UPDATE 12:30 PM
Owen Tippett did a trainer-supervised solo skate about an hour before warmups. That, in and of itself, is a positive. He is not playing but it does not look like his absence will be anything sustained. Below is the Flyers starting lineup:
71 Tyson Foerster - 14 Sean Couturier - 11 Travis Konecny 86 Joel Farabee - 48 Morgan Frost - 89 Cam Atkinson 27 Noah Cates - 21 Scott Laughton - 19 Garnet Hathaway 44 Nic Deslauriers- 25 Ryan Poehling - (rotation)
6 Travis Sanheim - 9 Jamie Drysdale 8 Cam York - 26 Sean Walker 24 Nick Seeler - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen 5 Egor Zamula
33 Samuel Ersson [79 Carter Hart]
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Game 47 Preview: Flyers vs. Senators
The Philadelphia Flyers (25-15-6) will host the Ottawa Senators (16-24-1) at the Wells Fargo Center on Sunday afternoon. Game time is 1:00 p.m. ET.
The Flyers enter this game coming off a 7-4 home loss loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday afternoon. Ottawa lost at home in overtime, 2-1, against the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday. Both clubs are playing their respective third games in four nights. However, the Flyers have been at home throughout and the Senators had to fly from Ottawa to Philadelphia following Saturday's game.
On Saturday, Joel Farabee, Travis Konecny, Tyson Foerster and Cam Atkinson scored in a losing cause. Morgan Frost collected a pair of primary assists. Atkinson also contributed two helpers for a three-point game. Carter Hart went the first 40 minutes, yielding five goals on 15 shots. Samuel Ersson went the rest of the way, facing nine shots and stopping eight. The Flyers were 0-for-3 on the power play and 1-for-2 on the penalty kill.
Flyers winger Owen Tippett, who was on a scorching hot goal-scoring run and chipped in a second-period assist against Colorado, had to leave Saturday's game early in the third period with a lower-body injury. He got twisted in a routine board battle with Jonathan Drouin and went back to the bench in a lot of discomfort before exiting the game.
Sunday's probable goaltending matchup will pit Ersson against Mads Sogaard. Neither the Flyers nor Senators will hold a morning skate on Sunday. Philadelphia head coach John Tortorella will no be available to the media until after the game, although it's possible that he could provide a lineup update through Hockey Communication VP Joe Siville. This is typically done via text message to Siville and then distributed to the media.
Even in a best-case scenario with Tippett's injury, it's extremely unlikely that the player will be available to play immediately. In seeing the play happenlive in real-time from the press box, my immediate fear was either an ankle sprain (hopefully not high-ankle) or knee issue but was hoping it was a simple hyperextension as he went down with his leg contorting. More will be known in upcoming days.
Bobby Brink has become something of a forgotten player -- frequent scratches, limited ice time when he does play -- in recent weeks. If Tippett misses significant time, by necessity, Brink may start to play more regularly again with some of Philly's more skilled forwards and to receive power play time. Recently, even when he dressed for a game, it's been mainly fourth line or in mix-and-match line combos over sporadic shift deployments.
For an in-depth preview of Sundays game -- matchups, team trends, keys to the game and more -- see today's "Five Things" on PhiladelphiaFlyers.com: Click here.
When available, lineups will be added to the blog in an update section atop the page. Lineups below are speculative Philadelphia lineup possibilities with 11 forwards and seven defensemen or 12F/6D, along with Ottawa's starting lines from Saturday:
Phantoms Come Back to Beat Cleveland, 4-3
The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (17-15-6) salvaged a split of their two weekend road games with the Cleveland Monsters (24-11-2). On Friday, Cleveland prevailed by a 4-2 score. On Saturday, the Phantoms recovered from deficits of 2-0 and 3-2 to defeat the Monsters in regulation by a 4-3 score.
An Emil Andrae power play goal (4th goal of the season) at 12:54 of the third period proved to be the game-winner for Ian Laperriere's club. Earlier in the third period, Andrae assisted on a seeing-eye deflection goal by Olle Lycksell (16th) on a changeup that found its way past Jet Greaves (22 saves on 26 shots).
Lehigh Valley's regulation win rendered moot a pair of disputed goals with rulings that did no the Phantoms way. Set up by Cooper Marody, veteran Phantoms captain Garrett Wilson scored an apparent power play goal from the doorstep early in the second period that would have tied the score at 1-1. The play resulted in a very lengthy video replay delay to determine whether the puck entirely crossed the goal line. Eventually, it was ruled that there not a conclusive replay to overturn a no-goal ruling.
Later in the second period -- after Rhett Gardner (4th) scored off another Marody feed on a rather similar-looking play to the Wilson sequence and defenseman Ronnie Attard (8th) ripped a point shot into the net -- Cleveland forged a 3-2 edge another controversial play. The Phantoms claimed that a hand pass should have negated a power play goal by Carson Meyer (15th) at 10:14. The on-ice officials conferred again, but the ensuing faceoff was at center ice and the goal counted.
Cleveland's Brendan Gaunce (7th and 8th) tallied late first-period and early second-period goals to establish a 2-0 lead for the Monsters the later shot originated from the right corner and found its pay into the net. Gaunce later assisted on the Meyer power play goal. Columbus Blue Jackets 2022 first-round pick collected apples on both Gaunce tallies.
Phantoms goalie Felix Sandström played a strong game overall. He finished with 33 saves on 36 shots, doing some of his best work during the late-game closeout as the Monsters had a power play and attacked 6-on-4.
There was extensive special teams play throughout Saturday's match, as well as quite a bit of 4-on-4 time. The Phantoms went 1-for-7 on the power play. Most notably, they had 1:23 worth of 5-on-3 time in the third period after Cleveland took back-to-back delay of game penalties for putting the puck over the glass from the defensive zone. Lehigh Valley did not score during the two-man advantage portion, but Andrae's game-winning goal came during the remaining 5-on-4 opportunity.
On the other end of special teams, the Phantoms were shorthanded eight times (a few were rather abbreviated). Cleveland went 2-for-8. The Phantoms' PK had been up near the top of the AHL for a lengthy stretch earlier this season but has really struggled over the last six weeks. When Helge Grans was penalized in the final minute of regulation, Sandström was the primary reason the Phantoms were able to preserve the 4-3 lead.
Power forward Wade Allison and defenseman Louie Belpedio remained out of the Phantoms lineup on Saturday due to injuries. Second-year center Elliot Desnoyers celebrates his 22nd birthday on Sunday.
Up next for the Phantoms: a six-game homestand. The stretch begins next weekend with a game against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Friday and a match against the Toronto Marlies the next evening.
28 Olle Lycksell - 9 Tanner Laczynski - 27 Olle Tuomaala 16 J.R. Avon - 22 Rhett Gardner - 20 Cooper Marody 17 Garrett Wilson - 91 Elliot Desnoyers - 13 Brendan Furry 10 Evan Polei - 56 Jacob Gaucher - 15 Jordy Bellerive
37 Adam Ginning - 12 Ronnie Attard 5 Emil Andrae - 2 Helge Grans 98 Victor Mete - 5 Ethan Samson
32 Felix Sandström [40 Cal Petersen]