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Flyers Gameday: 1/7/17 vs. TB

January 7, 2017, 8:53 AM ET [470 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
PREVIEW: FLYERS VS. LIGHTNING

Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers (20-15-5) play host to Jon Cooper's Tampa Bay Lightning (19-17-4) in a Saturday matinee. The game will be televised on CSN Philadelphia. Game time is 1:00 p.m. ET.

This is the third and final meeting of the season between the teams, and the second in Philadelphia. On Nov. 19 at the Wells Fargo Center, Andrei Vasilevskiy notched a 32-save shutout in a 3-0 Bolts victory. Four nights later at the Amalie Arena, Tampa skated to a 4-2 win.

Flyers Outlook

Saturday's game marks the statistical midpoint of the season for Philadelphia. Following a 10-game winning streak, the Flyers have posted a 1-5-2 record over the last eight tilts and bring a five-game winless streak (0-4-1) into this tilt. The Flyers have a losing record on the road (8-9-2) and a winning record (12-6-3) on home ice this season but are coming off a discouraging 5-2 loss to the New York Rangers at the Wells Fargo Center on Wednesday.

The Flyers played a decent game through the first 40 minutes but could not solve Henrik Lundqvist, who authored multiple brilliant saves in a couple of Philly flurries and made 20 saves over the first two periods. The wheels fell off for the Flyers in the third period.

Philadelphia allowed seven odd-man rushes over the course of the game and Steve Mason allowed two stoppable shots on odd-mans to leak past him for a 2-0 New York lead. Thereafter, the Flyers stopped competing for awhile and then took some low-percentage risks that worsened their situation. A pair of late goals by Jakub Voracek, one on the power play and one at even strength, made little difference except to get the Flyers onto the scoreboard.

The Flyers returned to practice at the Skate Zone on Friday. Dave Hakstol made large-scale changes to the lineup, with changes on all four forward lines and one defense pairing. Based on practice combos, it appears that Dale Weise and Brandon Manning will be healthy scratches.

Roman Lyubimov will likely return to the lineup. The Russian winger was assigned to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms as an on-paper move on Wednesday after defenseman Mark Alt received medical clearance following a three-month rehab from a preseason injury. Veteran defensive defenseman Nick Schultz also appears to be back in the lineup for Saturday.

Absent for 22 games due to a knee injury, goaltender Michal Neuvirth backed up Mason in Wednesday's match. The two will likely split the starts in the Flyers' back-to-back weekend set, with Neuvirth starting against Tampa Bay and Mason getting Sunday's road tilt against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

To get salary cap compliant after Neuvirth was activated from injured reserve on Tuesday, the Flyers temporarily transferred Mark Streit (who is close to being ready to return to the lineup from a shoulder injury) to the long-term injured reserve list. Streit will travel with the team to Columbus. When he is cleared to play, the Flyers will need to make another roster move.

Voracek leads the Flyers with 37 points (13 goals, 24 assists) in 40 games. Claude Giroux is second on the team with 33 points (10 goals, 23 assists), while Wayne Simmonds paces the club with 17 goals and eight power play tallies among his 32 points.

Brayden Schenn is fourth on the Flyers' scoring leaderboard with 25 points (11 goals, 14 assists) in 37 games. He's followed by rookie Travis Konecny (five goals, 14 assists), Shayne Gostisbehere (four goals, 15 assists, minus-11) and the injured Streit (five goals, 11 assists). Rookie defenseman Ivan Provorov has 16 points (three goals, 13 assists) while dressing in all 40 games. The 19-year-old leads the Flyers in ice time.

Lightning Outlook

Things have not gone very well for Tampa Bay of late, either. The team, three points behind the Flyers for the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference and two points in back of Boston, has posted a so-so 4-4-2 record over the last 10 games. More concerning, the Bolts enter this game have dropped back-to-back games on home ice by a combined score of 12-5 (6-4 to Winnipeg and 6-1 to the Nashville Predators).

In Thursday's debacle against the Preds, the Tampa deficit was a manageable 1-0 after the first period and 2-1 midway through the game. Thereafter, the Lightning fell apart. Vasilevskiy, who has been nearly unbeatable in his two outings against the Flyers this year, got strafed for five goals on 18 shots before Nashville tacked on an empty net goal. He stopped 28 of 33 shots -- one of the goals against was a penalty shot conversion by Nikolaj Ehlers -- in the Jets game.

Superstar center Steven Stamkos remains on long-term injured reserve after undergoing knee surgery in November. He is off crutches now and has begun light workouts but is still quite a way from being able to play. Goalie Ben Bishop (lower body) is also sidelined, along with Brian Boyle (lower body) and Brayden Point (upper body).

Despite having missed seven games, Nikita Kucherov leads Tampa in scoring with 38 points (15 goals, 23 assists) in 33 games. He is followed by defenseman Victor Hedman (seven goals, 29 assists), Tyler Johnson (12 goals, 12 assists), Valtteri Filppula (six goals, 18 assists), Jonathan Drouin (11 goals, 12 assists) and Alex Killorn (12 goals, nine assists). In 19 starts and 21 overall appearances, Vasilevskiy has posted a 10-7-2 record, 2.75 GAA, .908 save percentage and a pair of shutouts.

Key team stat comparisons (NHL overall ranking)

Non-shootout goals per game: Flyers 2.85 (8th), Lightning 2.80 (11th)
Non-shootout goals against per game: Flyers 3.03 (27th), Lightning 2.88 (22nd)
Power play efficiency: Flyers 22.0% (7th), Lightning 23.8% (2nd)
Penalty killing efficiency: Flyers 81.0% (19th), Lightning 79.4% (24th)
Shots on goal per game: Flyers 31.4 (6th), Lightning 30.0 (T-15th)
Shots against per game: Flyers 28.8 (8th), Lightning 29.9 (T-12th)
Faceoff percentage: Flyers 50.9% (10th), Lightning 48.9% (T-18th)


Projected Lineups (subject to change)

FLYERS

12 Michael Raffl - 28 Claude Giroux - 24 Matt Read
11 Travis Konecny - 14 Sean Couturier - 93 Jakub Voracek
22 Dale Weise - 10 Brayden Schenn - 17 Wayne Simmonds
76 Chris VandeVelde - 78 P-E Bellemare - 27 Boyd Gordon

9 Ivan Provorov - 47 Andrew MacDonald
15 Michael Del Zotto- 3 Radko Gudas
53 Shayne Gostisbehere - 55 Nick Schultz

30 Michal Neuvirth
[35 Steve Mason]

Scratches: Mark Streit (LTIR, shoulder), Brandon Manning (healthy), Roman Lyubimov (healthy), Nick Cousins (healthy).


LIGHTNING

18 Ondrej Palat - 9 Tyler Johnson - 86 Nikita Kucherov
90 Vladislav Namestnikov - 51 Valtteri Filppula - 27 Jonathan Drouin
17 Alex Killorn - 63 Matthew Peca - 24 Ryan Callahan
73 Adam Erne - 13 Cedric Paquette - 23 J.T. Brown

77 Victor Hedman - 6 Anton Strålman
29 Slater Koekkoek - 5 Jason Garrison
55 Braydon Coburn - 62 Andrej Sustr

88 Andrei Vasilevskiy
[32 Adam Wilcox]

Scratches: Nikita Nesterov (healthy), Luke Witkowski (healthy), Steven Stamkos (LTIR, knee), Ben Bishop (IR, lower body), Brian Boyle (IR, lower body), Brayden Point (IR, upper body).
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