Game 33 Preview: FLYERS VS. PREDATORS
Interim head coach Scott Gordon's Philadelphia Flyers (13-15-4) host Peter Laviolette's Nashville Predators (22-11-2) on Scott Hartnell Night at the Wells Fargo Center. Game time is 7:00 p.m. ET.
The game will be televised locally on NBCSP. The radio broadcast can be found on 97.5 FM The Fanatic with an online simulcast at FlyersRadio247.com.
This is the first of two meetings this season between the inter-conference teams and the lone game in Philadelphia. The teams will rematch in Nashville on New Year's Day. Last season, the Flyers sustained a highly controversial 6-5 road loss in "Smashville" in the Predators' home opener on Oct. 10, 2017. Nine days later in Philadelphia, the Predators nipped the Flyers, 1-0.
Flyers Outlook
The Flyers took an off-day from practice on Wednesday to mentally recuperate from the whirlwind of activity and emotions tied up in the last week. On Tuesday, the Flyers earned a 3-2 home win over the Detroit Red Wings.
Carter Hart stopped 20 of 22 shots to become the youngest goaltender in Flyers history to win his NHL debut -- or any game. James van Riemsdyk, Radko Gudas and Shayne Gostisbehere scored for the Flyers.
The Flyers made one roster move on Wednesday, reassigning center Phil Varone to the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms. There were no trades in advance of the NHL's holiday trade freeze. Varone, who was in Allentown on Wednesday but did no play in the Phantoms' 5-0 win over the Hershey Bears, was recalled to the Flyers early on Thursday morning.
Gordon will conduct a morning skate on Thursday at the Skate Zone in Voorhees. In Tuesday's game, he carried over one of the tendencies he showed frequently as Phantoms coach: starting the game with somewhat different line combinations from the ones the team used in the morning skate and/or pregame warmups.
Predators Outlook
Laviolette's team has been outstanding in its inter-conference games so far. The Predators enter Thursday with a 10-0-1 record against Eastern Conference opponents and carry a team 1.80 goals against average across the 11 games. Their 10-game winning streak to start the season against the East set a new NHL record for a season-opening run of consecutive wins in interconference games.
The Predators are a banged up team but have been getting some key personnel back of late. However, P.K. Subban (17 games missed to date), Filip Forsberg (nine games missed) and Victor Arvidsson (19 games missed) all remain on injured reserve. Colton Sissons went down in Tuesday's game with an apparent ankle injury. Even without those players, the team remains plenty dangerous.
The likes of potential Norris Trophy candidate defenseman and team captain Roman Josi (23 points, including five goals, in his last 24 games), Ryan Johanson (team-leading 30 points) and Kyle Turris lead the way offensively. Potential Vezina Trophy candidate Pekka Rinne has been lights out in goal for most of the first half of the season. Meanwhile, the Predators have 10 players in all who have already hit the double-digit goal mark. Craig Smith, who has three goals in the last six games, became the most recent player to hit double-digits.
Nashville enters this game coming off a 2-1 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks. Kevin Fiala scored the lone Predators goal, while Rinne made 32 saves in a losing cause.
PROJECTED LINEUPS (Subject to change, will be updated)
FLYERS
25 James van Riemsdyk - 28 Claude Giroux - 11 Travis Konecny 17 Wayne Simmonds - 14 Sean Couturier - 93 Jakub Voracek 21 Scott Laughton - 19 Nolan Patrick - 12 Michael Raffl 23 Oskar Lindblom - 44 Phil Varone - 22 Dale Weise
9 Ivan Provorov - 6 Travis Sanheim 53 Shayne Gostisbehere - 8 Robert Hà¤gg 47 Andrew MacDonald - 3 Radko Gudas
79 Carter Hart [30 Michal Neuvirth]
Scratches: 15 Jori Lehterठ(healthy), 40 Jordan Weal (healthy), 26 Christian Folin (healthy), 41 Anthony Stolarz (IR, lower body), 37 Brian Elliott (IR, lower body), 10 Corban Knight (IR, collarbone), 5 Sam Morin (ACL surgery).
Predators
38 Ryan Hartman - 92 Ryan Johansen - 22 Kevin Fiala 19 Calle Jà¤rnkrok - 8 Kyle Turris - 15 Craig Smith 36 Zac Rinaldo - 13 Nick Bonino - 51 Austin Watson 20 Miikka Salomà¤ki - 89 Frederick Gaudreau - 23 Rocco Grimaldi …‹
59 Roman Josi - 4 Ryan Ellis 5 Dan Hamhuis - 14 Mattias Ekholm 2 Anthony Bitetto - 7 Yannick Weber…‹
35 Pekka Rinne [74 Juuse Saros…‹]
Scratches:One of 36 Zac Rinaldo (healthy) or Colton Scissons (lower body), 52 Matt Irwin (healthy) 9 Filip Forsberg (IR, upper body), 76 P.K. Subban (IR, upper body), 33 Victor Arvidsson (IR, broken thumb).
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Phantoms Shut Out Bears, 5-0
The Lehigh Valley Phantoms earned a 5-0 victory over the Hershey Bears with a strong all-around team performance at the PPL Center in Allentown on Wednesday night. The game was the club's first with acting head coach Kerry Huffman and acting assistant coach Kjell Samuelsson at the helm.
The Phantoms outshot Hershey by a 34-18 margin for the game, and won all three periods both in goals (1-0, 2-0, 2-0) and shots (8-6, 11-7, 15-5). When called upon to make a challenging save, Alex Lyon delivered en route to earning the shutout.
Lehigh Valley got goals from Mike Vecchione (8th), Carsen Twarynski (4th), Nicolas Aube-Kubel (8th), Greg Carey (power play, 14th) and Connor Bunnaman (6th). Mikhail Vorobyev recorded an assist (7th) in his return to the lineup from an upper-body injury. The Phantoms went 3-for-3 on the penalty kill and 1-for-7 on the power play.
The Phantoms (16-9-2) host the Syracuse Crunch on Friday night at the PPL Center and then pay a visit to Hershey on Saturday.