PREVIEW: FLYERS @ BLUE JACKETS

Beginning the statistical second half of their 2016-17 schedule, Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers (21-15-5) are on the road on Sunday to take on John Tortorella's Columbus Blue Jackets (27-7-4). The game will be televised on TCN Philadelphia. Game time at Nationwide Arena is 6:00 p.m. ET.

This is the first of four meetings this season between the Metro Division teams, and the first of two in Columbus. The teams will not see each other again until the stretch drive and then play each other three times within a month: March 13 in Philadelphia, March 25 in Columbus and April 8 in Philly. Last season, the Flyers went 1-1-2 against Columbus.

Historically, even when the Blue Jackets were near the bottom of the standings and riddled with injuries, it has been a club that has given the Flyers problems. All-time, the Flyers are just 10-12-3 against the Blue Jackets including an abysmal two wins in 12 tries (2-8-2) in Columbus compared to an 8-4-1 record when the games have been at the Wells Fargo Center.

Both teams are playing the second half of back-to-back games. However, Columbus is playing for the third time in four nights and the fourth in six, while the Flyers had a complete days off on Monday and Thursday and are playing for just the third time in seven nights.

Flyers Outlook

Following a 10-game winning streak, the Flyers have posted a 2-5-2 record over the last nine tilts. Philly has a losing record on the road (8-9-2) and a winning record (13-6-3) on home ice this season, which is why the team is on pace for 94 points. A better road record in the second half of the season is imperative.

The Metro Division is the toughest one in the NHL. The Flyers would be in second place in the Atlantic Division at their season midpoint. As a member of the Metro, however, just about the only thing the Flyers can focus on early in the second half is to remain the front-runner for the second and final wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference.

There's a big chasm in the standing between the Flyers and all of the teams ahead of them in the Metro. The Flyers' swoon in the eight games following their 10-game winning streak did major damage to their quest to play with any sort of safety net in the playoff race in the second half.

On Saturday, however, the Flyers put forth a solid all-around performance in a 4-2 home win over the Tampa Bay Lightning -- another recently struggling club -- and brought a five-game winless streak to an end.

After yielding an early 2-on-1 rush that put the Flyers in a quick 1-0 hole on Tampa's second shot of the game, Philly settled in and was the better team for most of the game.

A four-goal explosion in the second period put the Flyers in the driver's seat. Travis Konecny took a pass from Jakub Voracek and went bar down to tie the game. Sean Couturier potted an Ivan Provorov rebound as Voracek picked up his second helper. Michael Raffl ripped home a one-timer. After Tampa turned a fortunate bounce off a blocked shot into their second goal, the Flyers got it right back on a Radko Gudas wraparound that bounced in Tampa defenseman Anton Strålman.

Tampa generated a bit of a push in the opening couple minutes of the third period but, after an emphatic Flyers penalty kill took momentum away from the Bolts, the Flyers slammed the door the rest of the way.

Making his return to the Flyers' net after 22 games on injured reserve and backing up Steve Mason in Wednesday's game against New York, Michal Neuvirth turned in an encouraging outing against Tampa. He had no chance of stopping either Tampa goal -- even making a good initial save on Alex Killorn on a second-effort goal for Tampa -- and made vital stops on a semi-breakaway and off a dangerous turnover.

Two Flyers defensemen, Gudas and Nick Schultz, were chosen among the three stars of the game. Schultz received second star honors based on a single shift as he went off on a rare breakaway, got denied by goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy but kept the play alive. Schultz, however, only played 12:23 (lowest among the Flyers' defensemen).

Provorov had a monster game on the Flyers' blueline. He stopped rushes cold. He zipped tape-to-tape passes to teammates. He made aggressive but intelligent pinches in the offensive zone. He gave Vasilevskiy all sorts of problems fighting off his wrist shots, one of which hit the post and another of which rebounded to Couturier for a goal. To top off his 23:06 of ice time, the Russian rookie blocked a half dozen Tampa shot attempts. Although not selected among the three stars, he was worthy of at least second-star honors on this afternoon.

