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Flyers Gameday: 2/11/18 @ VGN; Flyers-Coyotes Recap

February 11, 2018, 10:27 AM ET [375 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
GAME 56 PREVIEW: FLYERS @ GOLDEN KNIGHTS

Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers (27-19-9) are in Nevada on Sunday night to take on Gerard Gallant's Vegas Golden Knights (36-14-4) at T-Mobile Arena on the Las Vegas strip. Game time is 8:00 p.m. ET. The game will be locally televised on NBCSNP.

This is the first-ever meeting between the inter-conference teams, and the lone game in Vegas this season. The teams will rematch in Philadelphia on March 12.

FLYERS OUTLOOK

The Flyers have won three straight games and are 6-3-1 in their last 10 overall. The club has improved significantly on the road this season, and brings a 13-10-4 away record into this game. Entering Sunday's game, the Flyers are in third place in the Metropolitan Division but it is simultaneously a very precarious hold and a great opportunity to move up even further.

On the one hand, a Flyers win in Vegas paired with a Pittsburgh Penguins regulation loss on Sunday in their road game against the St. Louis Blues would move Philly into second place in the Metro. On the flip side, a New Jersey Devils home win against the Boston Bruins on Sunday paired with a Flyers loss to the Golden Knights would knock the Flyers back down into the upper wildcard.

The Flyers, who are playing for the third time in four nights with a lot of travel involved, are going to have to dig deep to author a win in Vegas. The Golden Knights, who have been astoundingly dominant on home ice, have had two days of preparation and two nights of rest while awaiting the Flyers' arrival.

Philly got its first shootout win of the 2017-18 season (in five tries) on Saturday evening, in a bizarre road tilt against the Arizona Coyotes. Contained within the 4-3 final score was a game that Philly just as easily could have won in a blowout (largely due to all of the odd-man rushes generated, including a 2-on-0 that did not even result in a shot on goal) or have been blown out themselves (due to egregious turnovers, bad rebounds left out in the slot, and players making low-percentage long-range passes repeatedly).

Claude Giroux (power play, 17th goal of the season), Michael Raffl (10th) and Wayne Simmonds (power play, 19th) scored for the Flyers in regulation. Jakub Voracek (NHL leading 53rd assist), Shayne Gostisbehere (31st and 32nd assists), Scott Laughton (8th assist), Jordan Weal (9th assist) and Sean Couturier (27th assist) collected regulation assists.

After trailing early 1-0, the Flyers responded for back-to-back goals to take a 2-1 lead to the first intermission. That advantage was promptly coughed up on the first shift of the second period only for Simmonds' deflection power play goal to restore the lead. An early third period breakdown with the error-prone duo of Radko Gudas and Brandon Manning on the ice resulted in the Coyotes re-tying the game. Philly went on to dominate the third stanza but could not forge back ahead again.

Arizona was the better team in OT, at one point controlling the puck for two-plus minutes although the Philadelphia man-to-man coverage was good enough to prevent any grade-A scoring chances.

In the shootout, the Flyers were in dire straights. After ex-Flyer Nick Cousins converted the first attempt and Weal failed on his, Flyers goaltender Brian Elliott (24 saves on 27 shots, 1-for-2 in the shootout) suffered a lower-body injury on Clayton Keller's attempt in round 2. Elliott had to leave the game, and Michal Neuvirth had to come in without the benefit of a warmup. Travis Konecny failed to score in the bottom of the second round.

Neuvirth, who went on to make five straight stops, was aided by Brendan Perlini flubbing the shot on his round 3 attempt. Down to the Flyers final attempt, Voracek fired home a rising wrister from the bottom of the right circle to prolong the skills competition.

The shootout then settled into a pattern reminiscent of the one that ended in a six-round loss to the Senators last Sunday. Neuvirth stoned one shooter after another but the Flyers' shooters remained unable to score to win the game. Neuvirth denied Derek Stepan, Tobias Reider, and unlikely shooter Niklas Hjalmarsson while none among Giroux, Couturier (now 1-for-19 in career shootout attempts) or Raffl could solve Antti Raanta. Neuvirth then stopped the speedy Max Domi.

Finally, Nolan Patrick, who had been knocking on the door offensively and playing a strong all-around game, was tabbed for the bottom of the seventh round. He delivered. Patrick beat Raanta to get the win for Philly.

Elliott, who recently came off the injured reserve list for a lower-body injury, will be re-evaluated after the Flyers return to Philadelphia. The team has recalled Alex Lyon, who is being hurried to Las Vegas to back up Neuvirth. Neither Neuvirth nor Lyon fared well at all during the team's four-game winless streak (0-3-1) that preceded the current three-game win streak.

