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Flyers Gameday: 12/6/17 @ EDM |
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UPDATE 10:30 AM ET
The Philadelphia Flyers have placed defenseman Brandon Manning and goaltender Michal Neuvirth on Injured Reserve. In addition, the club has recalled defenseman TJ Brennan and goaltender Alex Lyon from their AHL affiliate, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
Brennan and Lyon will be available for tonight's game in Edmonton. Brennan will wear #43 and Lyon will wear #49. Lineups are updated at the end of the preview.
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GAME 28 PREVIEW: FLYERS @ OILERS
Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers (9-11-7) remain in Alberta, taking on Todd McLellan's Edmonton Oilers (11-14-2) on Wednesday night. Game time is 9:30 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 Edmonton. On Oct. 21 in Philadelphia, the Flyers gritted out a 2-1 win. Wayne Simmonds delivered the game-winning goal with 2:15 remaining in regulation. He also assisted on a Claude Giroux power play goal in the first period. Brian Elliott earned the win in goal, stopping 23 of 24 shots. The lone Edmonton goal was an unassisted tally by ex-Flyers farmhand Patrick Maroon.
With the score tied 1-1 midway through the third period, Edmonton pressed heavily on the attack during a power play. Andrew MacDonald was hobbled blocking a Milan Lucic slap shot just above the knee, but still got back to break up a play in front and eventually, after heavy Edmonton pressure, got a clear. After the game, he insisted that he felt OK but it turned out that he would miss the next month of action with the injury.
FLYERS OUTLOOK
The Flyers will look for back-to-back wins for just the second time this season. The team finally snapped a 10-game losing streak with a 5-2 win in Calgary on Monday. The game was the first segment of a 3-in-4 western Canada gauntlet that continues with Wednesday's game in Edmonton and Thursday's tilt in Vancouver.
Hakstol shook up the team's forward line combinations in Calgary. Most notably, he broke up the trio of Claude Giroux, Sean Couturier and Jakub Voracek for the first time this season. Voracek skated with Valtteri Filppula and Michael Raffl. Wayne Simmonds joined Giroux and Couturier. The Flyers also reinserted Taylor Leier into the lineup, scratching Jori Lehterä.
Scott Laughton (3rd and fourth goals of the season) tallied twice for the Flyers. Filppula (7th goal of the season), Raffl (3rd) and Simmonds (power play, 8th) scored one apiece. Jakub Voracek (24th, 25th and 26th assists) collected three helpers. MacDonald (2nd), Raffl (2nd), Couturier (power play assist, 13th), Jordan Weal (5th) and Leier (3rd) got one assist apiece.
Brian Elliott bounced back immediately from a bad rebound goal that gave Calgary a 1-0 lead late in the first period. Over the rest of the game, but especially in the second period, he stepped up big in stopping 43 of 45 shots.
After having dug such a deep hole for themselves with the 0-5-5 stretch and having seen several multi-goal leads evaporate in third periods, the club is very much taking a "win tonight and focus later on tomorrow" approach. Hakstol considerably shortened the bench in the third period in Calgary, even with a three-goal lead. He went with nine forwards and five defensemen for most of the period.
Nolan Patrick, guilty of turnovers in two straight games that led to counterattacking opposition goals, saw the ice only during a five-minute power play. Travis Konecny did not see the ice at all. Dale Weise, who briefly left the game after taking a high hit from Calgary's Travis Hamonic that set up the five-minute power play, was fine afterwards but did not skate another shift. Rookie defenseman Travis Sanheim skated a single 18-second shift early in the third period.
The Flyers are likely to stay the will the same line combinations as in Edmonton and the same approach to third period ice time (barring a blowout score) even with a third game in four nights upcoming on Thursday.
Just another visiting player in every other road building in the NHL, Flyers defenseman Brandon Manning will no doubt be booed every time he touches the puck in Edmonton. Manning was scratched from the lineup when the Flyers played the Oilers in Philadelphia back in October. While he will not back down from another confrontation with Connor McDavid (or a proxy), Manning has repeatedly said he has no interest in dwelling any further on their previous encounters.
Veteran defenseman Radko Gudas will serve the ninth game of his 10-game NHL suspension for a slashing incident against Winnipeg Jets' forward Mathieu Perrault on Nov. 16.
OILERS OUTLOOK
The Oilers, just 5-8-0 on home ice to date, have played .500 hockey overall (5-5-0) over the last 10 games but have won three of their last four games.
Edmonton prevailed on the road against arch-rival Calgary on Saturday night, winning by a 7-5 count but survived a third-period scare. The Oilers built a seemingly insurmountable 6-1 lead in the third period but saw the advantage whittled all the way down to 6-5 before Ryan Nugent-Hopkins provided breathing room with 1:02 left. Jesse Puljujärvi (3rd and 4th goals of the season), Jujhar Khaira (3rd), Mark Letestu (shorthanded, 6th), Lucic (5th), Maroon (8th) and Nugent-Hopkins (10th) tallied for the Oilers.
Reigning Hart Trophy and Art Ross Trophy winner McDavid had one assist in the Calgary game and went just 5-for-18 in the faceoff circle. For the season, he leads the Oilers with 32 points (11 goals, 21 assists) in 27 games including three power play goals and four assists. McDavid has been under the weather in recent days but is expected to play.
Oilers goalie Cam Talbot (10-10-1, 3.00 GAA, .903 save percentage, one shutout) is on injured reserve with an upper body injury. The expected starter in goal on Wednesday is Laurent Brossoit (1-4-1, 3.80 GAA, .872 SV%).
Top pairing defenseman Adam Larsson is questionable for Wednesday's game. Still on injured reserve as of Tuesday, he is close to returning from an upper-body injury.
Up front, the Oilers are a healthier team than they were when they came to Philadelphia. Young standout center Leon Draisaitl (seven goals, 19 points in 23 games) was sidelined with a concussion at the time. Former North Dakota forward Drake Caggiula (four goals, seven points in 19 games) also missed the previous game against the Flyers.
Oilers defenseman Kris Russell was glad to see the team's December schedule get underway. His November ended with him accidentally firing the game winning goal -- for the Toronto Maple Leafs -- into his own net from the bottom the circle as he tried to clear a blocker-save rebound of a Patrick Marleau shot. The fluke goal broke a 4-4 tie with 1:55 left in the third period. It had been Russell who had knotted the game for Edmonton earlier in the third period. The Leafs won, 6-4.
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 - 39 Mark Alt
37 Brian Elliott
[49 Alex Lyon]
Scratches: Jori Lehterä (healthy), Radko Gudas (NHL suspension, game 9 of 10), T.J. Brennan (healthy), Brandon Manning (IR), Michal Neuvirth (IR).
OILERS
27 Milan Lucic - 97 Connor McDavid - 98 Jesse Puljujarvi
19 Patrick Maroon -- 93 Ryan Nugent-Hopkins - 13 Mike Cammalleri
91 Drake Caggiula - 29 Leon Draisaitl - 18 Ryan Strome
16 Jujhar Khaira - 55 Mark Letestu - 44 Zack Kassian
77 Oscar Klefbom - 83 Matt Benning
25 Darnell Nurse - 4 Kris Russell
81 Yohann Auvitu - 62 Eric Gryba
1 Laurent Brossoit
[34 Nick Ellis]
Injuries:Adam Larsson (questionable, on IR with upper body injury), Brandon Davidson (healthy), Nathan Walker (healthy), Anton Slepyshev (healthy), Cam Talbot (IR, upper body),
Andrej Sekera (IR, ACL surgery).
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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