GAME 41: FLYERS @ GOLDEN KNIGHTS
In the fourth game of a six-game road trip and the final game, Alain Vigneault's Philadelphia Flyers (22-13-5 overall, 9-11-1 away) are in Paradise, Nevada, on Thursday to take on Gerard Gallant's Vegas Golden Knights (22-15-6, 12-7-3 home). Game time at T-Mobile Arena is 10:00 p.m. ET.
The game will be televised on NBCSP. The radio broadcast will be on 97.5 The Fanatic with an online simulcast on Flyers Radio 24/7.
This is the second and final meeting of the season between the teams, and the lone game in Vegas. The Flyers are 1-0-0 in the season series to date.
On Oct. 21, the Flyers skated to a 6-2 victory over Vegas at the Wells Fargo Travis Konecny (power play) scored in the first period. Kevin Hayes, Ivan Provorov (originally credited to Michael Raffl), Matt Niskanen (power play, 2nd) and Oskar Lindblom (4th) extended the lead to 5-0 by the second intermission. After Vegas shaved two goals off the deficit, Raffl scored on a breakaway. Jonathan Marchessault (5-on-3 power play) and Reilly Smith scored in the third period for Vegas.
Brian Elliott was strong in goal, earning the win for the Flyers. He stopped 33 of 35 shots. Secondary backup netminder Oskar Dansk got the start for Vegas, and struggled. The Flyers got six past him on 37 shots.
FLYERS OUTLOOK
Thursday's game marks the statistical midpoint of the 2019-20 season for the Flyers. It is also the team's fourth game in four different cities over less than six full nights. It is an absolute must for the Flyers to avoid doing against Vegas what they did in ugly losses in San Jose and Los Angeles: getting outskated and outworked from the outset, playing sloppily on both sides of the puck and finding themselves hopelessly chasing the game.
On Tuesday, the Flyers lost 5-3 to Los Angeles. From a territorial standpoint, the game was fairly even. From an execution standpoint, especially on special teams (3 PPGAs, 1 SHGA), the Flyers buried themselves before the game was out of reach. A disastrous first period (trailing 4-0) and their awful night on special teams proved to be the Flyers' undoing. A third period pushback from the Flyers was too little and came way too late.
Justin Braun (1st goal as a Flyer) got the Flyers on the board with 5:01 left in the second period on a shot that generated a friendly bounce into the net. Claude Giroux (power play, 12th) converted a nice feed from Jakub Voracek, narrowing the gap to 5-2 and Scott Laughton (5th) scored on a deflection off his skate.
Brian Elliott was pulled after the first period, yielding four goals on 15 shots. Carter Hart went the rest of the way, turning back 13 of 14 shots.
Despite playing three games in less than 96 hours, the team held practice on Wednesday before departing for Vegas. Hart will get the start in goal on Thursday. Based on Wednesday's practice, it appears that Phil Myers will return to the Flyers lineup with Robert Hà¤gg being a healthy scratch.
Tuesday's loss was like too many the Flyers have played on the road this season. The root cause of the massive discrepancy between Philly's stellar home record and mediocre-at-best road mark is the amount of goals yielded on average. The Flyers have a 3.62 road GAA (27th in NHL) on the road, compared their 1.95 GAA (No. 1 in the NHL) on home ice.
The Flyers, 1-1-0 on the current post-Christmas break road trip, are a mediocre 5-5-0 over the last 10 games. They enter Thursday one point behind of the Carolina Hurricanes for fourth place in the Metro Division and three points behind the Pittsburgh Penguins for third.
Entering this game, the Flyers have averaged 3.08 goals per game (14th) overall and have a team 2.83 GAA (7th). The power play checks in at 19.9 percent (14th) with four shorthanded goals allowed. Heading into LA, the penalty kill was at 83.7 percent (6th) but, in the course of getting shredded by LA's near-the-bottom power play, the Flyers PK tumbled down to 81.6 percent (12th) and faces a tough task against a good Vegas power play unless they fix the various issues that opened the floodgates for the Kings last game.
