UPDATE: 11:30 AM
The Flyers' lineup has been updated. Brandon Manning returns to the Flyers lineup, paired with Luke Schenn. Radko Gudas is a healthy scratch.
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PREVIEW: FLYERS VS. DEVILS
Playing their final home match before a five-game road trip, Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers (4-2-2) host John Hynes' New Jersey Devils (4-4-1) on Thursday. Game time at the Wells Fargo Center is 7 p.m. ET. The game will be televised locally on CSN Philly.
This is the first of four meetings between the Metropolitan Division clubs. They will rematch on Dec. 4 (Newark), Feb. 13 (Philadelphia) and Feb. 16 (Newark). The Flyers have struggled against the Devils ever since losing to New Jersey in the 2012 Eastern Conference semifinals. Entering this season, the Flyers have lost six of their last seven games (1-6-0) against the Devils.
After this game, the Flyers are right back in action on Friday, heading out on the road to play the Buffalo Sabres. The Devils host the New York Islanders on Saturday afternoon.
Flyers Outlook
The Flyers enter this game coming off a generally subpar effort in a 4-3 overtime home loss against Buffalo on Tuesday. Philadelphia got outplayed and trailed for most of the game but a pair of third-period goals by Brayden Schenn forged overtime.
Philadelphia also got a goal from Chris VandeVelde in the first period, snapping a 23-game goalless stretch that dated back to the last season. Steve Mason stopped 36 of 40 shots.
With Pierre-Edouard Bellemare (lower-body injury sustained in the first period of Tuesday's game) out for two weeks and Sean Couturier (concussion) still skating on his own, it appears that Vincent Lecavalier will make his first regular-season appearance of 2015-16. Lecavalier skated on the left wing of the fourth line at Wednesday's practice, with VandeVelde moving to center the unit.
The Flyers switched up their defense pairs at Wednesday's practice. Mark Streit took reps with Michael Del Zotto. Nick Schultz was paired with Evgeny Medvedev. The third pairing could be Brandon Manning with Luke Schenn.
Michal Neuvirth is slated to come off the injured reserve list on Thursday. Jason LaBarbera will return to the Phantoms.
Heading into Thursday's game, the Flyers are both generating a lot of shots (an average 34.9 per game) but also yielding a lot of shots (average 33.0). Philly is scoring at a modest 2.25 goal-per-game clip and have yielded 2.75 per game (still somewhat skewed by a 7-1 loss in the second game of the season). The power play has had its share of good chances but is converting at just a 15.4 percent success rate. The penalty kill (77.4 percent) also has room for improvement.
Devils Outlook
The Devils have found more early-season succcess on the road (3-1-0) than at home (1-3-1) thus far. The team enters this game coming off a 3-1 home loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets, which snapped a four-game winning streak for New Jersey.
On Tuesday, the game was scoreless until Columbus broke free for three goals in the third period. Kyle Palmieri scored a late power play goal to avoid a shutout, but it was too little and too late. Cory Schneider saw just 14 shots for the entire game, stopping 11.
Veteran forward Mike Cammalleri is off to a fast start this season, collecting 11 points (three goals, eight assists) through the team's first nine games. Adam Henrique has a team-high six goals thus far to go along with three helpers.
On the injury front Tuomo Ruutu (fractured right foot) recently joined longtime Flyer-killer Patrik Elias (IR, knee) and Ryane Clowe (IR, post-concussion syndrome) on the injury list. The Devils claimed Bobby Farnham off waivers from the Pittsburgh Penguins this week.
Heading into Thursday's game, the Devils are averaging 25.9 shots per game and yielding an average 26.7 shots. The club is scoring at just a 2.22 goals-per-game pace and giving up an average 2.78 goals per game. New Jersey's power play comes in with a 22.6 percent success rate but the penalty kill has succeeded just 75 percent of the time thus far.
Projected lineups (Subject to change, will be updated)
FLYERS
12 Michael Raffl - 28 Claude Giroux - 93 Jakub Voracek 24 Matt Read - 89 Sam Gagner - 17 Wayne Simmonds 20 R.J. Umberger - 21 Scott Laughton - 10 Brayden Schenn 40 Vincent Lecavalier - 76 Chris VandeVelde - 25 Ryan White
15 Michael Del Zotto - 32 Mark Streit 55 Nick Schultz - 82 Evgeny Medvedev 23 Brandon Manning - 22 Luke Schenn
35 Steve Mason [30 Michal Neuvirth]
Scratches: Radko Gudas (healthy), Sean Couturier (concussion), Pierre-Edouard Bellemare (lower body).
DEVILS
13 Mike Cammalleri - 14 Adam Henrique - 20 Lee Stempniak 9 Jiri Tlusty - 19 Travis Zajac - 21 Kyle Palmieri 18 Brian O'Neill - 16 Jacob Josefson - 22 Jordin Tootoo 51 Sergey Kalinin - 11 Stephen Gionta - 23 Bobby Farnham
6 Andy Greene - 5 Adam Larsson 44 Eric Gelinas - 28 Damon Severson 2 John Moore - 8 David Schlemko
35 Cory Schneider [1 Keith Kinkaid]
Scratches: Jon Merrill (healthy), Stefan Matteau (healthy), Tuomo Ruutu (fractured right foot), Patrik Elias (IR, knee), Ryane Clowe (IR, post-concussion syndrome).