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Flyers Gameday: 3/23/17 @ MIN

March 23, 2017, 10:15 AM ET [482 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
PREVIEW: FLYERS @ WILD

In the second game of a four-game road trip, Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers (33-31-8) are in St. Paul to take on Bruce Boudreau's Minnesota Wild (44-22-6). Game time at Xcel Energy Center is 8:00 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on CSN Philadelphia.

This is the second and final meeting of the season between the inter-conference teams. The Flyers earned a 3-2 win on home ice on Nov. 12.

Flyers Outlook

With their 3-2 regulation loss on Tuesday to a severely depleted Winnipeg Jets team, the Flyers dropped to 12-20-4 on the road this season. For the second time in three seasons, a poor road record is likely to be the Flyers' undoing in the playoff chase.

On Tuesday, Jordan Weal's goal off a patient set-up down low by Wayne Simmonds gave the Flyers a short-lived 1-0 lead after a scoreless first period. Steve Mason played a stronger game than his pedestrian stat line (30 saves on 33 shots) but was victimized by a deflection power play goal in heavy traffic and two nearly unstoppable snipes off Philadelphia defensive miscues. The Flyers hurt themselves with a parade to the penalty box. By the team Matt Read scored a meaningless deflection goal in the final two seconds of the game, the outcome had already been sealed.

Hakstol shook up three of the team's four forward lines at practice on Wednesday. Team captain Claude Giroux centered Matt Read and Jakub Voracek. Valtteri Filppula centered Jordan Weal and Wayne Simmonds. The trio of Sean Couturier centering Brayden Schenn and Dale Weise remained intact.

On the injury front, Michael Raffl (lower-body injury) remains on injured reserve. Forward Nick Cousins is day-to-day with an upper-body issue. Brandon Manning (upper body) could play in Minnesota after missing the previous five games.

Wild Outlook

The Wild had been scuffling badly of late with five loses in a row seven losses (all in regulation) in nine games until they came through with a 3-2 home win over the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday night. Overall, the Wild are 24-10-1 at Xcel Energy Center this season.

On Tuesday, an early Matt Dumba power play goal (10th goal of the season) stood up until the Sharks tied the game late in the second period. Undaunted, Minnesota struck right back for goals by Martin Hanzal (17th) and Charlie Coyle (17th) spaced just 15 seconds apart. The Sharks then scored on the next shift as the Wild's lead was cut to 3-2 going into intermission.

In the third period, winning goal Devan Dubnyk only needed to make five saves as the Wild clamped down defensively and preserved their one-goal lead. Dubnyk finished with 21 saves.

Mikael Granlund, who was selected ninth overall in the 2010 NHL Draft and entered the National Hockey League with considerable hype after dominating Finland's Liiga (then SM-Liiga) and internationally, has finally had a breakthrough season in his fifth North American pro year. With 25 goals and 66 points (as well as a plus-22 rating) in 72 games, the gifted Finn has already by far surpassed his previous career highs and leads the Wild in scoring.

Dubnyk, a former first round pick cast aside by the Edmonton Oilers, has had a major resurgence ever since his arrival in Minnesota during the 2014-15 season. This year, Dubnyk has had a Vezina Trophy caliber campaign overall. He brings a 37-18-3 record, 2.17 GAA, .927 save percentage and five shutouts into this game.

Agitating former Flyers forward Ryan White is ill with the flu and will not be able to play in this game. He hurt his former club earlier this season while a member of the Arizona Coyotes with a fluky game-winning goal. The Wild are also without defenseman Christian Folin (arm).

Projected lineups (Subject to change)

FLYERS

24 Matt Read - 28 Claude Giroux - 93 Jakub Voracek
40 Jordan Weal - 51 Valterri Filppula - 17 Wayne Simmonds
22 Dale Weise - 14 Sean Couturier - 10 Brayden Schenn
76 Chris VandeVelde - 78 Pierre-Édouard Bellemare - 11 Travis Konecny

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

35 Steve Mason
[30 Michal Neuvirth]

Scratches: Nick Schultz (healthy) or Brandon Manning (questionable), Roman Lyubimov (healthy), Michael Raffl (IR, lower body), Nick Cousins (upper body).


WILD

16 Jason Zucker - 9 Mikko Koivu - 64 Mikael Granlund
3 Charlie Coyle - 12 Eric Staal - 11 Zach Parise
22 Nino Niederreiter - 19 Martin Hanzal - 29 Jason Pominville
7 Chris Stewart - 56 Erik Haula - 10 Jordan Schroeder

20 Ryan Suter - 46 Jared Spurgeon
6 Marco Scandella - 24 Mathew Dumba
23 Gustav Olofsson - 25 Jonas Brodin

40 Devan Dubnyk
[35 Darcy Kuemper]

Scratches: Nat Prosser (healthy), Ryan White (flu), Christian Folin (arm).
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