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Flyers Gameday: 1/7/18 vs. BUF; Phantoms Update |
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GAME 42 PREVIEW: FLYERS VS. SABRES
In the statistical first game of the second half of the 2017-18 regular season, Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers (18-15-6) host Phil Housley's Buffalo Sabres (10-22-9) on Sunday afternoon at the Wells Fargo Center. Game time is 1:00 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on NBCSNP.
This is the third and final meeting of the season between the teams, and the second game in Philadelphia. The Flyers are 1-1-0 against the Sabres, winning a rather ugly 2-1 game at the Wells Fargo Center on Dec. 14 and then suffered a deserved 4-2 loss in Buffalo on Dec. 22.
FLYERS OUTLOOK
Sunday's tilt marks the conclusion of a four-game homestand and is the third match of a three-games-in-four-days stretch that included yesterday afternoon's game against the St. Louis Blues. The Flyers are 2-1-0 on the homestand to date. While the club arrived at the statistical midpoint of the season with a disappointing 10-8-4 home record overall, it should be noted that the Flyers are 6-2-0 in their last eight home games heading into this match.
On Saturday, the Flyers doubled up the Blues, 6-3.
Scott Laughton (7th goal of the season), Claude Giroux (14th), Jordan Weal (5th), Sean Couturier (5-on-5 and empty net goals, 20th and 21st) and Wayne Simmonds (power play, 14th) scored for the Flyers. Giroux (36th and 37th assists), Jakub Voracek (41st assist), Ivan Provorov (12th assist), Travis Konecny (10th assist), Shayne Gostisbehere (23rd assist) and Andrew MacDonald (3rd assist) chipped in helpers.
Making his NHL debut, Tyrell Goulbourne (5:23 TOI, 11 shifts) paid an immediate dividend. He blasted St. Louis defenseman Alex Pietrangelo with a clean hit that forced a turnover. Laughton claimed the puck and scored what was officially an unassisted goal at the 2:15 mark to get the Flyers off to a fast start in the first period. The Flyers built on it from there, and Goulbourne finished with four credited hits.
Starting for the 16th straight game, Brian Elliott stopped 28 of 31 shots. He saw just a combined 16 shots through the opening 40 minute, making 15 saves. In the third period, he saw a lot more rubber, both in quantity and quality of chances, coming up with 13 of 15 shots.
With the Flyers in the final segment of a three-in-four stretch, Sunday could be the day in which former Sabres goalie Michal Neuvirth, who has played just one period of mop-up duty hockey since being activated from injured reserve and has not started a game since Nov. 28, gets back into the net. For the season, Neuvirth has made eight stars and nine appearances, posting a 2-5-1 record, 2.67 goals against average, .915 save percentage and one shutout.
On the other hand, with the Flyers reaching a five-night "bye week" with no practices for four days, it would not be unfeasible for Hakstol to try to squeeze one more game out of Elliott.
Elliott is mentally tough and competes hard every minute of every game but has recently shown some hints of fatigue while publicly saying what any player worth his salt would say: he wants to play as much as possible. For the season, Elliott has played in 34 of 41 games (33 starts), posting a 16-10-7 record, 2.74 GAA and .910 save percentage. While his December numbers were stellar, his play on the current homestand has been adequate but little more.
With the Flyers at the midpoint of the season, Giroux leads the team with 51 points (14 goals, 37 assists) and ranks third in the Art Ross Trophy race. The Flyers captain is followed by Voracek (eight goals, 41 assists, 49 points), who is tied for seventh in the Art Ross Trophy race and leads the NHL in assists.
Having already attained new full-season career highs with 21 goals and 40 points, Selke Trophy candidate Couturier is also sixth in the Rocket Richard Trophy race. He's the first Flyer to have 20 or more goals at the midpoint of the season since Danny Briere did it in 2010-11.
Gostisbehere is tied for second among NHL defenseman with 31 points this season (eight goals, 23 assists) despite missing three games with a concussion. Provorov, who has seven goals and 19 points to date, leads the Flyers in ice with an average 24:47 per game.
Entering Tuesday's game, the Flyers have scored 119 goals (17th in the NHL) and yielded 118 (also ranking 17th). At five-on-five, Philly has scored 74 goals (tied for 19th in the NHL) and yielded 64 (3rd fewest).
On the power play, the Flyers rank tied for 12th at 20.5 percent (30-for-146) with six shorthanded goals yielded. On the penalty kill, the Flyers rank 29th (94-for-125, 75.2 percent). Scott Laughton's shorthanded goal in the home opener against Washington still stands as the lone shorthander for the Flyers to date this season.
SABRES OUTLOOK
Mired in the basement of the Eastern Conference and dragging in the second-worst record in the NHL, the Sabres have nevertheless given the Flyers trouble not just this year but in each of the last several seasons. Even when the Flyers manage to win, it's often been a struggle, and the Sabres have also picked off a few victories over Philly including the one at KeyBank Center a couple weeks ago.
The Sabres are 2-5-3 in their last 10 games, 5-12-6 on the road, and have lost back-to-back game in regulation heading into this one. The club is the lowest-scoring team in the NHL and has yielded the second-most goals (the situational numbers breakdown is below).
Simply put: The Flyers can ill-afford, after stepping up against the Islanders and the powerhouse Blues, to lose again to Buffalo. It was inexcusable to fall into the "trap game" scenario twice already and churn out a worse effort (and to lose) the second time after the narrowest of wins in the initial meeting.
In both prior meetings with Buffalo this season, the Flyers showed a distressing tendency to lose coverage on the Sabres most dangerous shooter, Evander Kane. They survived it the first game and for two periods the second time courtesy of stellar saves by Elliott, but Philly eventually paid the price.
