Preview: Flyers vs. Oilers
The Philadelphia Flyers (2-1-0) will host the Edmonton Oilers (1-2-0) at the Wells Fargo Center on Thursday evening. Game time is 7:30 p.m. EDT. This is the first of two meetings this season between the teams. They will rematch in Edmonton on January 2.
The Flyers enter this game coming off a 2-0 shutout win over the Vancouver Canucks in Tuesday's home opener. Egor Zamula (first NHL goal) and Sean Couturier (penalty shot) scored first period goals. The Flyers dominated the second period to the tune of a 23-2 shot on goal advantage but were unable to expand the lead. Philly closed out the win in the third period. Carter Hart (25 saves) earned his sixth career shutout.
With the Flyers coming off such an excellent performance last game, it is not a surprise that Tortorella has opted to stay with the same forward line combinations as in Tuesday's game. As such, Morgan Frost will sit out as a healthy scratch for the second straight game. More surprisingly, Tortorella opted to remove Zamula from the lineup for this game and reinsert Emil Andrae, who had an up-and-down NHL debut in Saturday's game in Ottawa and is six inches shorter than the 6-foot-3, 200-pound Zamula.
The Oilers started out the season by getting swept, 8-1 and 4-3, in a home-and-home set with the Canucks. However, in their last game, a fired-up Oilers team started a two-game road trip with a 6-1 blowout win over the Nashville Predators. Leon Draisaitl had a four-point game (two power play tallies, two assists). Zach Hyman notched a goal and three assists. McDavid had a goal and an assist, while Ryan Nugent-Hopkins posted a goal and two assists. Warren Foegele rounded out the scoring with his first tally of the season. In goal, Jack Campbell turned aside 43 of 44 shots to earn the victory.
For a detailed preview, see today's Five Things on PhiladelphiaFlyers.com. Projected lineups are below.
FLYERS
11 Travis Konecny-21 Scott Laughton-71 Tyson Foerster 74 Owen Tippett-14 Sean Couturier-89 Cam Atkinson 86 Joel Farabee-27 Noah Cates-10 Bobby Brink 44 Nic Deslauriers-25 Ryan Poehling-Garnet Hathaway
8 Cam York-6 Travis Sanheim 18 Marc Staal-26 Sean Walker 36 Emil Andrae-24 Nick Seeler
79 Carter Hart [33 Samuel Ersson]
OILERS (per team's official website)
Kane - McDavid - Draisaitl Foegele - RNH - Hyman Holloway - McLeod - Brown Erne - Janmark - Ryan
Ekholm - Bouchard Nurse - Ceci Kulak - Desharnais
Campbell [Skinner]