On a less positive note, struggling second-year defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere enters the second half of the season in a deep funk. He seems to be pressing and overthinking the game, frequently winding up on the wrong side of the puck. On Saturday, with the Flyers playing from ahead over the latter 30 minutes and receiving just two power plays for the game (0-for-2), Gostisbehere played just 13:33 on the heels of a very rough game against the Rangers.

Roman Lyubimov, who was unable to practice with the Flyers on Friday while awaiting Mark Alt's AHL assignment and his own recall, sat out Saturday as a healthy scratch. Brandon Manning and Nick Cousins (both of whom seem to be in Hakstol's doghouse of late) were the other scratches.

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 but may still need a few more days until he is ready for medical clearance. When he is cleared to play, the Flyers will need to make another roster move.

Voracek leads the Flyers with 39 points (13 goals, 26 assists) at the midway point but is minus-nine at even strength and due to the Flyers' league-worst seven shorthanded goals allowed. Claude Giroux is second on the team with 34 points (10 goals, 24 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 26 points (11 goals, 15 assists) in 38 games. He's followed by rookie Konecny (six goals, 14 assists), Gostisbehere (four goals, 15 assists, minus-12). Rookie defenseman Ivan Provorov has 17 points (three goals, 14 assists) while dressing in all 41 games. The 19-year-old leads the Flyers in ice time.

Steve Mason had a roller coaster first half of the season in goal for the Flyers; probably the streakiest play of the Philadelphia portion of his career, even apart from the often lackluster defense played in front of him. He brings a 14-13-5 record, 2.82 GAA, .903 save percentage and zero shutouts into the second half. Despite what his critics say, Mason has proven himself capable over his Flyers career at playing at a high level for prolonged stretches, including when he carries a heavy minutes played workload. With the recently lighter Flyers schedule, Mason should have a chance to regroup and reset for a more consistent second half if the team in front of him does its part, too.

Neuvirth struggled prior to his knee injury, and perhaps the long absence is almost like a fresh start for him as well. He was solid and fluid against the Lightning, with only one fat rebound (the followup missed the net) and the angles well covered. For the season to date, Neuvirth has a 5-2-0 record in nine starts and one relief appearance with a still-bloated 3.35 GAA and .867 save percentage.

Something that has torpedoed the save percentages of the Flyers' two primary goaltenders -- Anthony Stolarz played in too small of a sample size of games -- is that while the Flyers are actually one of the better teams in the NHL in terms of total shots allowed, they have been prone to horrific breakdowns that make life tough on their goalies. If two or three pucks go in out of a low total number of shots, the save percentage looks terrible. Add in one or two the goalie initially had a chance to stop and a night like Wedesday's debacle against the Rangers ensues.

Really, it is situational saves that matter more than GAA or even save percentage. A goalie can't control his goal support and he can only erase so many mistakes in front of him but he has to come up with the stoppable ones, especially at crucial junctures. Neither Flyers goalie has done that consistently enough apart from Mason during most of the 10-game winning streak.

Blue Jackets Outlook

The Blue Jackets have earned the best record in the NHL thus far, and bring a 15-4-1 home record into this match to go along with a 12-3-3 road record. This does not happen by accident nor does a team luck its way into a 16-game winning streak.

With that said, the Blue Jackets have been able to take full advantage of having arguably the NHL's most relaxed schedule in terms of pacing. They've still only played 38 games on the season despite the pace starting to pick up considerably of late. A big challenge moving forward, such as at the end of their current b2b, 3-in-4, 4-in-6 gauntlet will be to sustain the sort of energy now that teams such as the Flyers are the ones with more rest and prep time after they were the ones who could hardly come up for air leading up to the holiday break.

The Flyers' 10-game winning streak and struggles after the break are a testament to the fact that schedule pacing is NOT in and of itself what determines success or lack thereof. Nevertheless, it can be a factor in a team's energy level. Columbus has gotten to where it is by being relentless around the puck, giving Sergei Bobrovsky a fair chance to make saves and Bobrovsky, in turn, erasing mistakes when do they happen.

