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Flyers Gameday: 4/2/16 vs. OTT; Flyers Alumni Goals for Giving

April 2, 2016, 8:34 AM ET [140 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
PREVIEW: FLYERS VS. SENATORS

Looking to strengthen their hold on an Eastern Conference playoff spot, Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers (37-25-13) host Dave Cameron's Ottawa Senators (54-16-5) in a Saturday matinee. Game time at the Wells Fargo Center is 1:00 p.m. EDT. The game will be televised on CSN Philadelphia.

This is the third and final meeting of the season between the teams and the lone game in Philadelphia. On Nov. 21 at Canadian Tire Centre, the Senators shut out the Flyers by a 4-0 count. On Dec. 1, the Flyers skated off with a 4-2 win.

The Flyers enter this game coming off a stellar all-around performance against the Washington Capitals, in which Philly prevailed 2-1 via shootout. The Senators played spoiler on Thursday and upended the host Minnesota Wild, a team battling for a wildcard spot in the Western Conference, by a 3-2 count.

Saturday's game is the front end of a back-to-back set for the Flyers and the start of a grueling gauntlet of six games in the final nine days of the regular season. They will be in Pittsburgh on Sunday for a 5 o'clock game with the arch-rival Penguins. The Senators host the Penguins on Tuesday.

The Flyers hold two games in hand on both the Detroit Red Wings and Boston Bruins. Detroit pulled back into a points tie (89-89) with the Flyers with a 3-2 home win over the Minnesota Wild on Friday evening. Boston moved one point ahead of the Flyers again and remained a point ahead of Detroit with a 6-5 road win over the St. Louis Blues. Both Detroit and Boston now hold a 37-35 tie-breaker advantage over the Flyers in regulation and overtime wins.

Philadelphia is four points behind the New York Islanders for the higher wildcard seed. Both teams have six games to play by April 10, including a head-to-head clash in Brooklyn on the final day of the season. New York holds a 37-35 tiebreaker advantage.

The Islanders host Pittsburgh on Saturday afternoon, putting the Flyers in the rare position of hoping the Penguins win in regulation. Detroit is on the road on Saturday to play Mike Babcock's Toronto Maple Leafs. Last-place Toronto has been a decent spoiler of late, winning six of its last 10 games.

Flyers Outlook

The Flyers are 12-3-2 over their last 17 games. For the season, the team has a 21-10-7 home record compared to a 17-15-6 road mark.

On Wednesday, Brayden's Schenn's third-period deflection power play goal of a Claude Giroux shot forced overtime against Washington. Nick Cousins and Sam Gagner converted their shootout attempts. Wayne Simmonds got a secondary assist on the Schenn goal. Steve Mason stopped 29 of 30 shots against on the two most dangerous offensive teams in the NHL. He then went 2-for-2 in the shootout.

Mason has started 13 of the Flyers' last 14 games. The plan appears to be to ride Mason every game until/unless the team is locked into a playoff spot.

Mason has appeared in 49 games this season, posting a 21-17-9 record, 2.49 goals against average, .919 save percentage and four shutouts (five regulation shutouts). Michal Neuvirth, who is for the rest of the regular season with torn meniscus in his left knee, appeared in 31 games, posting a 17-8-4 record, 2.28 GAA, .925 save percentage and three shutouts.

Neuvirth is slated to begin skating around April 4. It is unlikely that he will be available to dress even as a backup before the regular season ends. If the Flyers reach the playoffs, he should be available within the first round.

Second year pro Anthony Stolarz has had several NHL recalls but has yet to appear in an NHL regular season game. Stolarz had an outstanding first half of the AHL season -- especially the first two months -- and earned a selection to the AHL All-Star Game. in 40 games this season with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, Stolarz has posted a 19-14-6 record, 2.57 GAA and .917 SV%.

On Friday, the Flyers announced that they were signing veteran goaltender Ray Emery on a tryout basis for the rest of the season. As required by NHL rules for free agent players who played in Europe during the season, the Flyers had to place Emery on waivers before he could be added to the roster. That is a formality in this case, as no team is likely to claim the player. Emery will not be eligible for the postseason. Emery, who bounced around this year on various tryouts and finished the season playing in the DEL for Adler Mannheim, is in game shape if needed to back up.

