PREVIEW: FLYERS VS. HURRICANES
With two games remaining on their 2014-15 schedule, Craig Berube's Philadelphia Flyers (33-29-18) host Bill Peters' Carolina Hurricanes (29-40-11). Game time at the Wells Fargo Center is 7:00 p.m. EDT. The game will be televised on CSN Philadelphia.
This is the fifth and final meeting between the Metro Division clubs this season, and the second game in Philadelphia. The Flyers are 1-2-1 against the Canes to date.
The Flyers won handily in the first game of the season series, breezing to a 5-1 win in a Dec. 13 matinee game in Philadelphia. The Hurricanes took each of the next two games at home in regulation by scores of 2-1 (Jan. 2) and 4-1 (Feb. 24). Last Saturday afternoon in Raleigh, the Flyers recovered from a 2-0 deficit to force overtime but eventually lost via shootout, 3-2.
The Flyers last played on Tuesday night, hosting the New York Islanders. The season concludes on Saturday afternoon with a matinee against the Ottawa Senators.
The Hurricanes are playing for the third time in four nights, but had an off-day on Wednesday. The club had road games on Monday against the Buffalo Sabres and Tuesday against the Detroit Red Wings. They finish up the season at home against Detroit on Saturday.
Flyers outlook
The Flyers are coming off a bizarre 5-4 regulation win over the Islanders on Tuesday. The Flyers held a 4-1 lead in the third period and saw it slip away, including a pair of goals in the final two minutes. Just as the game seemed headed for overtime, a harmless-looking 69-foot perimeter shot by Brayden Schenn dribbled through New York goaltender Jaroslav Halak and into the net with 2.1 seconds left on the clock.
Claude Giroux tallied a pair of first-period goals, which gave Philadelphia a 2-0 lead. The Flyers later got tallies from Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Carlo Colaiacovo. Veteran defenseman Mark Streit notched three assists, becoming the first Flyers blueliner since Chris Pronger (2009-10) to reach the 50-point milestone. Jakub Voracek collected a pair of assists. Winning goaltender Steve Mason stopped each of the first 24 shots fired on his net, en route to turning back 36 of 40.
Flyers coach Craig Berube said before Tuesday's game that he would split the final two matches between Mason and Emery. The team did not conduct any on-ice activities on Wednesday. Emery will get the nod for Thursday's game, with Mason starting the season finale against Ottawa.
If the Flyers win both of their remaining games, they will have their first 25-win season at home since the 2000-01 campaign. Dating back to the 1987-88 campaign, the Flyers have only had three seasons (1995-96, 1999-2000 and 2000-01) in which they've won 25 or more games of their 41-game home schedule.
Unfortunately, the Flyers' atrocious road record of 10-20-11 doomed them to miss the playoffs this season and wasted an excellent home record. The differential between the club's .671 winning percentage at home and its .381 percentage road is the fourth biggest home-road discrepancy in franchise history. The biggest was in 1972-73: 27-8-4 at home (.744) but 10-22-7 (.346) on the road. The second biggest was in 1970-71 (.628 home, .308 road) and the third was in 1971-72 (.577 home, franchise history worst .269 on road).
Over their last 13 games against teams in playoff position, the Flyers have posted a 9-1-3 record. The flip side of the coin: They are 0-6-5 in their last 11 against fellow non-playoff teams.
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 3-11 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 will be without Wayne Simmonds (left leg fracture), Andrew MacDonald (right hand fracture), Luke Schenn (abdominal tear), R.J. Umberger (hip and abdominal surgery) and trade deadline acquisition Radko Gudas (knee surgery) for the rest of the season.
Hurricanes outlook
For many years, the Flyers dominated the Hartford Whalers/Carolina Hurricanes franchise, including the early years of 2010s. On an all-time basis, the Flyers enjoy a lopsided 75-29-7 mark with 14 ties (40-12-7 plus seven ties since the Canes' franchise relocation). Recently, however, the Hurricanes have given the Flyers a lot of trouble.
Over the course of their last eight meetings with Carolina, the Flyers are just 1-4-3 with the lone win coming earlier this season at the Wells Fargo Center. Even when the Hurricanes seemingly can't buy a win against anyone else, they've been finding ways to come away with two points against Philly.