The Flyers team 54.6 percent faceoff winning percentage tops the NHL.
GOLDEN KNIGHTS OUTLOOK
Winners of back-to-back games to start a seven-game homestand, the Pacific Division leading Golden Knights have posted a 5-2-0 record at home since the start of December. Overall, Gallant's team has posted points in seven of their last 10 games (6-3-1).
To open the homestand, the Golden Knights rattled off a 4-1 win over Arizona on Saturday and then followed it up with a 5-2 win against Anaheim on New Year's Eve.
Marc-Andre Fleury's 26-save performance on Tuesday lifted him into sole possession of sixth place on the NHL's all-time wins list for goaltenders (455th). Vegas trailed early but goals by Mark Stone (16th) and, in the final 20 seconds of the opening period, by Alex Tuch (6th) gave the Golden Knights a lead they'd never relinquish. After Reilly Smith (15th) built a 3-1 lead late in the second period, Jonathan Marchessault scored twice in the third period (14th and 15th) to seal the victory.
Entering Thursday, the Golden Knights have averaged 3.05 goals per game (T-16th) and have a team 2.91 GAA (10th). The power play enters at 21.9 percent (10th) and the PK at 82.3 percent (T-7th) with a half-dozen shorthanded goals scored. The Golden Knights have won 49.7 percent of their faceoffs (19th).
PROJECTED STARTING LINEUPS (subject to change, will be updated)
FLYERS
28 Claude Giroux - 14 Sean Couturier - 93 Jakub Voracek 25 James van Riemsdyk - 13 Kevin Hayes - 11 Travis Konecny 49 Joel Farabee - 21 Scott Laughton - 18 Tyler Pitlick 12 Mchael Raffl - 24 Mikhail Vorobyev - 44 Chris Stewart
9 Ivan Provorov - 15 Matt Niskanen 6 Travis Sanheim - 61 Justin Braun 53 Shayne Gostisbehere - 5 Phil Myers
79 Carter Hart [37 Brian Elliott]
Power Play 1: Giroux, Couturier, JVR, Konecny, Provorov. Power Play 2: Farabee, Hayes, Voracek, Gostisbehere, Niskanen.
Scratches: 8 Robert Hà¤gg (healthy),62 Nicolas Aube-Kubel (healthy), 10 Andy Andreoff (healthy). LTIR: 55 Sam Morin (torn ACL, out for season), 23 Oskar Lindblom (Ewing sarcoma, out for season), 19 Nolan Patrick (migraines)
GOLDEN KNIGHTS
81 Jonathan Marchessault - 71 William Karlsson - 19 Reilly Smith 67 Max Pacioretty - 20 Chandler Stephenson - 6 Mark Stone 89 Alex Tuch - 26 Paul Stastny - 9 Cody Glass 28 William Carrier - 92 Tomas Nosek - 75 Ryan Reaves
3 Brayden McNabb - 88 Nate Schmidt 22 Nick Holden - 27 Shea Theodore 15 Jon Merrill - 5 Deryk Engelland
29 Marc-Andre Fleury [30 Malcolm Subban]
Power Play 1: Glass, Marchessault, Smith, Karlsson, Theodore Power Play 2: Tuch, Stastny, Stone. Pacioretty, Schmidt
Scratches: 14 Nicolas Hague (healthy), 21 Cody Eakin (head, day-to-day).
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WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS: QUARTERFINALS
After a tournament-wide off-day on New Year's Day, the medal round quarterfinals get underway on Thursday at the 2019-20 IIHF World Junior Championships in the Czech Republic. As always, the medal-round is played under single-elimination format. The relegation round is a best-of-three. Thursday's schedule is as follows (Flyers prospects in parentheses):
* Relegation Game 1: Germany vs. Kazakhstan * QF1: Russia (Egor Zamula) vs. Switzerland * QF2: Canada vs. Slovakia * QF3: USA (Bobby Brink, Cam York) vs. Finland * QF4: Sweden (Adam Ginning) vs. Czech Republic
The two semifinal games and Game 2 of the relegation round will be played on Saturday.