GAME 53: FLYERS vs. RED WINGS
In the final game of a road-home-road set of three games in four nights, Alain Vigneault's Philadelphia Flyers (28-17-7 overall, 10-12-3 away) take on Jeff Blashill's Detroit Red Wings (12-37-4, 8-17-2 home) on Monday night. Game time at Little Caesar's Arena is 7:30 p.m. ET.
The game will be televised on NBCSP+. The radio broadcast will be on 97.5 The Fanatic with an online simulcast on the
Flyers Radio 24/7 component of the Flyers Broadcast Network.
This is the second of three meetings between the teams this season, and the first of two in Detroit. The season series will conclude on March 26. The Flyers are 1-0-0 thus far.
On Black Friday, the Flyers won a 6-1 decision in what was competitive games for two periods before Philadelphia pulled away in the third period.
Scott Laughton, Shayne Gostisbehere (power play), Sean Couturier, Kevin Hayes, Oskar Lindblom and James van Riemsdyk scored for the Flyers. Jakub Voracek collected three assists. Robby Fabbri tallied the lone goal for Detroit.
Carter Hart earned the win in goal, and was the Flyers' best player in the first and second periods before the score got lopsided. He stopped 32 of 33 shots overall, including all 17 he faced in the second period. Ex-Flyer Calvin Pickard absorbed the loss. He denied of 29 of 35 Flyers shots.
FLYERS OUTLOOK
Exiting the All-Star break, the Flyers captured three of four possible points over the weekend with a 4-3 overtime loss in Pittsburgh and 6-3 home win over the Colorado Avalanche. Sunday was an off-ice day, followed by a flight to Detroit.
The last time the Flyers ran into a trap-game scenario, they fell right into the trap with a 4-1 home loss to Montreal, sandwiched between a run of inspired performances against elite-caliber competition. With the Flyers now once again below the Eastern Conference cutoff line after Carolina and Columbus won their respective games on Sunday, the Flyers must bring the same level of two-way urgency to playing the Red Wings on Monday and hosting the New Jersey Devils on Thursday as they did to the Penguins and other recent games. The Flyers largely shut down Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin in five of six periods (they were, however, torched in that other period) in the home-and-home, and kept Nathan MacKinnon off the scoresheet on Sunday.
Of late, the Flyers have been getting timely goals, timely saves, and timely step-up plays on the defensive side of the puck. That's how they've won many of their recent games, although a few were high-scoring affairs such as a comeback win via shootout against Boston.
Shayne Gostisbehere (arthroscopic knee surgery rehab) is day-to-day. He might be available to play in Detroit. If not, he should be probable to play by Thursday. Carter Hart (lower right abdominal muscle strain) is skating and is expected to rejoin practice later in the week.
Vigneault will confirm Monday's starting goaltender after the morning skate in Detroit. Alex Lyon may be rewarded for his outstanding work against the Avalanche with back-to-back starts unless they want to get Brian Elliott out there against the Wings now that he's had two nights off since starting in Pittsburgh on Friday plus two idle nights on the schedule after the Detroit game.
RED WINGS OUTLOOK
The Red Wings have lost five games in a row. Detroit has the worst record in the NHL by a whopping 15 points behind the 30th-place LA King. Within the Eastern Conference, the Wings are 17 points behind the team with the second-worst record (New Jersey).
Underlying the sort of record that hasn't been seen in Detroit since their long-ago years as one of the NHL's perennial doormats of the 1970s to mid-1980s -- before slowly rising to an elite level and then remaining playoff mainstays before slowly declining in the latter 2010s back to where they are this season -- are some truly ugly team numbers. The Red Wings are the NHL's lowest scoring team (2.08 average goals per game) and simultaneously the easiest to score upon (3.83 GAA).
At 5-on-5, the Red Wings have an atrocious minus-58 goal differential. By 10 goals, they've scored the fewest 5-on-5 goals in the NHL (72) and, by four goals, have allowed the most (130). The special teams side of the equation is equally depressing. The Detroit power play is tied for the second-worst in the NHL (14.6 percent) and the penalty kill ranks dead last (72.8 percent).
Under the circumstances, Jonathan Bernier (10-13-2, 2.92 GAA, .907 SV%, one shutout) has done about as well as can be expected in trying to give his team a chance to win. The same cannot be said this season of 35-year-old Jimmy Howard (2-20-2, 4.12 GAA, .884 SV%) or the other two goaltenders (Pickard and Eric Comrie) who've appeared in a combined six games.
Dylan Larkin leads the Red Wings with 37 points (13g, 24a). Tyler Bertuzzi (17g, 19a) is one point behind the pace. Injury has limited Anthony Mantha, who got off to a scorching start this season, to 29 games but he's been the team's top offensive weapon (12g, 12a) relative to his production per games played. Mantha is on IR and unavailable. Fabbri (11g, 14a) is the only other Red Wing with double digit goals so far this season.
Andreas Athanasiou (lower body) is expected to activated from injured reserve and to be available to play against the Flyers. Likewise, Frans Nielsen (day-to-day) may be able to return to the lineup from an upper-body injury.
On a given night, any team in the NHL can beat anyone else. There are NO easy games, including one against the club with the league's fewest wins and points. The Red Wings are a team to whose level the Flyers cannot let themselves play down nor to let bad habits and shortcuts start to creep into their game.
PROJECTED STARTING LINEUPS (subject to change, will be updated)
FLYERS
25 James van Riemsdyk - 28 Claude Giroux - 11 Travis Konecny
49 Joel Farabee - 14 Sean Couturier - 93 Jakub Voracek
21 Scott Laughton - 13 Kevin Hayes - 18 Tyler Pitlick
12 Michael Raffl - 82 Connor Bunnaman - 62 Nicolas Aube-Kubel
9 Ivan Provorov - 15 Matt Niskanen
6 Travis Sanheim -5 Phil Myers
8 Robert Hägg - 61 Justin Braun
37 Brian Elliott
[34 Alex Lyon]
Power Play 1: Giroux, JVR, Konecny, Hayes, Provorov.
Power Play 2: Couturier, Farabee, Voracek, Sanheim, Niskanen.
Scratches: 79 Carter Hart (abdominal muscle strain), 53 Shayne Gostisbehere (day-to-day, knee).
LTIR: 55 Sam Morin (torn ACL, out for season), 23 Oskar Lindblom (Ewing sarcoma, out for season), 19 Nolan Patrick (migraines).
RED WINGS
59 Tyler Bertuzzi - 71 Dylan Larkin - 72 Andreas Athanasiou
29 Brendan Perlini - 51 Valtteri Filppula - 14 Robby Fabbri
43 Darren Helm - 41 Luke Glendening - 73 Adam Erne
8 Justin Abdelkader - 70 Christoffer Ehn - 48 Givani Smith
17 Filip Hronek - 21 Dennis Cholowski
22 Patrik Nemeth - 3 Alex Biega
52 Jonathan Ericsson - 74 Madison Bowey
45 Jonathan Bernier
[35 Jimmy Howard]
Power Play 1: Larkin, Bertuzzi, Hronek, Cholowski, Athanasiou
Power Play 2: Smith, Perlini, Filppula, Bowey, Fabbri
Scratches: 81 Frans Nielsen (day-to-day, upper body), 83 Trevor Daley (healthy), 11 Filip Zadina (lower body), 25 Mike Green (upper body).
IR: 39 Anthony Mantha (upper body), 65 Danny DeKeyser (out for season, back surgery).
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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