UPDATE 12:05 PM
The Flyers have reassigned Nick Cousins and Colin McDonald to the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Ryan White and R.J. Umberger are ready to be activated off the injured reserve list. Sam Gagner is not quite ready to play.
The team held an optional morning skate at the Skate Zone in Voorhees. The following players participated: Brayden Schenn, Scott Laughton, Umberger, White, Gagner, Vincent Lecavalier, Mark Streit, Radko Gudas, Shayne Gostisbehere, Steve Mason and Michal Neuvirth. Mason will get the start in goal against Columbus.
Streit, who skated for the second time since undergoing surgery to repair a detached pubic plate, said after the skate that he feels the expected soreness in his groin and when he tries certain motions for the first time but is generally pleased with where he is at this point in his recovery. The player said the six-week timetable to return from the Nov. 17 surgery is still a realistic timeline thus far, although he is still in the early stages of rehabbing on the ice. The player experienced physical discomfort from the start of the season, but hoped it would go away as it had in early in previous seasons. Instead the issue lingered and he decided to get it taken care of rather than try to tough it out for the rest of the season.
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PREVIEW: FLYERS VS. BLUE JACKETS
Looking for their fifth straight win, Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers (11-10-5) return home to host John Tortorella's Columbus Blue Jackets (10-16-1). Game time at the Wells Fargo Center is 7:00 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on Comcast Sportsnet Philadelphia.
This is the first of four meetings between the teams this season. They will rematch on Dec. 19 in Columbus, March 5 in Philadelphia and March 22 in Columbus. Last year, in a five-game season seres, Columbus won four times.
Both teams are playing the second half of back-to-back games. On Friday night, the Flyers were in Newark to play the New Jersey Devils, while the Blue Jackets were home to play the Florida Panthers. Both games went to overtime.
Flyers Outlook
The Flyers have won four straight games and five of their last six. The team has taken at least one point in eight of the last 10 (6-2-2) games. The Flyers defeated the Devils 4-3 in overtime on Friday night.
Matt Read's overtime goal on a 2-on-1 rush won the game for Philadelphia. In regulation, power play goals by Wayne Simmonds and Claude Giroux were later supplemented by a third-period go-ahead goal by Pierre-Edouard Bellemare. Jakub Voracek collected assists on the Simmonds and Giroux tallies. In goal, Michal Neuvirth shook off an early mistake to stop 15 of 18 shots and earn the win.
Streak-scorer Simmonds has tallied in three straight games and scored four goals in that span. Along with Sean Couturier and Read, the Flyers' second line has been the team's top forward trio in recent weeks in terms of offensive zone puck possession. Over the past week, the pucks have finally started to go in the net. Couturier scored twice in the last three games before Read tallied Friday's overtime winner.
Giroux leads the Flyers with nine goals, 13 assists and 22 points in 26 games. He is followed by Simmonds (seven goals, 15 points), Jakub Voracek (one goal, 14 assists) and Brayden Schenn (six goals, 10 points). In 10 games since his recall from the AHL, offensive-minded rookie defenseman Gostisbehere has contributed four goals (three on the power play, two in overtime), three assists and seven points.
Over the last few games, defensemen Michael Del Zotto and Evgeny Medvedev have also elevated both sides of their two-way games while logging heavy-duty minutes for the team.
Number one goaltender Steve Mason, who will return to the net on Saturday to take on his former club has been stellar in most of his starts since the start of November. Over the last five weeks, Mason has posted a 3-4-2 record, 2.32 goals against average, .920 save percentage, one shutout and a regulation shutout that ended in a 1-0 overtime loss)
Defenseman Nick Schultz, who left last Saturday's game in Madison Square Garden late in the first period with an upper-body injury returned to the lineup on Friday after a one-game absence. Schultz replaced Radko Gudas. On Saturday, Gudas will serve the second game of a three-game suspension from the NHL for a high hit on Ottawa center Mika Zibanejad.
Sam Gagner (laceration near his left eye) has been out since the Nov. 23 game against Carolina. He rejoined practice on Thursday. The Flyers also remain without Ryan White (suspected right shoulder injury) for a two-to-four-week period dated back to when he got injured in the third period of the Nov. 14 game in Carolina. White practiced on Thursday, along with R.J. Umberger (foot).
Defenseman Mark Streit is on long-term injured reserve for surgery to repair a displaced pubic plate. Streit is expected to miss approximately six weeks from Nov. 17. He briefly skated on Thursday for the first time since the surgery.
