Game 8 Preview: Flyers vs. Coyotes
Alain Vigneault's Philadelphia Flyers (4-2-1) host Andre Tourigny's Arizona Coyotes (0-8-1) on Tuesday evening. Game time at the Wells Fargo Center is 7:00 p.m. ET (NBCSP, 97.5 The Fanatic).
At Monday's practice in Voorhees, there was one adjustment to the projected line combinations, with Nicolas Aube-Kubel back in the top-12 rotation after being a healthy scratch in Vancouver and Calgary and Patrick Brown as the 13th forward. Ryan Ellis (lower-body injury) remains unavailable but skated yesterday with the rehabbing Kevin Hayes.
The more significant shuffling of personnel came on the power play during Monday's practice.
Keith Yandle was moved down to the second unit with Ivan Provorov playing the point on PP1.Cam Atkinson also moved up to PP1 with James van Riemsdyk on the second unit. In terms of positional alignment, the PP was arranged as follows. On PP1, Provorov was at the point with Claude Giroux on the right side, Atkinson on the left, Sean Couturier at netfront and Travis Konecny in the slot. on PP2: Yandle was at left-to-center point, Derick Brassard on the left side, van Riemsdyk at netfront, Rasmus Ristolainen on the right side (right point sliding down to the right circle) and Joel Farabee in the slot.
The Coyotes had an off-day on Monday after playing three games in four nights. They are the only remaining winless team in the NHL but the last two losses have been by scores of 2-0 (including a late empty-netter) against Washington and 2-1 against Carolina. Rookie goalie Karel Vejmelka, although 0-5-1 on the season in seven appearances, has been the team's No. 1 bright spot since veteran goalie Carter Hutton went on IR.
For a full, five-point preview of the game, see the Five Things feature on the Flyers official website.
PROJECTED LINEUPS
FLYERS
28 Claude Giroux - 14 Sean Couturier - 11 Travis Konecny 86 Joel Farabee - 19 Derick Brassard - 89 Cam Atkinson 23 Oskar Lindblom - 21 Scott Laughton - 25 James van Riemsdyk 62 Nicolas Aube-Kubel - 44 Nate Thompson - 17 Zack MacEwen
9 Ivan Provorov - 61 Justin Braun 6 Travis Sanheim - 70 Rasmus Ristolainen 3 Keith Yandle - 24 Nick Seeler
79 Carter Hart [35 Martin Jones]
COYOTES
67 Lawson Crouse - 29 Barrett Hayton - 9 Clayton Keller 93 Dmitrij Jaskin - 22 Johan Larsson - 81 Phil Kessel 38 Liam O'Brien - 83 Jay Beagle - 16 Andrew Ladd 26 Antoine Roussel - 36 Christian Fischer - 21 Loui Eriksson
6 Jakob Chychrun - 61 Dysin Mayo 14 Shayne Gostisbehere - 86 Anton Strà¥lman 46 Ilya Lyubushkin - 77 Victor Söderström
70 Karel Vejmelka [50 Ivan Prosvetov]