Preview: Flyers vs. Senators
Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers (7-7-2) play host to Guy Boucher's Ottawa Senators (9-5-1) on Tuesday night. Game time at the Wells Fargo Center is 7:00 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on CSN Philadelphia.
This is the first of three meetings between the teams this season and the first of two in Philadelphia. The teams will rematch on Dec. 1 in Ottawa and March 28 in Philly. Last season, the Flyers went 2-1-0 against the Sens.
Flyers Outlook
The Flyers are coming off a resilient and workmanlike 3-2 regulation home win against a good Minnesota Wild team on Saturday night. Jakub Voracek, Michael Del Zotto and Brayden Schenn (power play) scored for the Flyers.
Michal Neuvirth started in goal for the Flyers. After getting beaten to the short side on the game's first shot just 21 seconds after the opening faceoff, he battled to make six saves over the rest of the period despite sustaining a lower-body injury (believed to be a left knee issue) late in the period. He was placed on injured reserve on Monday and is expected to miss four to six weeks. Anthony Stolarz was recalled from Lehigh Valley on Monday.
Steve Mason, who sandwiched a very strong start against Detroit and excellent relief work against Minnesota around a rough night in Toronto on Friday, figures to get extensive playing time going forward. However, given the time of season and the length of Neuvirth's absence, third-year pro Stolarz figures to finally receive his first NHL playing time at some point.
Despite numerous players taking maintenance days on Monday or the morning skate on Tuesday, the Flyers will dress the same lineup as in the Minnesota game.
Senators Outlook
Ottawa has collected points in seven of its last 10 games, going 6-3-1 in that span. The team is coming off a 2-1 overtime home loss to Minnesota on Sunday. Kyle Turris' seventh goal of the still-young season knotted the score in the third period, while Craig Anderson made 40 saves in a losing cause. The Senators lost defenseman Marc Methot in the second period to a lower-body injury.
Despite the team continuing to collect points at a healthy clip, goal scoring has been somewhat scarce of late for the Senators. Over its past nine games, Ottawa has scored just 13 goals overall. The team has not mustered more than three goals in a game since earning a 3-0 win against the Vancouver Canucks back on Oct. 25. Not surprisingly, however, defenseman Erik Karlsson leads the team in scoring thus far with 13 points (three goals, 10 assists) to date.
In 11 appearances to date, Anderson is 7-3-0 with a 2.15 GAA and .934 save percentage. The Flyers have actually run up against very good goaltending in two of the last three games. Jimmy Howard was excellent for Detroit against Philly while Devan Dubnyk was Minnesota's best player in Saturday's tilt.
Projected Lineups (subject to change, will be updated)
FLYERS
10 Brayden Schenn- 28 Claude Giroux - 17 Wayne Simmonds 11 Travis Konecny - 14 Sean Couturier - 93 Jakub Voracek 12 Michael Raffl - 78 P-E Bellemare - 24 Matt Read 76 Chris VandeVelde - 25 Nick Cousins - 22 Dale Weise
15 Michael Del Zotto - 53 Shayne Gostisbehere 23 Brandon Manning - 3 Radko Gudas 9 Ivan Provorov - 32 Mark Streit
35 Steve Mason [41 Anthony Stolarz]
Scratches: Nick Schultz (healthy), Roman Lyubimov (healthy), Andrew MacDonald (lower body), Boyd Gordon (LTIR, upper body), Michal Neuvirth (IR, lower body).
SENATORS
18 Ryan Dzingel - 7 Kyle Turris - 9 Bobby Ryan 68 Mike Hoffman - 19 Derick Brassard - 61 Mark Stone 15 Zack Smith - 44 Jean-Gabriel Pageau - 10 Tom Pyatt 26 Matt Puempel - 22 Chris Kelly - 25 Chris Neil
3 Marc Methot - 65 Erik Karlsson 2-Dion Phaneuf - 5 Cody Ceci 74 Mark Borowiecki - 6 Chris Wideman
41 Craig Anderson [1 Mike Condon]
Scratches:33 Fredrik Claesson (healthy), Tom Pyatt (healthy), Andrew Hammond (IR, groin), Clarke MacArthur (IR, concussion).