When the teams met last Saturday, the tandem of brothers Eric and Jordan Staal significantly outplayed the Flyers' top line duo of Giroux and Voracek. Canes goalie Cam Ward has also played well against the Flyers this season, although he previously had not fared well against Philly.
Otherwise, the Canes have been nearly in a state of inertia while playing out the string during an interminable stretch drive. After going 8-4-1 in February, including a virtually flawless 60-minute effort in the Feb. 24 game against the Flyers in Raleigh, the team went 4-7-4 in March and has gone 1-3-0 thus far in April. The lone win in the last six games (1-4-1) was against the Flyers. The Hurricanes even came away from Monday's game in Buffalo with a regulation loss (4-3) to the Sabres.
On Tuesday night, the Hurricanes took a 2-1 lead into the third period against Detroit but were unable to protect the narrow advantage and left with a 3-2 regulation loss. Nathan Gerbe and Chris Terry scored the two Carolina goals. Backup netminder Anton Khudobin got the nod in the second half of the back-to-back set and stopped 22 of 25 shots in a losing cause.
Riley Nash (concussion) and Rasmus Rissanen (MCL) are traveling with the team during the three-game road trip. Nash is questionable to return before the end of the end of the season and Peters told the Hurricanes official website on Wednesday that he does not think Rissanen is close to being ready for either for the final two games. Jack Hillen (concussion) also remains out.
On Wednesday, the Hurricanes recalled defenseman Keegan Lowe from the Charlotte Checkers (AHL) and reassigned Danny Biega to the farm team.
Key team stat comparisons (NHL overall ranking)
Non-shootout goals per game: Flyers 2.62 (20th), Hurricanes 2.25 (27th) Non-shootout goals against per game: Flyers 2.71 (20th), Hurricanes 2.70 (19th) Even strength Goals For/Against Ratio: Flyers 1.01 (T-18th), Hurricanes 0.76 (27th) Power play efficiency: Flyers 23.8% (3rd), Hurricanes 19.0% (T-12th) Penalty killing efficiency: Flyers 77.0% (28th), Hurricanes 84.5% (T-4th) Faceoff percentage: Flyers 51.2% (T-12th), Hurricanes 53.0% (3rd)
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
29 Ray Emery [35 Steve Mason]
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).
HURRICANES
12 Eric Staal - 11 Jordan Staal - 28 Alexander Semin 14 Nathan Gerbe - 49 Victor Rask - 25 Chris Terry 53 Jeff Skinner - 16 Elias Lindholm - 15 Andrej Nestrasil 24 Brad Malone - 18 Jay McClement - 39 Pat Dwyer
65 Ron Hainsey - 27 Justin Faulk 26 John-Michael Liles - 73 Brett Bellemore 47 Michal Jordan - 7 Ryan Murphy
30 Cam Ward [31 Anton Khudobin]
Scratches: Keegan Lowe (healthy), Riley Nash (concussion), Rasmus Rissanen (MCL), Jack Hillen (concussion).
**********
PHANTOMS AND PROSPECT UPDATES
* AHL: The Lehigh Valley Phantoms absorbed a 3-0 home loss to the Wilkes Barre/ Scranton Penguins on Wednesday night at the PPL Center. Penguins 2014 first-round pick Kasperi Kapanen (son of former Flyers fan favorite forward Sami Kapanen) earned his first North American professional goal and assist. Tom Kühnhackl scored power play and empty net (shorthanded) goals for WB/S. Rob Zepp stopped 29 of 31 shots in a losing cause for the Phantoms. Matt Murray had a 30-save shutout for the Penguins.
* NCAA Frozen Four: In one of the two semifinal games at the Frozen Four tournament in Boston, Flyers 2010 fifth round pick Michael Parks and his University of North Dakota teammates will take on Boston University at 8:30 p.m. on Thursday night at TD Garden. They will take on the winner of the earlier Providence vs. Omaha game (5 p.m. start time) for the NCAA championship. Both games will be televised on ESPN2.
* QMJHL: Flyers 2013 first-round pick Samuel Morin and his Rimouski Oceanic teammates begin their second-round playoff series against the Gatineau Olympiques on Friday night. Likewise, the Val-d'Or Foreurs, featuring Flyers 2014 second-round pick Nicolas Aube-Kubel, start out their series against the Baie-Comeau Drakkar.
