UPDATE 3:30 PM The Flyers have recalled veteran Sam Gagner. With Sean Couturier day-to-day with a lower body injury, Gagner will center the second line.
PREVIEW: FLYERS @ PENGUINS
Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers (20-16-8) are in western Pennsylvania on Thursday to take on Mike Sullivan's Pittsburgh Penguins (21-17-7). Game time at Consol Energy Center is 7:00 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on CSN Philadelphia.
This is the first of four meetings between the arch-rivals this season. The clubs will rematch on March 19 in Philadelphia, April 3 in Pittsburgh and April 9 (final day of the regular season) in Philadelphia. Last year, the Flyers swept the season series and have won eight games in a row against the Pens. The Flyers are 11-1-1 in their last 13 games at Consol Energy and 13-2-1 all time if the 2012 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals are included.
The Flyers will be in action for the fourth time in six nights. They are coming off a 3-2 regulation home loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday. The Penguins have had two nights off since playing a three-in-four gauntlet. On Monday, the Pens sustained a 5-2 road loss to the St. Louis Blues.
Flyers Outlook
The Flyers are 5-1-1 over their last seven games but are coming off one of their worst performances in months. Outplayed by Toronto for all but the first 10 minute of the game, the Flyers found themselves 7.5 seconds away from getting the game to overtime, when an icing, a lost faceoff and a point shot that deflected off the shin pad of defenseman Michael Del Zotto into the net sent them down to a 3-2 defeat.
Matt Read (power play) and Shayne Gostisbehere scored for Philadelphia in a losing cause. Steve Mason stopped 32 of 35 shots in a losing cause. Gostisbehere's spectacular third-period unassisted goal tied the game.
After starting the season 5-8-3, the Flyers have gone 15-8-5. In each of the last four games, they have trailed by one goal entering the third period. The team pulled off three straight comebacks to gain at least one point and had a strong chance at a fourth when disaster struck in the waning seconds of Tuesday's game.
Sean Couturier took a maintenance day on Wednesday after a lower-body injury in Tuesday's game. Recently acquired forward Jordan Weal stood in at center on Couturier's line at Wednesday's practice. Couturier is expected to play on Thursday.
Weal may still make his Flyers debut in Thursday's game, however. Fourth line center Scott Laughton and right winger R.J. Umberger were both benched for the entire third period of Tuesday's debacle. One of the two players may sit in favor of Weal on Thursday. Pittsburgh native Umberger, who has not scored a goal in his last 47 games, enjoyed good success against the Penguins earlier in his career, including a three-goal, five-point game back on Dec. 11, 2007.
Team captain Claude Giroux leads the Flyers with 13 goals, 22 assists and 35 points in 44 games. He is followed on the Flyers' scoring leader list by Voracek (five goals, 26 assists, 31 points), Simmonds (12 goals, 13 assists, 25 points, 86 penalty minutes), and Schenn (10 goals, 12 assists, 22 points). Sean Couturier rounds out the top five with nine goals, 13 assists and 22 points. Gostisbehere has contributed eight goals (four on the power play, three in overtime), nine assists and 17 points in 26 games.
Mason has appeared in 28 games, posting a 10-11-6 record, 2.67 goals against average, .915 save percentage and three shutouts (four regulation shutouts). Michal Neuvirth has appeared in 19 games, posting a 10-5-2 record, 2.05 GAA, .936 save percentage and three shutouts.
Penguins Outlook
The Penguins have posted a 3-2-2 record thus far in January and are 4-2-4 over their last 10 games. The most encouraging recent sign for the club has been a surge by team captain Sidney Crosby after a slow start to the season by his standards. Crosby brings a four-game point streak (two goals, four assists, six points) into this game and has posted 19 points (nine goals, 10 assists) over his last 14 games.
On Monday, the Penguins and Blues were tied 2-2 entering the third period before St. Louis struck for two even-strength goals and a late empty netter to seal a 5-2 final. Chris Kunitz and Evgeni Malkin scored once apiece in a losing cause and defenseman Kris Letang chipped in a pair of assists. Backup Penguins goalie Jeff Zatkoff got the start and turned back 20 of 24 shot to get charged with the loss as Peter Stastny racked up a four-point game for the Blues.
