind the Florida bench.
On Monday night, the Panthers battled gamely enough to erase three separate one-goal deficits against the host Boston Bruins including a game-tying goal with 1:29 left in the third period to earn a point. In overtime, David Pastrnak's second goal of the game completed a 4-3 win for Boston.
In a losing cause, Jaromir Jagr scored his fifth goal of the 2016-17 season; the 754th goal and 1,881st point of his illustrious NHL career. He is seven points away from tying Mark Messier for second on the all-time NHL list. Jagr needs eight assists to tie Paul Coffey for fifth on the all-time list. Tuesday's game will be the 1,656th regular season appearance of Jagr's NHL career. He is fourth on the all-time games played list and cannot catch Ron Francis for third until next season.
Aleksander Barkov (fourth goal of the season) and Jason Demers (fourth) also scored for Florida in the Boston game. Roberto Luongo stopped 32 of 36 shots for Florida, with one OT save before Pastrnak's game-winner.
Offensive minded defenseman Keith Yandle went down with a lower-body injury in the Boston game. He is out indefinitely, and unavailable for this tilt.
Entering Tuesday's game, Jonathan Marchessault continues to lead the Panthers with 19 points (10 goals, nine assists) in 25 games. He is followed by Barkov (four goals, 12 assists in 26 games), Vincent Trocheck (six goals, eight assists), the 44-year-old Jagr (five goals, eight assists), defensemen Yandle (one goal, 11 assists) and Demers (four goals, six assists), and former Dallas Stars forward Colton Sceviour (five goals, four assists).
Another ex-Star, forward Reilly Smith, has just four goals and nine points to date after notching 25 goals and 50 points last season. However, he did score against the Flyers when Philly came to Florida on Thanksgiving week.
Young blueline standout Aaron Ekblad has eight points to date (six goals, two assists) but the 20-year-old defenseman is an uncharacteristic minus-10 at even strength. Thirty-seven-year-old goaltender Luongo brings a 9-7-2 record, 2.15 GAA and .926 save percentage into this game. Backup goalie James Reimer is 3-4-1 with a 3.05 GAA and .896 save percentage.
Marchessault missed Monday's game in Boston with a lower-body issues. Officially, he is day-to-day.
Key team stat comparisons (NHL overall ranking)
Non-shootout goals per game: Flyers 3.11 (4th), Panthers 2.35 (T-23rd)
Non-shootout goals against per game: Flyers 3.07 (27th), Panthers 2.50 (10th)
Power play efficiency: Flyers 23.7% (2nd), Panthers 13.2% (28th)
Penalty killing efficiency: Flyers 80.8% (T-20th), Panthers 85.0% (10th)
Shots on goal per game: Flyers 32.2 (4th), Panthers 30.3 (11th)
Shots against per game: Flyers 28.3 (7th), Panthers 29.5 (11th)
Faceoff percentage: Flyers 49.8% (15th), Panthers 48.6% (23rd)
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
58 Taylor Leier - 78 P-E Bellemare - 22 Dale Weise
76 Chris VandeVelde - 25 Nick Cousins - 13 Roman Lyubimov
9 Ivan Provorov - 47 Andrew MacDonald
15 Michael Del Zotto - 32 Mark Streit
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 (LTIR, upper body), Michal Neuvirth (IR, lower body), Matt Read (upper body), one of Radko Gudas (illness, could return to the lineup) or Andrew MacDonald (healthy).
PANTHERS
62 Denis Malgin - 16 Aleksander Barkov - 68 Jaromir Jagr
36 Jussi Jokinen - 21 Vincent Trocheck - 7 Colton Sceviour
92 Kyle Rau - 27 Nick Bjugstad - 18 Reilly Smith
15 Paul Thompson - 17 Derek MacKenzie - 22 Shawn Thornton
46 Jakub Kindl - 5 Aaron Ekblad
8 Dylan McIlrath - 55 Jason Demers
13 Mark Pysyk - 19 Michael Matheson
1 Roberto Luongo / 34 James Reimer
Scratches: Seth Griffith (healthy), Jonathan Marchessault (day-to-day, lower body), Keith Yandle (lower body), Jonathan Huberdeau (IR, torn Achilles tendon), Alex Petrovic (IR, ankle).
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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