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Flyers Gameday: 4/7/16 vs. TOR |
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PREVIEW: FLYERS VS. MAPLE LEAFS
Still looking to reduce to three their magic number for an Eastern Conference playoff spot, Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers (38-27-13) return home to take on Mike Babcock's Toronto Maple Leafs (28-41-11) on Thursday. Game time at the Wells Fargo Center is 7:00 p.m. The game will be televised on CSN Philadelphia.
Before the game, the Flyers will present their team awards for the 2015-16 season; a departure from the norm, as the awards have typically been given before the final home game of the season rather than the penultimate one.
This is the third and final meeting of the season between the teams, and the second in Philadelphia. Despite Toronto's struggles this season, they have given the Flyers a tough time. On Jan. 19, the Flyers got outworked on home ice by the Leafs and were on the wrong end of a 3-2 final in regulation. On Feb. 20, the Flyers survived a sloppy, staccato performance to rescue a 5-4 win in overtime.
Thursday's game is the second half of a back-to-back segment for the Flyers and the second portion of four-in-five gauntlet to finish the regular season. They lost 3-0 in Detroit on Wednesday. The Leafs are in the third game of a three-in-four and the second half of a back-to-back. On Wednesday, the Leafs dropped their final home of the season by a 5-1 count to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
The Flyers' muddied the waters of their playoff hopes by losing in regulation to Detroit. The best-case scenario at this point: Philadelphia beats Toronto on Thursday, while the Detroit Red Wings beat the host Boston Bruins in regulation. That would cut the Flyers magic number to one. Flyers would then need either one point out of their weekend games against the Pittsburgh Penguins (home) and New York Islanders (road) or for Boston to lose to the Ottawa Senators on Saturday.
Flyers Outlook
The Flyers are 13-5-2 over their last 20 games. For the season, the Flyers have a 22-10-7 home record but a mediocre 17-17-6 road mark. Philadelphia has lost back-to-back games in regulation; both on the road.
On Wednesday in Detroit, very little went right for the Flyers. They went 4-for-4 on the penalty kill and got very strong goaltending once again from Steve Mason (23 saves on 25 shots). There was not much Mason could have differently on a fluky goal off a Shayne Gostisbehere turnover or a breakaway shorthanded goal. Mason made several 10-bell saves to keep the game close. Detroit's final goal was an empty-netter.
Mason will make his 11th consecutive start. He has appeared in 52 games this season, posting a 22-19-9 record, 2.52 goals against average, .918 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 has skated on his own each of the last three days. If the Flyers reach the playoffs, he should be available within the first round. On April 1, the Flyers announced that they were signing veteran goaltender Ray Emery to a contract for the rest of the season. He is available for backup duty the rest of the regular season. He is not playoff eligible.
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.
Gostisbehere has struggled a bit the last few weeks, which is common for rookies experiencing the marathon-like NHL regular season for the first time. He needs six points over the final three games to match Behn Wilson's franchise rookie defenseman season record of 49 points (set over 80 games in 1978-79).
Team captain Claude Giroux leads the Flyers with 22 goals, 44 assists and 66 points in 76 games. He is followed on the Flyers' scoring leader list by Wayne Simmonds (29 goals, 28 assists, 57 points, 147 penalty minutes), Brayden Schenn (25 goals, 31 assists, 56 points) and Jakub Voracek (11 goals, 42 assists, 53 points in 70 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 27 assists and 43 points in 61 games. Sean Couturier rounds out the top six with 11 goals, 27 assists and 38 points in 61 games.
Voracek has struggled since his return to the lineup from a foot injury. He has seemed to be better on his skates in recent games and had his best game since before the injury in last Saturday's 3-2 win over Ottawa. However, the last two games have been rough ones for most of the Flyers team, and Voracek is no exception. Problems with giveaways and putting shots wide of the net when he's had open looks have been his main issues.
Simmonds, who needs one tally for the first 30-goal season of his career, has been the Flyers hottest offensive player of late -- in the thick of quite a few scoring chances even when he hasn't scored. The main downside has been lack of discipline at times.
The Flyers are unlikely to have a morning skate. Lineups will be updated if there are any changes.
Maple Leafs Outlook
Any opponent in the NHL is dangerous if a club doesn't put in the proper focus and work ethic to beat them. Philadelphia has learned that the hard way this season with their two uninspiring games against Toronto, even though the Flyers do have one OT win to show for the games to date.