Blue Jackets Outlook
The Blue Jackets are still trying to crawl out of the 0-7-0 early season crater that cost Todd Richards his job as the team's head coach. Since the team hired the irascible Tortorella to take over behind the bench, the team has gone 10-9-1.
On Friday night, the Blue Jackets settled for one point in a 2-1 home shootout loss to the Panthers. The teams traded off second-period goals, with former Flyers draftee Michael Chaput responding at 12:49 to an early-period tally by Florida. Former Flyers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 31 of 32 shots in regulation and overtime before the Panthers prevailed in a four-round shootout. Ultimately, power play failures, including an unsuccesful brief 5-on-3, loomed as the biggest reason for Columbus' inability to come up with a second goal.
Former Flyers fan favorite Scott Hartnell was a healthy scratch on Friday night. Tortorella started Chaput in Hartnell's place. For the season, 33-year-old left winger Hartnell has nine goals (two power play), 16 points and 37 penalty minutes in 26 games played.
With Bobrovsky having played 65-plus minutes on Friday, it is likely that backup Curtis McElhinney will get the start in goal to oppose Mason. McElhinney has played fairly well (2.46 goals against average, .915 save percentage) in his six outings this season but is winless in four decisions. For his career, McElhinney has made six appearances against Philadelphia, posting a 5-1-0 record, 2.99 goals against average and .915 save percentage.
Columbus has nine players on the roster who have reached double-digit points on the season, including six with a dozen points or more. Ryan Johansen leads the way with 19 points (six goals, 13 assists) in 24 games. He is followed by Boone Jenner (11 goals, four power play goals, five assists, 16 points), Hartnell, Brandon Saad (nine goals, 16 points), Brandon Dubinsky (four goals, eight assists, 12 points in 19 games) and Nick Foligno (two goals, nine assists, 11 points).
On the injury front, defenseman Fedor Tyutin (broken nose sustained on Nov. 20) is questionable to play on Saturday. Jared Boll (foot), Rene Bourque (upper body), David Clarkson (jaw), Cody Goloubef (jaw) and Markus Hannikainen (shoulder) are on injured reserve.
Key team stat comparisons (NHL overall ranking)
Non-shootout goals per game: Flyers 2.00 (29th), Blue Jackets 2.30 (26th) Non-shootout goals against per game: Flyers 2.65 (19th), Blue Jackets 2.93 (23rd) 5-on-5 Goals For/Against Ratio: Flyers 31/39, Blue Jackets 40/51 Power play efficiency: Flyers 17.5% (21st), Blue Jackets 16.8% (24th) Penalty killing efficiency: Flyers 80.9% (15th), Blue Jackets 81.2% (13th) Shots per game: Flyers 30.3 (11th), Blue Jackets 29.0 (19th) Shots against per game: Flyers 31.9 (29th), Blue Jackets 29.7 (18th) Faceoff percentage: Flyers 50.1% (14th), Blue Jackets 47.6% (29th)
Projected lineups (subject to change, will be updated)
Flyers
12 Michael Raffl - 28 Claude Giroux - 10 Brayden Schenn 24 Matt Read - 14 Sean Couturier - 17 Wayne Simmonds 76 Chris VandeVelde - 78 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - 93 Jakub Voracek 20 R.J. Umberger - 21 Scott Laughton - 25 Ryan White
15 Michael Del Zotto - 22 Luke Schenn 55 Nick Schultz - 82 Evgeny Medvedev 23 Brandon Manning - 53 Shayne Gostisbehere
35 Steve Mason [30 Michal Neuvirth]
Scratches: Vincent Lecavalier (healthy), Mark Streit (LTIR, displaced pubic plate), Sam Gagner (lacerations near left eye), Radko Gudas (NHL suspension).
Blue Jackets
38 Boone Jenner - 19 Ryan Johansen - 71 Nick Foligno ' 20 Brandon Saad - 17 Brandon Dubinsky - 13 Cam Atkinson 11 Matt Calvert - 25 William Karlsson - 41 Alexander Wennberg 9 Gregory Campbell - 39 Michael Chaput - 43 Scott Hartnell
7 Jack Johnson - 58 David Savard 27 Ryan Murray - 4 Kevin Connauton 2 Andrew Bodnarchuk - 47 Dalton Prout
72 Sergei Bobrovsky [30 Curtis McElhinney]
Scratches: Fedor Tyutin (day-to-day, broken nose), Jared Boll (IR, foot), Rene Bourque (IR, upper body), David Clarkson (IR, jaw), Cody Goloubef (IR, jaw), Markus Hannikainen (IR, shoulder).