Preview: Flyers vs. Red Wings
Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers (6-6-1) are home on Tuesday night to take on Jeff Blashill's Detroit Red Wings (6-6-1). Game time at the Wells Fargo Center is 7:00 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on CSN Philadelphia.
This is the second of three meetings between the teams this season, and the second and final of two in Philadelphia. The Flyers and Red Wings faced off in Philly less than a week ago, with the Flyers capturing a comeback 4-3 win in overtime. The season series concludes in Detroit on December 11. The Flyers bring a 12-game regular season home winning streak against the Red Wings into this game, dating back to a 4-1 matinee loss on Jan. 25, 1997.
The Flyers completed a three-in-four stretch of game nights (home-road-road) on Saturday in Montreal. The annual Flyers Wives Fight for Lives Carnival was held on Sunday and the team got in a rare full practice day on Monday, which should become more frequent now that the game schedule -- rife with back-to-backs and three-in-fours thus far -- somewhat slows down.
The Red Wings last played on Sunday. The team is winless (0-4-1) in its last five games.
Flyers Outlook
The Flyers outplayed the Montreal Canadiens for portions of Saturday's nights game but left with a 5-4 regulation loss. Chris VandeVelde, Shayne Gostisbehere, Claude Giroux (power play) and Travis Konecny (power play) scored in a losing cause for the Flyers, while goaltender Michal Neuvirth stopped just 12 of 17 shots. Two of the Montreal goals appeared stoppable.
While the team's dreadful 3.69 goals against average thus far is a shared responsibility among the goalies, forwards and defensemen, the volume of routine shots that have turned into goals thus far has been unacceptably high. That specific area is on the goaltenders themselves to fix.
After one solid (minus a stoppable third period go-ahead goal) performance, two middling ones and a rough outing during a four-game run of starts, it appears that Neuvirth will return to the bench as the backup and the also-struggling Steve Mason will get his next crack at re-establishing a hold on the primary starter job.
At Monday's practice, Matt Read moved up to left wing on the Claude Giroux line, while Michael Raffl skated on the third line. Scott Laughton rejoined the Flyers after a conditioning stint with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms but remained on the long-term injured reserve list as of Monday.
Red Wings Outlook
Detroit is coming off a 2-1 regulation home loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday. An early power play goal by Justin Abdelkader stood as the lone Red Wings tally in the game. Jimmy Howard made 26 saves in a losing cause. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins converted a power play feed from Connor McDavid to put the Oilers ahead to stay in the second period.
Detroit has recalled Tyler Bertuzzi -- the nephew of former Red Wings power forward Todd Bertuzzi -- from the AHL's Grand Rapids Griffins. He will make his NHL debut in Philadelphia on Tuesday night. If the team's practice lines from Monday hold, Bertuzzi will skate on a line with Frans Nielsen and Dylan Larkin. The club has placed Thomas Vanek (lower body injury) on long-term injured reserve.
Veteran hard-hitting defenseman Niklas Kronwall did not play in Philadelphia last Wednesday but subsequently returned to the Detroit lineup for the first time this season. The player, who has a chronic knee issue that surgery cannot correct and takes regular maintenance days, did not practice on Monday but is expected to be in the lineup for this game. Ditto veteran forward Henrik Zetterberg.
Projected Lineups (subject to change, will be updated)
FLYERS
24 Matt Read - 28 Claude Giroux - 17 Wayne Simmonds 11 Travis Konecny - 14 Sean Couturier - 92 Jakub Voracek 12 Michael Raffl - 10 Brayden Schenn - 22 Dale Weise 76 Chris VandeVelde - 76 P-E Bellemare - 13 Roman Lyubimov
15 Michael Del Zotto - 53 Shayne Gostisbehere 23 Brandon Manning - 3 Radko Gudas 9 Ivan Provorov - 32 Mark Streit
35 Steve Mason [30 Michal Neuvirth]
Scratches: Nick Schultz (healthy),Nick Cousins (healthy), Andrew MacDonald (lower body), Boyd Gordon (LTIR, upper body).
RED WINGS
71 Dylan Larkin - 51 Frans Nielsen - 59 Tyler Bertuzzi 21 Tomas Tatar - 40 Henrik Zetterberg - 8 Justin Abdelkader 72 Andreas Athanasiou - 43 Darren Helm - 14 Gustav Nyquist 15 Riley Sheahan - 41 Luke Glendening - 29 Steve Ott
65 Danny DeKeyser - 55 Niklas Kronwall 52 Jonathan Ericsson - 25 Mike Green 2 Brendan Smith - 53 Alexey Marchenko
35 Jimmy Howard [34 Petr Mrazek]
Scratches: Ryan Sproul (healthy), Drew Miller (healthy), Xavier Ouellet (healthy), Thomas Vanek (LTIR, lower body), Tomas Jurco (back), Joe Vitale (LTIR, concussion), Johan Franzén (LTIR, post-concussion syndrome).