Thus far, the Flyers have done a remarkably good job of playing around the absence of top-pairing defenseman Michael Del Zotto. The player, who suffered torn ligaments in his left wrist on February 13, is out for the rest of the season.

Shayne Gostisbehere has set two franchise records and an NHL record this season: most goals by a Flyers rookie defenseman (16 to date), and longest consecutive-game point streak (15 games) by a Flyers rookie or any rookie defenseman in NHL history. Gostisbehere needs seven points over the final six games to match Behn Wilson's franchise rookie defenseman season record of 49 points (set over 80 games in 1978-79).

Team captain Giroux leads the Flyers with 22 goals, 43 assists and 65 points in 73 games. He is followed on the Flyers' scoring leader list by Schenn (25 goals, 29 assists, 54 points), Simmonds (26 goals, 27 assists, 53 points, 141 penalty minutes) and Jakub Voracek (10 goals, 40 assists, 50 points in 63 games). Among Gostisbehere's 16 goals, seven have come on the power play, and four in overtime and he has scored five game-winners overall to go along with 26 assists and 42 points in 58 games. Sean Couturier rounds out the top six with 10 goals, 26 assists and 36 points in 58 games.

The Flyers held a full practice on Friday; a rarity of late because of the schedule. Giroux, who has been knocked around pretty heavily in the last three games in particular, took a maintenance day. He should be fine to play on Saturday.

Senators Outlook

The roles for the Flyers and Senators are reversed. Last year, it was the Senators coming to Philadelphia looking for a win on the final day of the regular season to earn a wildcard playoff spot. This year, on the next-to-last weekend of the season, Ottawa is trying to play spoiler.

The Senators are 16-20-3 on the road this season and 5-4-1 over their last 10 games overall.

The bottom line with Ottawa this season is that they have scored less and yielded more than a year ago, and that's why they find themselves out of the playoffs.

In 2014-15, the Senators scored 2.83 goals per game (ninth best), while allowing 2.54 (13th best). This season, Ottawa has scored 2.77 goals per game (again good enough for ninth) but have given up 2.96 goals per game (ranked 27th).

Leaky penalty killing has been a main culprit. In 2014-15, the Senators had a special teams index of 99.7 (16.8 percent power play, 82.9 percent penalty kill). That is far from stellar but is at least passable. This year, it's an unacceptable 91.3 (15.4 percent power play and 75.9 percent penalty kill).

At five-on-five last season, Ottawa had a 152-143 goal differential in their favor. This season, it's a 140-142 differential.

As with most teams that are out of the playoff picture, the Senators have a lengthy injury list. None of Kyle Turris (high ankle sprain), Dion Phaneuf (lower body), Mark Stone (chest), Clarke MacArthur (IR, concussion), Patrick Wiercicoch (upper body) or Chris Phillips (on IR all season with a cracked disc in his back) are available on Saturday. Mike Kostka is questionable with an undisclosed ailment.

On Thursday, the Senators recalled hulking defenseman Ben Harpur on an emergency basis from its American Hockey League affiliate, the Binghamton Senators. Ottawa's second-round pick in 2013, the 6-foot-6, 218-pound Harpur has played 43 games with the B-Sens in his first season of professional hockey.

Dynamic offensive defenseman Erik Karlsson remains the Senators catalyst. He is one of the NHL's biggest threat to burn an opponent any time he has the puck on his stick. For the season, Karlsson has 78 points in 78 games (15 goals, 63 assists) and an even plus-minus.

With second-leading scorer Stone out of the lineup, the top available offensive performers this season are Bobby Ryan (22 goals, 55 points, minus-10 in 77 games), Mike Hoffman (27 goals, 27 assists, 74 points), Mika Zibanejad (18 goals, 29 assists, 47 points), Jean-Gabriel Pageau (18 goals, 22 assists, 40 points, plus-15), and Zack Smith (22 goals, 11 assists, 33 points, plus-14).

Veteran starter Craig Anderson has appeared in 59 games this season, posting a 30-23-5 record, 2.81 goals against average, .915 save percentage and four shutouts (including one against the Flyers). Last year's late-season sensation Andrew Hammond has settled in a backup role, appearing in 21 games with a 6-9-4 record, 2.64 GAA, .913 SV% and one shutout.