For the season, the Flyers have scored 2.91 goals per game (tied for 13th in the NHL) and have a team 2.85 GAA (16th). At five-on-five, the Flyers have scored 95 goals (23rd) and yielded 88 (tied for 4th-fewest in the league).

On the power play, the Flyers rank 7th at 21.7 percent (41-for-189) but have yielded nine shorthanded goals yielded (tied with the Islanders for the most in the NHL). On the penalty kill, the Flyers rank 29th (125-for-168, 74.4 percent). The Flyers have scored two shorthanded goals; one apiece for Scott Laughton and Wayne Simmonds.

GOLDEN KNIGHTS OUTLOOK

Sitting atop the Western Conference in their inaugural NHL season and boasting a gaudy 19-3-2 record on home ice, the Golden Knights have points in seven of their last 10 (6-3-1).

What has made the first year team, which does not have a spectacular roster on paper but has been way more than the sum of its parts, so good? First of all, the Golden Knights rarely beat themselves. They are dogged in their puck support and have been very opportunistic in making opponents pay for mistakes. The Golden Knights have surprising depth and skill, good team speed, a tireless work ethic, a serviceable blueline and have gotten strong goaltending.

If the Flyers play in Vegas the way they played for too much of the second period and segments of the first period in Arizona, the Golden Knights will likely pick them apart. The team's home record is not a matter of good luck.

The Golden Knights have nine players who have posted at least 25 points to date this season. Different players step up on different evenings, and there are four players who have already surpassed the 20-goal mark on the season.

A 30-goal scorer last season with the Florida Panthers, Jonathan Marchessault leads Vegas with 54 points (20 goals, 34 assists) in 51 games played this season. He's followed by veteran David Perron (13 goals, team-high 36 assists, 49 points), former Columbus forward William Karlsson (who has racked up 29 goals and 47 points after not having reached double-digit goals or more than 25 points in his prior NHL seasons), two-way forward Reilly Smith (16 goals, 45 points), veteran Erik Haula (21 goals, 40 points) and veteran All-Star representative and longtime Flyers nemesis James Neal (24 goals, 37 points).

Selected from the Flyers in the NHL Expansion Draft, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare is an alternate captain for the Golden Knights and plays the same energy role and penalty killing duties he was assigned during his years in Philadelphia. Bellemare has chipped in five goals and 11 points.

Longtime Pittsburgh fixture Marc-Andre Fleury has made an excellent return from an early season injury. Overall, he's made 23 starts, posting a 16-5-2 record, 2.03 GAA, .934 save percentage and two shutouts.

Entering Sunday's game, the Golden Knights have scored an average 3.41 goals per game (2nd in the NHL), and have a team 2.70 GAA (8th). The club has scored 120 goals at 5-on-5 (4th in the NHL) and has yielded 103 (15th).

On the power play, Vegas ranks 12th at 21.1 percent success (36-for-171) and has yielded three opposing shorthanded goals. The Golden Knights' penalty kill ranks 11th at 82.0 percent (132-for-161) and they've scored four shorthanded goals, including two by Karlsson.

PROJECTED LINEUPS

FLYERS

28 Claude Giroux - 14 Sean Couturier - 11 Travis Konecny
93 Jakub Voracek - 19 Nolan Patrick - 17 Wayne Simmonds
40 Jordan Weal - 21 Scott Laughton - 12 Michael Raffl
22 Dale Weise - 51 Valtteri Filppula - 15 Jori Lehterä

9 Ivan Provorov - 53 Shayne Gostisbehere
47 Andrew MacDonald -3 Robert Hägg
23 Brandon Manning - 3 Radko Gudas

30 Michal Neuvirth
[49 Alex Lyon]

Scratches: 20 Taylor Leier or 22 Dale Weise (healthy), 39 Mark Alt (healthy), 37 Brian Elliott (lower body injury).

GOLDEN KNIGHTS

19 Reilly Smith - 71 William Karlsson - 81 Jonathan Marchessault
57 David Perron - 56 Erik Haula - 18 James Neal
13 Brendan Leipsic - 21 Cody Eakin - 24 Oscar Lindberg ​
40 Ryan Carpenter - 41 Pierre-Édouard Bellemare - 89 Alex Tuch

3 Brayden McNabb - 88 Nate Schmidt
5 Deryk Engelland - 27 Shea Theodore
6 Colin Miller - 77 Brad Hunt ​

29 Marc-Andre Fleury
[33 Max Lagace]​

Scratches: 4 Clayton Stoner (IR, abdominal surgery), 15 Jon Merrill (IR, lower body), 28 William Carrier (IR, upper body), 30 Malcolm Subban (IR, upper body), 47 Malcolm Subban (IR, upper body), 47 Luca Sbisa (IR, broken finger), 92 Tomas Nosek (IR, upper body).
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