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Flyers Gameday: 3/25/17 @ CBJ |
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PREVIEW: FLYERS @ BLUE JACKETS
In the third game of a four-game road trip, Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers (34-31-8) take on John Tortorella's Columbus Blue Jackets (47-19-7) in a Saturday matinee. Game time at Nationwide Arena is 2:00 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on CSN Philadelphia.
This is the third of four meetings between the Metropolitan Division clubs this season, and the second and final game in Columbus. The Flyers lost 2-1 in overtime at Nationwide Arena on Jan. 8 and lost 5-3 at the Wells Fargo Center on March 13.
The Flyers have had a lot of trouble beating Columbus in recent years. Philly is just 1-3-5 against the Blue Jackets over the last nine meetings and 2-7-5 over the last 14 games.
Flyers Outlook
The Flyers are just 13-20-4 on the road this season. However, the club is coming off a strong overall performance in a 3-1 win over the Minnesota Wild in St. Paul on Thursday. Saturday's game in Columbus is the front end of a back-to-back set, the middle game of a three-in-four and the third game of a four-in-six. The final game will be in Pittsburgh on Sunday.
On Thursday in St. Paul, the Flyers got off to a bad start during the first half of the opening period but then settled in and controlled most of the final 50 minutes. Steve Mason shrugged off a bad early goal and early rebound issues to shut the door the rest of the way. He was especially good over the final 40 minutes. The Flyers got goals from Sean Couturier, Matt Read and Jakub Voracek (empty net).
Wayne Simmonds earned an assist on the final goal for his 300th career point as a Flyer, and Mason became the third goaltender in franchise history to earn 100 regular season wins. Note: When Vezina Trophy winning goaltender Pelle Lindbergh died at age 26 early in the 1985-86 season, he was already at 87 regular season wins (and 12 playoff victories) for his career.
Hakstol shook up three of the team's four forward lines for Thursday's game. Team captain Claude Giroux centered Read and Voracek. Valtteri Filppula centered Jordan Weal and Simmonds. The trio of Couturier centering Brayden Schenn and Dale Weise remained intact. With the team coming off a solid win, the same lines figure to start in Columbus. On the blueline, Michael Del Zotto was a healthy scratch as Brandon Manning returned to the lineup. Longtime Wild defenseman Nick Schultz dressed for the game.
Over his last 10 games, Couturier has posted 10 points (three goals, seven assists). Linemate Schenn has posted six points (three goals, three assists) over the last six.
On the injury front, Michael Raffl (lower-body injury) remains on injured reserve. Forward Nick Cousins is out with an upper-body issue.
Blue Jackets Outlook
The Blue Jackets are coming off 2-1 road shootout loss to the Washington Capitals on Thursday after sustaining a 5-2 home loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs the previous night. Saturday's game is the final game of a three-in-four set for Columbus, who took an off-day on Friday.
Despite the stumble on Wednesday and the skills competition loss the next night, the Blue Jackets are still in the hunt for the Metropolitan Division championship or at least home ice advantage in the first round. The team enters play on Saturday three points behind the Capitals (with a tiebreaker disadvantage of 46 to 45 regulation/overtime wins) but just one point in back of the Pittsburgh Penguins -- with both a 45 to 43 ROW tiebreaker edge and one game in hand working in the Blue Jackets' favor -- for second place.
The Blue Jackets are 7-2-1 over their last 10 games and 26-10-1 on home ice this season. Cam Atkinson leads the team in scoring with 33 goals and 60 points in 73 games.
After an inconsistent and injury-affected season last year, Sergei Bobrovsky has regained Vezina-caliber form this season. The ex-Flyer, who had a rare uneven performance when the Blue Jackets visited Philly earlier this month, has posted a stellar 39-13-5 record, 2.02 GAA, six shutouts and .932 save percentage this season overall.
Forward Oliver Björkstrand, injured on a hit from behind by Toronto defenseman Roman Polak in Wednesday's game, missed Thursday's game against the Caps.
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
30 Michal Neuvirth
[35 Steve Mason]
Scratches: Michael Del Zotto or Nick Schultz (healthy), Roman Lyubimov (healthy), Michael Raffl (IR, lower body), Nick Cousins (upper body).
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
26 Kyle Quincey - 65 Markus Nutivaara
72 Sergei Bobrovsky
[70 Joonas Korpisalo]
Scratches: Lauri Korpikoski (healthy), Scott Harrington (healthy), Ryan Murray (healthy), Oliver Björkstrand (upper body), David Clarkson (LTIR).
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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