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Flyers Gameday: 2/24/18 @ OTT |
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GAME 62 PREVIEW: FLYERS @ SENATORS
Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers (32-19-10) are in Canada's capital on Saturday afternoon to take on Guy Boucher's Ottawa Senators (21-29-10) at the Canadian Tire Centre. Game time is 2 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on NBCSNP+ and NHL Network.
Saturday's game is the third and final meeting of the season between the teams and the second in Ottawa. The Flyers are 0-1-1 in what has been a strange pair of games. They dropped a controversial 5-4 decision in Ottawa back on Oct. 26; a game that saw Philadelphia have two would-be goals in the third period disallowed. On Feb. 3 at the Wells Fargo Center, the Flyers rallied back from a 3-1 deficit in the third period to tie the game with 2.6 seconds left in regulation. Ottawa won a six-round shootout.
The Flyers enter Saturday's game one point behind the Washington Capitals for second place in the Metropolitan Division and two points (plus a ROW tiebreaker disadvantage) behind the Pittsburgh Penguins for the division lead. The upper-wildcard seeded New Jersey Devils are four points (plus a ROW disadvantage) in back of the Flyers.
The Penguins, who have played one more game to date than the Flyers, visit the Florida Panthers on Saturday. The Capitals host the Buffalo Sabres. The Devils host the New York Islanders.
Ottawa is in next-to-last place in the Eastern Conference. The team's games have received much less attention of late than trade rumors involving superstar defenseman Erik Karlsson and other players. On Friday, Ottawa made a complicated three-team trade with the Penguins and Vegas Golden Knights. From Pittsburgh, Ottawa received defenseman Ian Cole, goalie prospect Filip Gustavsson, its first-round pick in the 2018 draft, and its third-round pick in the 2019 NHL Draft. Cole is expected to be traded by Monday's trade deadline.
FLYERS OUTLOOK
The Flyers are 8-0-2 in their last 10 games and have won four in a row. Philadelphia brings a road record of 16-10-4 into Saturday's game.
Philly enters this game coming off a 2-1 home win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday afternoon. The Flyers entered the third period trailing, 1-0, but put the pedal to the metal to forge ahead and then did a good of slamming the door.
Leading the third period charge, Claude Giroux (21st goal of the season) and Nolan Patrick (power play, 8th of the season) scored in the final stanza. Sean Couturier (32nd assist), Shayne Gostisbehere (38th and 39th assists) and Giroux (51st assist) collected helpers.
Making his Flyers' debut, goaltender Petr Mrazek stepped up big when he needed to, especially in the second period. The Czech goalie stopped 19 of 20 shots overall, including 13 of 14 in the middle frame. The Flyers held the Blue Jackets to two shots in the first period and four in the third.
Travis Konecny, day-to-day with a foot injury sustained in the first period of Tuesday's game against Montreal, did not practice on Friday. Wayne Simmonds, sidelined 2-3 weeks from Feb. 18 with an upper-body injury, skated before the team's practice.
For the season, the Flyers have scored 2.98 goals per game (tied for 11th in the NHL) and have a team 2.79 GAA (tied for 14th). At five-on-five, the Flyers have scored 110 goals (23rd) and yielded 100 (tied for 4th fewest in the league).
On the power play, the Flyers rank 6th at 21.6 percent (44-for-204) but have yielded nine shorthanded goals yielded (tied for 2nd most in the NHL). On the penalty kill, the Flyers rank 28th (131-for-174, 76.3 percent). The Flyers have scored two shorthanded goals; one apiece for Scott Laughton and Simmonds.
SENATORS OUTLOOK
Saturday's game is a trap game for the Flyers, who cannot afford to do what they earlier this this month against Ottawa and in several recent games. Playing third period comeback hockey is not a good way to sustain success regardless of whether the team got the better of play overall despite entering the third period trailing.
The Senators have posted a 4-5-1 record over their last 10 games. The team has been much better at home (14-12-5) than on the road (7-17-5) this season. That said, morale is low in Ottawa and there are distractions galore ahead of the trade deadline.
Ottawa enters this game coming off a 4-3 home loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday as a third period rally from a 4-1 deficit fell one goal short. Ryan Dzingel (16th), Mark Borowiecki (3rd) and the since-traded Brassard (power play, 18th) scored for the Senators. Craig Anderson stopped 20 of 24 shots in a losing cause.
On Thursday, Karlsson had some fun with all the trade rumors. Pranking the media, he went to the Tampa dressing room to greet Lightning players as though he was their new teammate. It is considered a 50-50 proposition whether a blockbuster trade involving Karlsson goes down by Monday's NHL trade deadline. Even it doesn't happen now, few expect him to still be a Senator come next season.
On the injury front, Bobby Ryan has returned to the Senators lineup. He had an assist and five credited hits in the loss to Tampa. Overall, he has seven goals and 21 points in 40 games.
Mark Stone leads the Senators in scoring with 54 points (19 goals, 35 assists) and a plus-11 rating in 51 games. Karlsson leads the defense with 42 points (five goals, 37 assists) but is minus-29. Mike Hoffman, a one-time Flyers tryout player, has posted 16 goals and 39 points along with a minus-18. Matt Duchene has posted 12 goals and 28 points.
The Senators enters the game averaging 2.68 goals per game (25th) and with a team 3.42 GAA (30th); a bad combination befitting their record. At 5-on-5, they have scored 111 goals (20th) and allowed 137 (29th).
Ottawa clocks in 16.4 percent efficiency on the power play (30-for-183, 27th) with four shorthanded goals allowed. Ranked below even the Flyers, the Senators penalty kill enters at 75.0 percent (132-for-176, 27th) with four shorthanded goals scored.
PROJECTED LINEUPS
FLYERS
28 Claude Giroux - 14 Sean Couturier - 11 Travis Konecny
54 Oskar Lindblom- 19 Nolan Patrick - 93 Jakub Voracek
40 Jordan Weal - 21 Scott Laughton - 12 Michael Raffl
15 Jori Lehterä - 51 Valtteri Filppula - 22 Dale Weise
9 Ivan Provorov - 53 Shayne Gostisbehere
47 Andrew MacDonald -3 Robert Hägg
23 Brandon Manning - 3 Radko Gudas
34 Petr Mrazek
[49 Alex Lyon]
Scratches: 20 Taylor Leier, 39 Mark Alt (healthy), 37 Brian Elliott (IR, core muscle surgery), 30 Michal Neuvirth (lower body, out 4-6 weeks from Feb. 18), 17 Wayne Simmonds (upper-body, out 2-3 weeks from Feb. 18).
SENATORS
68 Mike Hoffman - 95 Matt Duchene - 9 Bobby Ryan
15 Zack Smith - 44 Jean-Gabriel Pageau - 61 Mark Stone
56 Magnus Pääjärvi - 89 Max McCormick - 10 Tom Pyatt
18 Ryan Dzingel - 23 Nick Shore - 12 Marian Gaborik
29 Johnny Oduya - 65 Erik Karlsson
74 Mark Borowiecki - 5 Cody Ceci
67 Ben Harpur - 72 Thomas Chabot
41 Craig Anderson / 1 Mike Condon
Scratches: 33 Fredrick Claesson (healthy), 6 Chris Wideman (IR, torn hamstring), 14 Alexandre Burrows (NHL suspension).
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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