UPDATE 11:00 AM
Per Flyers general manager Ron Hextall, defenseman Robert Hägg is out two weeks with a lower-body injury. Veteran defenseman Johnny Oduya is day-to-day with a lower-body injury. Travis Sanheim will be in the Flyers' starting lineup.
GAME 69 PREVIEW: FLYERS VS. JETS
Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers (34-23-11) host Paul Maurice's Winnipeg Jets (41-17-9) at the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday afternoon. Game time is 1:00 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on NBCSNP.
This is the second and final meeting between the interconference teams, and the lone game in Philadelphia. On Nov. 16 in Winnipeg, the Flyers built a 2-0 lead but were unable to build on or protect their advantage later in the game. The Flyers settled for one point from a 3-2 shootout loss. The game was also notable for the ejection and subsequent 10-game suspension of Flyers defenseman Radko Gudas, stemming from a first-period slashing incident involving Winnipeg forward Mathieu Perrault.
The Flyers will remain in third place in the Metropolitan Division after this game regardless of the outcome. The fourth-place Columbus Blue Jackets are idle on Saturday after closing to within two points (Flyers also hold a 32-30 ROW tiebreaker advantage and a game in hand) with a 3-2 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Friday. The fifth-place New Jersey Devils, three points plus a 32-30 ROW tiebreaker disadvantage behind the Flyers, begin a diabolical seven-game stretch on Saturday with a road game in Nashville.
FLYERS OUTLOOK
After blasting through the month of February with points in 12 straight games and a 10-1-2 record overall, the Flyers have opened a very difficult March schedule by going winless (0-4-1) in their first five games. Each of the last three losses have come in regulation.
On Thursday at TD Garden, Boston Bruins goals at 19:34 of the first period and 19:38 of the third period sent the Flyers down to defeat. Playing the second half of a brutally tough back-to-back set, Philly played well for two-plus periods. They seemed to tire in the third period. The Flyers more or less looked like they were hanging on to get the match to overtime, but didn't quite get it there. Over the last three games, Philly has given up three goals in last minute of a period, and a total of six within roughly the final 90 seconds of a period.
The Flyers had a very brief optional practice on Friday. The challenge for the team now is to
look forward and not back. There were actually some positives off which to build from the last two games. The Flyers outplayed the Pittsburgh Penguins for the first 30 minutes of Wednesday's game before a 2-1 lead and 2-2 tie on a fluky Pens' goal turned into a 4-2 Flyers deficit by the end of the second period and an ultimate 5-2 loss. That was followed by a further improved and more sustained effort against Boston.
That said, there is myriad room for the Flyers to clean up a variety of areas that have hurt the team against the slate of top opponents; a category in which Winnipeg also belongs nowadays. Costly turnovers, giving up a slew of 5-on-5 goals (after ranking among the top teams in the NHL in that vital category most of the season), a downturn in the power play, a lack of momentum saves, lapses in discipline that led to needless penalties and spotty execution on scoring chances in four of the last five games have all been factors.
After Alex Lyon started the game in Boston and stopped 24 of 27 shots in a losing cause, the Flyers are expected to tab Petr Mrazek to start against Winnipeg. Mrazek played well in each of his first three starts after being acquired from the Detroit Red Wings. The notoriously streaky netminder then sandwiched two so-so games around a clunker in the 7-6 shootout loss to Tampa Bay last Saturday.
On Wednesday against Pittsburgh, Mrazek had no chance on an unstoppable power play goal and little to none on a pinballing deflection off a teammate (possible double-deflection) and came close to making a 10-bell sliding save on a backdoor goal scored off a blocked shot severe deflection from the middle of the ice to the right circle. The other goal was a rebound goal on a 2-on-1 rush for Pittsburgh. Sidney Crosby appeared to be shooting with the hope of producing a fat rebound, and he got it.
The Flyers recalled defenseman Travis Sanheim from the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Friday under emergency conditions. That means the Flyers would otherwise only have five defensemen available for Saturday's game. The speculation is that Andrew MacDonald, who was dazed after a hit by Boston's Brad Marchand in the waning moments of the second period on Thursday, is the unavailable starter, with Johnny Oduya (lower-body injury in Sunday's game in Sunrise) also not ready to play. More information will be announced on Saturday morning.
By recalling Sanheim under emergency conditions, the Flyers did not have to burn their second of four permitted "standard" recalls. By rule, Sanheim can remain with the NHL club on that basis for as long as the team does not have six other healthy defensemen. As soon as one becomes available, the Flyers either must return Sanheim to Lehigh Valley or use a regular callup and have two remaining.
With the exception of pumping six goals past star netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy last Saturday in Tampa, goals have been hard to come by for the Flyers for the last two weeks. Rookie left winger Oskar Lindblom, for example, has played well in virtually every aspect of the game over the nine games since his recall and has had at least a half-dozen prime scoring chances of his own and another half-dozen assist opportunities but instead has a zero in the points column through nine games.
The Flyers top line had a tough game in Boston, and center Sean Couturier has been stuck on 29 goals over what is now a 10-game drought. Note: his game-winning shootout goal in Montreal happened within that span but does not count in his season goal total.