New head coach Sullivan has posted a 6-7-4 record since taking over after the dismissal of Mike Johnston. The Penguins recently made a swap of forwards with the Anaheim Ducks receiving former New York Rangers speedster Carl Hagelin in exchange for David Perron. Hagelin has played two games thus far for Pittsburgh.
Letang, the team's blueline catalyst (when healthy) in recent years took a maintenance day on Wednesday. He is questionable for Thursday's game. Twenty-one-year old defenseman Olli Mà¤à¤ttठhas posted a team-best plus-17 rating in an average 18:55 of ice time per game. Letang paces all Pittsburgh players by logging an average 26:16 of ice time per game.
Offensively, the Penguns are led by Malkin's 44 points (20 goals, 24 assiss) in 45 games. He is followed by Crosby (14 goals, 23 assists, 23 points), Letang (six goals, 24 assists,30 points, minus-10 in 35 games), offseason acqusition Phil Kessel (12 goals, 15 assists, 27 points), Patric Hörnqvist (10 goals, 13 assists, 23 points) and Chris Kunitz (eight goals, eight assists, 16 points, plus-12). Veteran starting goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury has posted a 16-11-5 record, 2.28 goals against average, .925 save percentage and three shutouts in 32 starts.
If Letang is unable to play, he may be replaced in the Pittsburgh lineup by Derrick Pouliot. Elsewhere on the injury front, the Penguins are without Beau Bennet (right shoulder) and Nick Bonino (hand), who are both on injured reserve. David Warsofsky (concussion) is listed as day-to-day.
Key team stat comparisons (NHL overall ranking)
Non-shootout goals per game: Flyers 2.23 (28th), Penguins 2.42 (22nd) Non-shootout goals against per game: Flyers 2.57 (13th), Penguins 2.44 (11th) 5-on-5 Goals For/Against Ratio: Flyers 63/65, Penguins 67/70 Power play efficiency: Flyers 15.7% (27th), Penguins 18.7% (12th) Penalty killing efficiency: Flyers 79.2% (24th), Penguins 84.6% (6th) Shots per game: Flyers 30.2 (12th), Penguins 32.1 (1st) Shots against per game: Flyers 32.1 (29th), Penguins 31.0 (24th) Faceoff percentage: Flyers 49.9% (18th), Penguins 50.3% (11th)
Projected lineups (subject to change, will be updated)
Flyers
93 Jakub Voracek - 28 Claude Giroux - 17 Wayne Simmonds 12 Michael Raffl - 89 Sam Gagner - 10 Brayden Schenn 76 Chris VandeVelde - 78 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - 25 Ryan White 24 Matt Read - 21 Scott Laughton - 20 R.J. Umberger
15 Michael Del Zotto - 3 Radko Gudas 55 Nick Schultz - 32 Mark Streit 82 Evgeny Medvedev - 53 Shayne Gostisbehere
35 Steve Mason [30 Michal Neuvirth]
Scratches: Brandon Manning (healthy), Jordan Weal (healthy), Sean Couturier (day-to-day, lower body).
Penguins
14 Chris Kunitz - 87 Sidney Crosby - 72 Patric Hörnqvist 62 Carl Hagelin - 71 Evgeni Malkin- 81 Phil Kessel 34 Tom Kuhnhackl - 16 Eric Fehr - 17 Bryan Rust 11 Kevin Porter - 7 Matt Cullen - 43 Conor Sheary
3 Olli Mà¤à¤ttठ- 58 Kris Letang 8 Brian Dumoulin - 12 Ben Lovejoy 28 Ian Cole - 6 Trevor Daley
29 Marc-Andre Fleury [37 Jeff Zatkoff]
Scratches: Derrick Pouliot (healthy), Sergei Plotnikov (healthy), Beau Bennet (IR, right shoulder), Nick Bonino (IR, hand), David Warsofsky (day-to-day, concussion).