PREVIEW: FLYERS @ PENGUINS
With seven games remaining on their schedule for the 2014-15 season, Craig Berube's Philadelphia Flyers (30-29-17) are in western Pennsylvania to take on Mike Johnston's Pittsburgh Penguins (42-23-11) on Wednesday night Game time at the Consol Energy Center is 8:00 p.m. EDT. The game will be nationally televised on NBC Sports Network.
This is the third of more meetings this season between the arch-rival Metro Division clubs, and the second and final game in Pittsburgh. On Oct. 22, the visiting Flyers skated off with a 5-3 victory. On Jan. 20, in the final game before the NHL All-Star break, the Flyers prevailed 3-2 in overtime of a fight-filled war of a game.
The Flyers are a well-rested but injury-riddled team. The team has only played twice in the last 10 nights, with both games on home ice. The club has had three nights off since hosting the San Jose Sharks. Things will get busier this weekend when the Flyers play the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh on Saturday afternoon (final road game of the season) and then rematch with the Penguins in Philadephia on Sunday afternoon.
Pittsburgh has had two nights off since a back-to-back weekend set that saw the Penguins host the Arizona Coyotes on Saturday and San Jose on Sunday. The Pens also have a weekend back-to-back on tap, playing the Blue Jackets in Columbus on Saturday afternoon before heading to Philadelphia to finish the season series with the Flyers.
Flyers outlook
The Flyers went 3-4-6 in the month of March. The club enters this game winless in its last nine away games (0-5-4), with a 9-20-10 overall record on the road. At home, the Flyers are 21-9-7. That is the third biggest disparity between the team's home and road records in franchise history.
Entering this season, the two biggest home/road record disparities in Flyers' franchise history were in 1970-71 -- 20-10-9 (.628) at home and 8-23-8 (.308) away -- and 1972-73, when they went 27-8-4 (.744) at home and 10-22-7 (.346) on the road.
This season, Philly has set a new franchise record for regular season games that have gone past regulation; a dubious mark for the team that is 3-10 in shootouts in 2014-15 and has habitually struggled to earn bonus points since the post-game skills competition was introduced in 2005-06.
The Flyers went 1-0-1 on their recent two-game mini-homestand. After earning a 4-1 win over Chicago last Wednesday, the Flyers dropped a 3-2 shootout verdict to San Jose on Saturday afternoon. Steve Mason stopped 42 of 44 shots in regulation and overtime, before turning back three of five in the shootout. Michael Raffl (20th goal of the season) and Claude Giroux (23rd) scored in regulation for Philadelphia, while Jakub Voracek collected his 54th and 55th assists.
When playing on home ice this season, the Flyers have scored an average 2.89 goals per game while allowing 2.30 per game. On the road, Philly has mustered just 2.26 goals per game while yielding 3.18 goals per game.
Voracek enters Wednesday's game two point behinds Sidney Crosby in the NHL's Art Ross Trophy race and one point behind both John Tavares and Alexander Ovechkin. Voracek has 21 goals, 55 assists and 76 points in 76 games. In the event of a tie in points, the other three players all hold tiebreaker advantages over Voracek by virtue of scoring more goals.
The Flyers will be without Wayne Simmonds (left leg fracture) and Andrew MacDonald (right hand fracture) for the rest of the season. They also will likely be without Luke Schenn (lower-body) for the remainder of the campaign. Forward R.J. Umberger (hip and abdominal surgery) will also miss the remainder of the season as will defenseman Radko Gudas (knee surgery).
Michael Del Zotto took a maintenance day off from practice on Tuesday -- assistant coach Gord Murphy stood in for him in reps -- but is expected to be in the lineup in Pittsburgh.
Penguins outlook
Pittsburgh had an uneven month of March, going 7-6-2 in a busy slate of games. For the season, the Pens are 23-12-4 on home ice. However, something about playing the Flyers seems to throw the Penguins off their game, especially in Pittsburgh. The Flyers are 10-1-1 in their last 12 games at the Consol Energy Center and have won each of the last six meetings overall with the Pens.
The Penguins won both halves of their weekend back-to-back at home against Arizona (3-2 regulation win) and San Jose (3-2 win via shootout).
Patric Hörnqvist and Chris Kunitz (power play) scored first period goals in Sunday's game before San Jose struck back for two goals in the middle frame. After a scoreless third period and OT, David Perron scored the winning shootout goal for Pittsburgh. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 30 of 32 shots in the game and then went 2-for-2 in the skills competition. Pittsburgh is now 4-6 in shootouts this season.
Pittsburgh is also dealing with key injuries; most notably on the blueline. The team will be forced to dress five defensemen for this game as it cannot make an emergency recall with a full roster and there are only five healthy bodies on defense. Most notably, Kris Letang (concussion) and Christian Ehrhoff (upper body) are out indefinitely and Olli Mà¤à¤ttठremains shelved after shoulder surgery.
Key team stat comparisons (NHL overall ranking)
Non-shootout goals per game: Flyers 2.57 (22nd), Penguins 2.71 (17th) Non-shootout goals against per game: Flyers 2.75 (T-22nd), Penguins 2.42 (T-6th) Even strength Goals For/Against Ratio: Flyers 0.99 (20th), Penguins 1.11 (9th) Power play efficiency: Flyers 22.7% (3rd), Penguins 19.9% (8th) Penalty killing efficiency: Flyers 76.6% (29th), Penguins 85.4% (2nd) Faceoff percentage: Flyers 51.4% (T-12th), Penguins 48.6% (22nd)
Projected lineups (Subject to change, will be updated)
FLYERS
12 Michael Raffl - 28 Claude Giroux - 93 Jakub Voracek 24 Matt Read - 14 Sean Couturier - 10 Brayden Schenn 25 Ryan White - 52 Nick Cousins - 36 Zac Rinaldo 76 Chris VandeVelde - 78 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare- 40 Vincent Lecavalier
15 Michael Del Zotto - 55 Nick Schultz 8 Nicklas Grossmann - 32 Mark Streit 26 Carlo Colaiacovo - 43 Brandon Manning
35 Steve Mason {29 Ray Emery]
Scratches: Luke Schenn (lower body), Wayne Simmonds (left leg fracture), Andrew MacDonald (right hand fracture), R.J. Umberger (hip/abdominal surgery), Radko Gudas (IR, knee surgery).
PENGUINS
26 Danel Winnik - 87 Sidney Crosby - 72 Patric Hornqvist 14 Chris Kunitz - 71 Evgeni Malkin - 39 David Perron 17 Blake Comeau - 16 Brandon Sutter - 23 Steve Downie 40 Maxim Lapierre - 13 Nick Spaling - 19 Beau Bennett / 27 Craig Adams
7 Paul Martin - 28 Ian Cole 51 Derrick Pouliot - 4 Rob Scuderi 12 Ben Lovejoy - xxxxx
29 Marc-Andre Fleury [1 Thomas Greiss]
Scratches: Pascal Dupuis (IR, blood clots in lungs), Kris Letang (concussion), Christian Ehrhoff (upper body), Olli Mà¤à¤ttठ(IR, shoulder surgery).