In recent weeks, the most heartening development for the Flyers has been the emergence of second-year pro Travis Konecny and rookie Nolan Patrick into players who've regularly had a positive impact. They have not been mistake-proof but the good has far outweighed a few miscues.
JETS OUTLOOK
The Jets have won four games in a row and eight of their last 10 but have actually lost ground to the scorching hot Nashville Predators, who have won 10 games in a row to extend their division lead over Winnipeg to six points with 15 games left to play. Winnipeg bring a 17-10-7 road record into Saturday's game. The Jets are playing its fourth match of a six-game road trip, and are undefeated to date.
Winnipeg has feasted off interconference games this season. The club brings in a 15-6-5 against the Eastern Conference, including a 9-3-2 mark versus teams in the Metropolitan Division.
On Sunday, the Jets defeated the Carolina Hurricanes, 3-0. On Tuesday, Steve Mason returned after his second concussion-related absence of the season to shut out the New York Rangers in a 3-0 victory for Winnipeg. Mason then suffered a lower-body injury in the team's next practice. On Thursday, the Jets earned a 3-2 win over the New Jersey Devils.
Winnipeg added a notable piece to their forward corps at the trade deadline, acquiring veteran center Paul Stastny from the St. Louis Blues. The Jets are missing one of their most dangerous players, Mark Scheifele, who is out with an upper body injury suffered in the Rangers' game. The lineup for this game is also lacking defensemen Dmitry Kulikov and Jacob Trouba.
Nevertheless, somewhat similar to have Boston could be without Patrice Bergeron, Charlie McAvoy and the suspended David Backes yet remain plenty dangerous, the Jets have become a very deep team. More dauntingly, the top end of the Winnipeg lineup remains formidable even without Scheifele. The Flyers still have to contend with the likes of Patrik Laine (39 goals), serially underrated star Blake Wheeler (57 assists among his team-leading 75 points), Nikolaj Ehlers (26 goals, 52 points), Kyle Connor (21 goals, 52 points) and the intimidating presence of Dustin Byfuglien (37 points, 90 PIM).
Despite his often-low PIM totals, hipster forward Perrault is an agitating presence on the ice. His run-in with Gudas last game was hardly the first time he's gotten under a Flyer's skin. He also scored a power play breakaway goal against Philly (off a blocked Sanheim shot in the Winnipeg zone) among his 16 goals and 37 points this season.
In goal, 24-year-old Connor Hellebuyck has been outstanding this season and ended up becoming a workhorse starter on merit apart from the two concussions and lower-body injury that Mason suffered this season. Mason initially signed with Winnipeg to become the primary starter, but got off to a slow start and then couldn't stay healthy. Even when available, however, Mason fell into a backup role because Hellebuyck has earned his playing time.
Overall, Hellebuyck has made 53 starts and two relief appearances. He boasts a 35-10-8 record, 2.39 GAA, .926 save percentage and six shutouts. Apart from getting torched by Nashville in a head-to-head meeting of the top Central Division teams on Feb. 27, Hellebuyck has been consistently solid. Over his last eight starts, he's given up zero to two goals five times and three goals once with in-game save percentages of 90 percent or higher in six of the games.
PROJECTED LINEUPS (will be updated)
FLYERS
28 Claude Giroux - 14 Sean Couturier - 11 Travis Konecny
54 Oskar Lindblom - 19 Nolan Patrick - 93 Jakub Voracek
12 Michael Raffl - 51 Valtteri Filppula - 17 Wayne Simmonds
15 Jori Lehterä - 21 Scott Laughton - 24 Matt Read
9 Ivan Provorov - 53 Shayne Gostisbehere
47 Andrew MacDonald - 6 Travis Sanheim
23 Brandon Manning - 3 Radko Gudas
6 Travis Sanheim
34 Petr Mrazek
[39 Alex Lyon]
Scratches: 40 Jordan Weal (healthy), 20 Taylor Leier (healthy), 22 Dale Weise (healthy), 29 Johnny Oduya (lower body), 8 Robert Hägg (lower body, out two weeks from March. 10), 37 Brian Elliott (IR, core muscle surgery), 30 Michal Neuvirth (lower body, out until April).
JETS
18 Patrik Laine - 25 Paul Stastny - 27 Nikolaj Ehlers
81 Kyle Connor- 29 Bryan Little - 26 Blake Wheeler
65 Mathieu Perreault - 9 Andrew Copp - 52 Jack Roslovic
13 Brandon Tanev - 15 Matt Hendricks - 40 Joel Armia
38 Tobias Enström - 33 Dustin Byfuglien
44 Josh Morrissey - 8 Tyler Myers
70 Joe Morrow - 7 Ben Chiarot
37 Connor Hellebuyck
[34 Michael Hutchinson]
Scratches: 56 Marko Dano (healthy), 55 Mark Scheifele (upper body), 5 Dmitry Kulikov (upper body), 35 Steve Mason (lower body), 8 Jacob Trouba (IR, ankle), 17 Adam Lowry (IR, upper body), 16 Shawn Matthias (upper body).
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