Kane enters this game co-leading the Sabres in scoring with 16 goals and 35 points, along with Jack Eichel (15 goals, 20 assists, 35 points). Perennial Selke Trophy candidate Ryan O'Reilly (nine goals, 25 points, 2 PIM) is third. Rasmus Ristolainen leads the blueline with 14 points (two goals and 12 assists) despite being limited by injury to 32 of the 41 games the Sabres have played to date.
Goaltender Robin Lehner (31 GP, 9-15-6, 2.90 GAA, .911 SV%, 1 SO) has been a bright spot for the Sabres this season and has often played better than his stats would suggest. Chad Johnson, a teammate of Elliott's in Calgary last season, has made 15 appearances and 12 starts to date (1-7-3, 3.71 GAA, .883 SV%).
The Sabres last played on Friday, battling hard but going down to 4-3 road loss to the Central Division leaders (who are 15-3-1 on home ice). Special teams play was the difference, as the Sabres went 0-for-5 on the power play and 2-for-4 on the penalty kill.
The Sabres never led in the game but all three periods were pretty evenly played, and the Jets never pulled away. The Sabres got the game back within a goal and had 7:43 remaining to try to find an equalizer but were unable to do so. Marco Scandella (1st goal of the season), Johan Larsson (2nd) and Scott Wilson (1st) scored for the Sabres in a losing cause, while Johnson stopped 25 of 29 shots.
Entering Sunday's game, the Sabres have scored an NHL-low 91 goals (2.22 average). They have yielded a next-to-worst 138 (3.37 average). At five-on-five, there are three teams that have scored fewer than Buffalo's still-anemic 61 goals. Buffalo ranks tied for 24th defensively at five-on-five, yielding 84 goals to date.
As with the game in Winnipeg, special teams have been the Sabres' biggest undoing. The team's atrocious 30th-ranked power play clocks in at an abysmal 11.9 percent (15-for-126) and the problem is compounded by the tied-for-worst eight shorthanded goals the club has yielded to date. It is pretty rare for a team to get to the midpoint of a season being roughly half as likely to give up a goal as score one on its own power play.
The Sabres penalty kill ranks 22nd at 80.2 efficiency (101-for-126). The team has scored four shorthanded goals to date.
PROJECTED LINEUPS
FLYERS
28 Claude Giroux - 14 Sean Couturier - 11 Travis Konecny
12 Michael Raffl - 51 Valtteri Filppula - 93 Jakub Voracek
40 Jordan Weal - 19 Nolan Patrick - 17 Wayne Simmonds
15 Jori Lehterä - 21 Scott Laughton - 56 Tyrell Goulbourne
9 Ivan Provorov - 53 Shayne Gostisbehere
47 Andrew MacDonald - 8 Robert Hägg
23 Brandon Manning - 3 Radko Gudas
30 Michal Neuvirth
[37 Brian Elliott]
Scratches: 6 Travis Sanheim (healthy), 20 Taylor Leier (healthy), 22 Dale Weise (healthy).
Sabres
9 Evander Kane - 90 Ryan O'Reilly - 21 Kyle Okposo
28 Zemgus Girgensons - 15 Jack Eichel - 23 Sam Reinhart
20 Scott Wilson - 71 Evan Rodrigues - 29 Jason Pominville
22 Johan Larsson - 10 Jacob Josefson - 17 Jordan Nolan -
6 Marco Scandella - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
4 Josh Gorges - 47 Zach Bogosian
82 Nathan Beaulieu - 19 Jake McCabe
40 Robin Lehner
[31 Chad Johnson]
Scratches: 41 Justin Falk (healthy), 67 Benoit Pouliot (healthy), 93 Victor Antipin (healthy).
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PHANTOMS FROZEN OUT IN ROCHESTER, 3-1
Playing the second half of tough back-to-back road games, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms came indoors from the zero-degree temperatures in Rochester, NY, but they left their legs and timing on the bus in a 3-1 loss to the Americans on Saturday night. The game play was not as even as the one-plus-an-empty-netter and the 35-27 shot differential would suggest.
For most of the night, the Phantoms were a half-stride late in their skating, a split-second off in their reads and reactions and off the mark with their passing when there were potential opportunities brewing. Dustin Tokarski (32 saves on 34 shots) had to work hard to keep Lehigh Valley in the game throughout the night, whereas Linus Ullmark (26 saves on 27 shots) was scarcely tested.
Perennial AHL All-Star defenseman T.J. Brennan notched his 5th goal of the season to tie the game at 1-1 midway through the first period. Despite being generally outplayed, the Phantoms kept the score right there until Kevin Porter put the Amerks ahead to stay at 11:40 of the second period. C.J. Smith and Seth Griffin (empty net) also tallied for Rochester.
The Phantoms were missing injured veterans Matt Read and Corban Knight from the lineup, along with injured rookie Mikhail Vorobyev. This was a game where Lehigh Valley could have used injured sparkplug forward Cole Bardreau or Tyrell Goulbourne (NHL recall) to inject a little bit of fire-and-brimstone into a sleepy performance for the team. Team captain Colin McDonald has struggled a bit in his first couple games since coming back from injury.
The game was not completely devoid of bright spots for the Phantoms, however.
Rookie left winger Oskar Lindblom, despite not recording a point in this game, continued his strong all-around play and was the team's most dangerous forward on an otherwise low-energy night for the club. The Swede led the forward corps with three shots on goal. Rookie defenseman Philippe Myers also had a strong performance, using his speed effectively in all three zones.
Beyond that and Brennan's goal among his four shots on net, there wasn't much to write home about from the Phantoms side. The Phantoms (21-11-5) return to action on Friday, Jan. 12 as they host the Springfield Thunderbirds.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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