Now that the Blue Jackets' 16-game winning streak is over and the club has dropped back-to-back games in regulation, they are facing their first bit of adversity in quite awhile. On Saturday, the Blue Jackets built a commanding 4-1 lead over the New York Rangers and took a 4-2 lead into the third period only to leave their home building with a 5-4 regulation loss.

Thus, Sunday's game becomes a bit of a statement match for Columbus. Another loss could let a bit of negativity and lowered energy enter the picture for the team, whereas a win (even a less-than-perfect one) would help right the ship quickly.

Another reason why Columbus has been racking up the wins. It is a good five-on-five club that has been stingy in what yields to the opposition and, simultaneously, has been lights out when the Blue Jackets get on the man advantage. For a team to have a 27.2 percent success rate on the power play this deep into this season -- far and away, the NHL's top power play -- gives Columbus a formidable variety of ways to win games.

Cam Atkinson leads the Blue Jackets in scoring with 39 points (19 goals, 20 assists) in 38 games. He is followed by Nick Foligno (13 goals, 21 assists), the fast-emerging Alexander Wennberg (eight goals, 26 assists), Brandon Saad (14 goals, 19 assists), ex-Flyer forward Sam Gagner (14 goals, 16 points), dynamic young defenseman Zach Werenski (six goals, 19 assists, 21:11 of ice time per game), longtime Flyers left winger Scott Hartnell (10 goals, 14 assists) and defenseman Seth Jones (seven goals, 10 assists, 17 points).

Both Hartnell and Gagner at present are essentially bottom-six players for Tortorella's team at 5-on-5. Fourteen of Gagner's 30 points (six goals, eight assists) have come on the power play. Hartnell has actually produced 22 of his 24 points in non-power play situations.

Former Flyers netminder Bobrovsky dealt with recurrent groin issues and some inconsistency in his play for a couple years following his Vezina Trophy season, but is healthy and back at the top of his game now. He brings a 25-6-2 record, 2.03 GAA, .930 save percentage and three shutouts in this game. Veteran backup Curtis McElhinney has appeared in seven games, posting a 2-1-2 record, 2.39 GAA and .924 save percentage.

Key team stat comparisons (NHL overall ranking)

Non-shootout goals per game: Flyers 2.88 (7th), Blue Jackets 3.37 (3rd)
Non-shootout goals against per game: Flyers 3.00 (T-26th), Blue Jackets 2.18 (3rd)
Power play efficiency: Flyers 21.7% (9th), Blue Jackets 27.2% (1st)
Penalty killing efficiency: Flyers 81.3% (T-18th), Blue Jackets 81.7% (15th)
Shots on goal per game: Flyers 31.4 (6th), Blue Jackets 30.4 (11th)
Shots against per game: Flyers 28.7 (8th), Blue Jackets 29.9 (11th)
Faceoff percentage: Flyers 51.1% (T-8th), Blue Jackets 47.7% (29th)

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 - 13 Roman Lyubimov

9 Ivan Provorov - 47 Andrew MacDonald
15 Michael Del Zotto- 3 Radko Gudas
53 Shayne Gostisbehere - 23 Brandon Manning

35 Steve Mason
[30 Michal Neuvirth]

Scratches: Mark Streit (LTIR, shoulder), Nick Schultz (healthy), Boyd Gordon (healthy), Nick Cousins (healthy).

BLUE JACKETS

20 Brandon Saad - 10 Alexander Wennberg - 71 Nick Foligno
38 Boone Jenner - 17 Brandon Dubinsky - 13 Cam Atkinson
11 Matt Calvert - 25 William Karlsson - 34 Josh Anderson
43 Scott Hartnell - 45 Lukas Sedlac - 89 Sam Gagner

8 Zach Werenski - 3 Seth Jones
7 Jack Johnson - 58 David Savard
27 Ryan Murray - 65 Markus Nutivaara

72 Sergei Bobrovsky
[30 Curtis McElhinney]

Scratches: David Clarkson (IR, back), Markus Hannikainen (healthy), Dalton Prout (healthy), Scott Harrington (healthy).

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