UPDATE 12:45 PM ET
Ryan Poehling (illness) remains unavailable to play. Head coach John Tortorella has opted to dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen. Both Egor Zamula and Marc Staal will be in the Philadelphia lineup. Call-up forward Olle Lycksell will not dress for the game.
On Thursday in Arizona, the Flyers essentially went with 11 forwards, too. Lycksell skated just six shifts for the game. The team juggled forward combinations throughout the night. Look for more of the same in Colorado, minus the periodic inclusion of Lycksell.
Lines below will skate their respective first shift together but then go in a blender frequently.
71 Tyson Foerster - 14 Sean Couturier - 11 Travis Konecny 86 Joel Farabee - 21 Scott Laughton - 89 Cam Atkinson 74 Owen Tippett - 48 Morgan Frost - 10 Bobby Brink 44 Nic Deslauriers - xxxxxxxxx - 19 Garnet Hathaway
8 Cam York - 6 Travis Sanheim 24 Nick Seeler - 26 Sean Walker 5 Egor Zamula/18 Marc Staal - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
79 Carter Hart [33 Samuel Ersson]
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Game 27 Preview: Flyers @ Avalanche
The Philadelphia Flyers (14-10-2) are in Denver on Saturday night to take on the Colorado Avalanche (16-8-2). Game time at Ball Arena is 9:00 p.m. ET.
The Flyers bring a three-game winning streak, a four-game point streak (3-0-1) into Saturday's game. However, while the Avs have not been in peak form the last couple weeks -- coming off a 4-2 home loss to Winnipeg, 5-3-2 in the last 10 games -- the Flyers will have their hands full against one of the NHL's top contenders for the Stanley Cup.
No team in the NHL has figured out lately how to contain Nathan MacKinnon or Cale Makar. The NHL's Second Star of the Month for November, MacKinnon brings a 10-game point streak into Saturday's game. Makar brings in 34 points and a plus-16 rating on the season. Colorado's other primary weapon, winger Mikko Rantanen, has 31 points to date this season.
The Flyers enter this game coming off a workmanlike 4-1 road win over the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday. Travis Konecny tallied even strength and shorthanded goals (13th and 14th goals of the season) to place the Flyers. Joel Farabee (9th) tallied a first period goal that built a 2-0 lead and Cam York (4th) scored off a nice toe drag in the left circle for added insurance in the third period. York tallied a goal in Colorado last December, so it's a good challenge for him offensively to see if he can do it again. Carter Hart stopped 25 of 26 shots to earn the win.
Ryan Poehling (illness) was a late scratch from Thursday's lineup for the Flyers. Amid lots of line juggling by Philadelphia throughout the game in Arizona, callup winger Olle Lycksell was mixed and matched sparingly into the line rotations on Thursday. Although listed as "fourth line center", none of Lycksell's eight shifts were played in the middle.
There is a good chance, even if Poehling does return to the lineup on Saturday, that head coach John Tortorella will continue to do a lot of line juggling. He's also likely to continue leaning very heavily on veterans -- Tyson Foerster and Cam York being the exceptions -- as the Flyers have being regularly over the last 11 games in particular.
Over the last 11 games, Travis Konecny has been averaging nearly 20 minutes of ice time per game (19:57). So has Sean Couturier (19:40). Cam Atkinson, despite struggling offensively, has averaged 17:09 of ice time in the last 11 games. Laughton is at 16:16 in the last 11 games despite being benched for a portion of one game (in Elmont against the Islanders). On the blueline, Tortorella has been making very heavy use of his top four, moderate use of the number five (Rasmus Ristolainen) and sparing use of the number six (rookie Egor Zamula or veteran Marc Staal).
These usage patterns are likely to continue in Denver against the Avs.
Lineups below are from each of the two teams' last games and will be updated later today.
FLYERS (Thursday's lineup)
71 Tyson Foerster - 14 Sean Couturier - 11 Travis Konecny 86 Joel Farabee - 21 Scott Laughton - 89 Cam Atkinson 74 Owen Tippett - 48 Morgan Frost - 10 Bobby Brink 44 Nic Deslauriers - 62 Olle Lycksell - 19 Garnet Hathaway
8 Cam York - 6 Travis Sanheim 24 Nick Seeler - 26 Sean Walker 5 Egor Zamula - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
79 Carter Hart [33 Samuel Ersson]
Notes: The Flyers have a morning skate at Ball Arena later today. It will become clearer then whether Marc Staal or Egor Zamula play and whether Ryan Poehling is feeling well enough to play.
AVALANCHE (Thursday's lineup)
27 Drouin - 29 Nathan MacKinnon - 25 Logan O'Connor 28 Miles Wood - 20 Ross Colton - 96 Mikko Rantanen 90 Tomas Tatar - 12 Ryan Johansen - 94 Joel Kiviranta 11 Andrew Cogliano - 22 Fredrik Olofsson - 56 Kurtis MacDermid
7 Devon Toews - 8 Cale Makar 4 Bowen Byram - 42 Josh Manson 3 Jack Johnson - 70 Sam Malinski
40 Alexandar Georgiev [50 Ivan Prosvetov]
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Phantoms Blanked by Providence
Now winless in their last four games (0-3-1) after ratting off a six-game point streak (5-0-1), the Lehigh Valley Phantoms (9-9-4) were shut out on home ice by the Providence Bruins, 2-0, on Friday evening.
Shots on goal -- let alone bonafide scoring chances -- were few and far between for the Phantoms until the third period. The Phantoms generated a measly combined eight shots on goal with zero high-danger chances among them for the game's first 4 minutes. By then, the 2-0 deficit on power play goals by John Faricacci (7th) and Reilly Walsh (2nd) might as well have been a five-goal gap.
In the third period, Providence goalie Michael DiPietro (19-save shutout) nailed down the win with 11 saves. The Phantoms had two unsuccessful power plays in the final stanza (among their 0-for-6 for the game on the man advantage).
Lehigh Valley was missing two-thirds of its top line -- Tanner Laczynski (injury) and Olle Lycksell (NHL recall) were unavailable -- and the injury bug also bit Victor Mete and Evan Polei in Friday's game but there's no excuse for such a feeble showing. The Phantoms are now 0-2-1 in head-to-head games against Providence this season.
In a losing cause, Felix Sandström stopped 23 of 25 shots. Providence went 2-for-6 on the power play. Neither team scored at even strength.
The Phantoms will return to action on Saturday, hosting the Charlotte Checkers (11-9-1). The same two teams will rematch in Allentown on Wednesday.
Lehigh Valley's starting lineup on Friday was as follows:
17 Garret Wilson - 91 Elliot Desnoyers - 19 Wade Allison 20 Cooper Marody - 13 Brendan Furry - 27 Samu Tuomaala 16 JR Avon - 15 Jordy Bellerive - 29 Alexis Gendron 10 Evan Polei - 56 Jacob Gaucher - 14 Zayde Wisdom
6 Emil Andrae - 37 Adam Ginning 98 Victor Mete - 12 Ronnie Attard 3 Adam Karashik - 5 Ethan Samson
32 Felix Sandström [40 Cal Petersen]