Preview: Flyers @ Hurricanes
Playing for the sixth time in nine nights, Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers (3-5-1) are in Raleigh on Sunday evening to take on Bill Peters' Carolina Hurricanes (2-3-2). Game time at PNC Arena is 5 p.m. ET.
The two teams met in Philadelphia on Oct. 22 with the Flyers prevailing, 6-3, after trailing 2-0 in the second period. The clubs will play each other three additional times this season.
Flyers Outlook
The Flyers controlled the majority of the play against the Pittsburgh Penguins in Saturday night's game at the Wells Fargo Center but a disastrous 55-second swing in the first period that saw the Penguins go from a 2-0 deficit to a 3-2 lead put the Flyers into their all-too-familiar comeback mode.
Philly rallied from a 4-2 deficit in the second period to tie the game but a bad bounce from a blocked shot in the third period resulted in Pittsburgh going ahead for good in a 5-4 final. Jakub Voracek scored even strength and penalty shot goals for the Flyers, who also got a power play tally from Claude Giroux and a Wayne Simmonds goal off a nice feed from Brayden Schenn.
In six of the Flyers' first nine games, the team has received so-so starting goaltending. Team defense has been an even bigger culprit. On the flip side, Philly has been a resilient team even when trailing by two or more goals. In all nine of the Flyers' games to date, the team has either been tied or held a lead within some juncture of the third period. Alas, the club only has seven of a possible 18 points to date and cannot afford to dig itself any deeper into what has become a virtually annual early season hole.
The lineups below are based on Saturday's lines. Any lineup changes will be noted later.
Hurricanes Outlook
Getting early leads has not been an issue for the Hurricanes thus far in the season but protecting them has. The club has already coughed up a pair of three-goal leads and eventually lost in overtime and then quickly lost a two-goal lead in the second period in their regulation loss in Philadelphia.
On Friday night, however, the Canes won a seesaw game with the New York Rangers. After Jeff Skinner sandwiched a pair of goals between two Mats Zuccarello tallies for New York, Bryan Bickell beat the second period buzzer with a power play goal for Carolina. The Canes nursed the one goal lead through the third period and earned their second win of the season. Cam Ward stopped 28 of 30 shots to earn the win. Projected Lineups (subject to change, will be updated)
FLYERS
10 Brayden Schenn - 28 Claude Giroux - 17 Wayne Simmonds 11 Travis Konecny - 14 Sean Couturier - 92 Jakub Voracek 24 Matt Read - 76 P-E Bellemare - 13 Roman Lyubimov 76 Chris VandeVelde - 25 Nick Cousins - 22 Dake Weise
23 Brandon Manning - 3 Radko Gudas 9 Ivan Provorov - 32 Mark Streit 47 Andrew MacDonald - 53 Shayne Gostisbehere
30 Michal Neuvirth [35 Steve Mason]
Scratches: Michael Del Zotto (LTIR), Scott Laughton (LTIR), Michael Raffl (IR, upper body), Nick Schultz (healthy), Boyd Gordon (healthy).
HURRICANES
53 Jeff Skinner - 49 Victor Rask - 21 Lee Stempniak 42 Joakin Nordström - 11 Jordan Staal - 20 Sebastian Aho 86 Teuvo Terà¤và¤inen - 16 Elias Lindholm - 34 Phi Di Giuseppe 29 Bryan Bickell - 18 Jay McClement - 25 Viktor Stà¥lberg
65 Ron Hainsey - 27 Justin Faulk 74 Jaccob Slavin - 22 Brett Pesce 5 Noah Hanifin - 6 Klas Dahlbeck
30 Cam Ward [31 Eddie Là¤ck]
Scratches: Martin Frk, Andrej Nestrasil, Jakub Nakladal.