* WHL: The Calgary Hitmen, featuring 2014 first-round pick Travis Sanheim and sixth-rounder Radel Fazleev, start their second-round series against the Medicine Hat Tigers on Friday. The Kelowna Rockets, with Flyers 2013 third-round Tyrell Goulbourne, begin their series against the Victoria Royals.
**********
FLYERS ALUMNI UPDATES FROM FlyersAlumni.org
From the time Flyers Alumni Association was founded in 1984, the non-profit organization has raised and/or donated nearly $3.5 million for charitable and community-based organizations throughout the Delaware Valley.
Over the past alone year, the Flyers Alumni Association has donated $459,082 to worthy causes. That is some mighty impressive work by the Alumni, for whom Todd Fedoruk has taken over as the president, Brian Propp is now the secretary, Brian Boucher is executive vice president and former president Don Saleski serves as treasurer.
The Flyers Alumni Team's seven benefit hockey games played during the 2014-15 season and related fundraising events tied to them raised $432,582, which were donated to the selected benefactors. The Alumni Team's success would not be possible without the hard work that Joe Watson, Bob Kelly, Propp and others due. Additionally, to date in 2015, the total of monies donated directly on behalf of the Philadelphia Flyers Alumni Association equals $26,500.
Note: This does NOT include money raised at the 20+ charity golf outings the Flyers Alumni body loyally attended as celebrity guests.
Here's a look at what's going on with the Alumni:
* The Flyers Alumni team will play a special benefit game on Sunday at the Flyers Skate Zone in Northeast Philadelphia to raise money for NHS Human Services campaign to "Put Hunger in the Penalty Box" as the centerpiece of its Goals for Giving program.
Game time is 1:30 p.m. (all tickets cost $10) with an after-party at Chickie's and Pete's on Roosevelt Blvd. at 3:30 p.m. ($20 admission) and, there will also be a pregame youth hockey shootout ($20 entry fee). All proceeds will go to benefit NHS Human Services programs in the Delaware Valley, which provides nutritious foods to the needy and teaches life skills and food preparation to people with disabilities. NHS also supports autism-sensitive schooling as well as housing programs for the needy.
Flyers Hall of Fame inductee Brian Propp has served as a board member for NHS and is a staunch supporter of their mission. The Alumni and NHS have worked together for 11 years. The first benefit game, held at the rink in Warwick, raised $1,700. The event has grown by leaps and bounds with each passing year. This year, Goals for Giving has already raised $106,625 toward its $125,000 goal.
With strong support for the upcoming benefit game as well as online donations, the target could be met or even exceeded. For more about the Goals for Giving program, including donation opportunities, click here.
* The Flyers Alumni will host a fantasy hockey camp from August 21-24 in Atlantic City, open to anyone age 21 and older. Instructors and Alumni participants will include Bernie Parent, Brian Propp, Ian Laperriere, Todd Fedoruk, Andre "Moose" Dupont, Dave "the Hammer" Schultz, Joe Watson and Bob "the Hound" Kelly. The registration deadline is June 1. Participation costs $3,000 apiece but it is free to register a spot online. Over on the Flyers' Alumni website, there is more information on camp-related activities and on-ice schedules.
* The Flyers Alumni Team will also have an upcoming benefit on April 25 at the Skate Zone on Voorhees. Look for more information on that event in the days to come.
* Flyers Alumni birthdays: Rick Tocchet turns 51 on April 9. Wayne Hicks, the first American-born player to suit up for the Flyers in their inaugural season, was born on this date in 1937. Former Adirondack Phantoms captain Ben Holmstrom was born April 9, 1987. Early 1970s winger Michel Parizeau was born April 9, 1948. For more on all of these players, click here.
* Today in Flyers History -- April 9, 1987: After stumbling to a 3-0 home loss in Game One of their quarterfinal series with the New York Rangers, the Flyers knot the series with an 8-3 blowout in a nasty, fight-filled game at the Spectrum. After Brad Marsh scores a rare goal to finally get the Flyers on the board and establish a 1-0 lead late in the first period, the floodgates pour open for Philly. Rick Tocchet scores twice, including a shorthanded goal. Scott Mellanby, Tim Kerr, Dave Poulin, Derrick Smith and Peter Zezel also light the lamp while Mark Howe collects two assists.