Key team stat comparisons (NHL overall ranking)

Non-shootout goals per game: Flyers 2.57 (21st), Senators 2.77 (9th)
Non-shootout goals against per game: Flyers 2.53 (12th), Senators 2.96 (27th)
5-on-5 Goals For/Against Ratio: Flyers 125/118, Senators 140/142
Power play efficiency: Flyers 18.2% (T-18th), Senators 15.4% (28th)
Penalty killing efficiency: Flyers 80.6% (19th), Senators 75.9% (29th)
Shots per game: Flyers 30.8 (6th), Senators 28.2 (28th)
Shots against per game: Flyers 31.0 (25th), Senators 32.7 (30th)
Faceoff percentage: Flyers 50.7% (T-7th), Senators 50.4% (12th)

Projected lineups (subject to change, will be updated)

Flyers

10 Brayden Schenn - 28 Claude Giroux - 17 Wayne Simmonds
12 Michael Raffl - 14 Sean Couturier - 93 Jakub Voracek
89 Sam Gagner - 52 Nick Cousins - 24 Matt Read
76 Chris VandeVelde - 78 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - 25 Ryan White

47 Andrew MacDonald - 53 Shayne Gostisbehere
55 Nick Schultz - 32 Mark Streit
23 Brandon Manning - 3 Radko Gudas

35 Steve Mason
[65 Anthony Stolarz]

Scratches: Evgeny Medvedev (healthy), R.J. Umberger (healthy), Scott Laughton (healthy), Jordan Weal (healthy), Michael Del Zotto (IR, wrist), Michal Neuvirth (suspected left knee injury), Ray Emery (healthy).

Senators

15 Zack Smith - 44 Jean-Gabriel Pageau - 6 Bobby Ryan
68 Mike Hoffman - 93 Mika Zibanejad - 90 Alex Chiasson
43 Ryan Dzingel - 13 Nick Paul - 25 Chris Neil
26 Matt Puempel - 27 Curtis Lazar - 23 Scott Gomez

49 Fredrik Claesson - 65 Erik Karlsson
3 Marc Methot - 5 Cody Ceci
67 Ben Harpur - 45 Chris Wideman

30 Andrew Hammond
[41 Craig Anderson]

Scratches: Mike Kostka (questionable, undisclosed), Kyle Turris (high ankle sprain), Dion Phaneuf (lower body), Mark Stone (chest), Patrick Wiercicoch (upper body), Clarke MacArthur (IR, concussion), Chris Phillips (IR, back).

***********

Flyers Alumni: 12th Annual Goals for Giving for NHS

The Flyers' 12th annual "Goals for Giving" benefit hockey game for NHS Human Services on Sunday has sold out. No tickets remain either for the 1:30 p.m. game at the Northeast Philadelphia Flyers Skate Zone nor for the postgame meet-and-greet with the Flyers Alumni at the Chickie's and Pete's location on Roosevelt Blvd.

However, there is still opportunity to donate to the GFG fundraising drive. The Alumni and NHS originally set a $125,000 fundraising goal for this season but they've surpassed it by over $5,000 already. For more information, click here.

This year's Goals for Giving game has a different twist to it. The Flyers Alumni roster is being split, with five Alumni playing for the NHS Blues side.

Participating players this year include Danny Briere, Bob "the Hound" Kelly, Joe Watson, Brad Marsh, Doug Crossman, Terry Carkner, Mitch Lamoureux, Frank "the Animal" Bialowas, Dave MacIsaac and Jim Watson's sons Chase and Brett playing on the Flyers Alumni side. Players suiting up on the NHS Blues side include Brian Propp, Kjell Samuelsson, Todd "Fridge" Fedoruk, Craig Berube and Larry "Izzy" Goodenough.

Over the previous eleven years, the Goals for Giving benefits have raised $506,000 to support the NHS' care-providing services in the areas of mental health, addictive diseases, life-skills and classroom education, foster care and permanency, autism, juvenile justice and serving those with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Specific uses of the funds raised include providing therapeutic horseback riding, iPads for our schools, holiday parties, summer camps, sensory rooms, proms, trips to ball games and amusement parks among many other services.
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