The Maple Leafs enter this game with four wins in their last 10 games. Any Toronto win at this stage of things is an "upset victory", so that's actually a number that the Flyers need to respect despite the fact that Leafs are in the final game of a three-in-four and have lost four in a row and six of their last seven after a three-game winning streak in late March.
Over the last 12 games, the Leafs claimed wins over Detroit, the Tampa Bay Lightning, Buffalo Sabres, Calgary Flames, Anaheim Ducks and Florida Panthers. Toronto threw a scare into the Red Wings again on April 2; a 3-2 loss but one in which Babcock's team put up a much better third period fight than the Flyers did on Wednesday. The Maple Leafs put on a 12-4 shot blitz in the third period and got back within a goal with 1:07 left on the clock.
Wednesday's game against Columbus was an ugly one for the Maple Leafs after a scoreless first period. The Blue Jackets scored twice in the second period and three times in the third after a Morgan Rielly shorthanded goal gave the Leafs a short-lived 1-0 lead. Garret Sparks stopped 27 of 32 shots in a losing cause.
The Leafs' injury list is very extensive, and leading scorer Nazem Kadri is suspended for a cross-checking incident. Among the notables who are not available to play are James van Riemsdyk (IR, foot fracture), Leo Komorov (lower body), Joffrey Lupul (IR, sports hernia), Milan Michalek (knee), Peter Holland (upper body) and Matt Hunwick (hernia).
Among available players, veteran P.A. Parenteau (19 goals, 20 assists, 39 points in 75 games) is the leading scorer. He's followed by Rielly (nine goals, 27 assists and 36 points while dressing in all 80 games to date), Tyler Bozak (12 goals, 23 assists, 35 points in 55 games) and Jake Gardiner (six goals, 24 assists, 30 points in 77 games).
In goal, Jonathan Bernier has struggled in many of his 37 appearances and actually had to raise his level of play to bring his season numbers up to their current 11-21-3 record, 2.88 goals against average and .907 save percentage. Sparks has gotten into 16 games to date with a 6-8-1 record, 2.95 GAA and .893 save percentage.
Key team stat comparisons (NHL overall ranking)
Non-shootout goals per game: Flyers 2.53 (24th), Maple Leafs 2.34 (28th)
Non-shootout goals against per game: Flyers 2.57 (13th), Maple Leafs 2.90 (25th)
5-on-5 Goals For/Against Ratio: Flyers 127/124, Maple Leafs 116/156
Power play efficiency: Flyers 18.6% (16th), Maple Leafs 15.3% (29th)
Penalty killing efficiency: Flyers 80.4% (22nd), Maple Leafs 80.9% (T-19th)
Shots per game: Flyers 30.8 (6th), Maple Leafs 30.9 (5th)
Shots against per game: Flyers 31.1 (25th), Maple Leafs 30.3 (18th)
Faceoff percentage: Flyers 50.8% (6th), Maple Leafs 50.7% (T-7th)
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 - 21 Scott Laughton - 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
[30 Michal Neuvirth]
Scratches: Evgeny Medvedev (healthy), R.J. Umberger (healthy), Nick Cousins (healthy), Jordan Weal (healthy), Michael Del Zotto (IR, wrist), Ray Emery (healthy), Alex Lyon (healthy).
Maple Leafs
46 Tobias Lindberg - 42 Tyler Bozak - 15 P.A. Parenteau
38 Colin Greening - 39 William Nylander - 37 Kasperi Kapanen
23 Brooks Laich - 54 Frederik Gauthier - 40 Michael Grabner
53 Sam Carrick - 56 Byron Froese - 28 Brad Boyes
52 Martin Marincin - 44 Morgan Rielly
51 Jake Gardiner - 20 Frank Corrado
48 Andrew Campbell - 29 T.J. Brennan
45 Jonathan Bernier / 31 Garret Sparks
Scratches: Nazem Kadri (four-game NHL suspension), James van Riemsdyk (IR, foot fracture), Leo Komorov (lower body), Joffrey Lupul (IR, sports hernia), Milan Michalek (knee), Peter Holland (upper body), Matt Hunwick (hernia), Stephane Robidas (LTIR, knee), Nathan Horton (LTIR, degenerative spine condition).
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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