Game 58 Preview: FLYERS vs. RED WINGS
Interim head coach Scott Gordon's Philadelphia Flyers (26-24-7) are home on Saturday afternoon to take on Jeff Blashill's Detroit Red Wings (23-28-7). Game time at the Wells Fargo Center is 1:00 p.m. ET.
The game will be televised locally on NBCSP. The radio broadcast can be found on 97.5 FM The Fanatic with an online simulcast at FlyersRadio247.com.
This is the second of three meetings this season between the Eastern Conference teams, and the front end of a home-and-home set that continues on Sunday at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit. On Dec. 18, in Carter Hart's NHL debut and Gordon's debut behind the Flyers' bench, Philly defeated the visiting Red Wings, 3-2.
The Flyers got one goal and one assist apiece from James van Riemsdyk and Shayne Gostisbehere. Radko Gudas also tallied for Philadelphia. Claude Giroux, Travis Konecny (who missed several shifts in the first period before returning), Nolan Patrick and Michael Raffl had one assist apiece.
All 18 Flyers skaters tonight registered at least one shot attempt and 17 of the 18 -- Ivan Provorov did not -- recorded at least one shot on goal. Ice time was well distributed with ever skater playing at least 9:44. Travis Sanheim (21:06 TOI across 26 shifts, including 1:14 of power play time) blocked four shot attempts, put all three of his own shot attempts on net and was plus-two at even strength. Hart stopped 20 of 22 shots to earn the win.
Dennis Cholowski (power play) and Jacob de la Rose scored for Detroit. Gustav Nyquist, Dylan Larkin, Martin Frk and Christoffer Ehn chipped in an assist apiece.
Jimmy Howard was slated to make the start in goal for the Red Wings. He suffered a back injury in warmups and was unable to play. Jonanthan Bernier stepped in, and stopped 30 of 33 Flyers shots. An emergency goaltender, Justin Kowalkoski, dressed for the game and was credited as the backup goaltender on the official game summary.
Flyers Outlook
The Flyers have gone 11-8-3 in the 22 games since the leaguewide Christmas break. The team saw its 10-game point streak (9-0-1) come to an end on Monday night in a
4-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Wells Fargo Center. However, the next night in Minnesota, the team bounced back from 3-1 and 4-3 deficit to earn a
5-4 win over the Wild.
The Flyers had a total off-day on Wednesday and then had practices in Voorhees
on Thursday and Friday before a promotional media event at Lincoln Financial Field for the Stadium Series game next Saturday against the Penguins.
On Tuesday, Anthony Stolarz earned the win in Minnesota. It proved to be his final game as a Flyer. On Friday, the Flyers traded the 25-year-old Stolarz to the Edmonton Oilers in exchange for 31-year-old goaltender Cam Talbot. Both players are potential unrestricted free agents this summer. Stolarz would need to appear in 10 games the rest of the season to go from a UFA to a restricted free agent.
Talbot has struggled the last two season since he was the workhorse (73 GP) starter for Edmonton who placed fourth in the Vezina Trophy balloting during the 2016-17 season. This year, he has a bloated 3.36 GAA, 10-15-3 record, and.893 save percentage. Stolarz has made 12 appearances this season, posting a 4-3-3 record, 3.33 GAA, .902 save percentage and one shutout (at NYR).
The Flyers returned center Mikhail Vorobyev to the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Saturday.
Red Wings Outlook
The Red Wings are 5-5-0 in their last 10 games and 11-15-3 on the road this season. However, the club enters this game coming off back-to-back wins: a
3-2 road win in Nashville on Tuesday and a
3-2 home win over Ottawa on Thursday.
Tyler Bertuzzi is day-to-day with an upper-body injury. He is expected to return this weekend to play the Flyers.
Projected Lines (Subject to change)
FLYERS (Monday's lines)
25 James van Riemsdyk - 28 Claude Giroux - 11 Travis Konecny
23 Oskar Lindblom - 14 Sean Couturier - 93 Jakub Voracek
21 Scott Laughton - 19 Nolan Patrick -17 Wayne Simmonds
12 Michael Raffl - 44 Phil Varone - 27 Justin Bailey
9 Ivan Provorov - 6 Travis Sanheim
8 Robert Hägg - 3 Radko Gudas
47 Andrew MacDonald - 53 Shayne Gostisbehere
72 Carter Hart
[56 Mike McKenna]
Scratches: 61 Phil Myers (healthy), 33 Cam Talbot (acquired Feb. 16), 30 Michal Neuvirth (IR, lower body), 37 Brian Elliott (IR, lower body, AHL rehab assisgnment), 5 Sam Morin (AHL rehab for ACL surgery).
RED WINGS
14 Gustav Nyquist - 71 Dylan Larkin - 59 Tyler Bertuzzi
26 Thomas Vanek - 61 Jacob De La Rose - 39 Anthony Mantha
72 Andreas Athanasiou - 41 Luke Glendening - 43 Darren Helm
27 Michael Rasmussen - 70 Christoffer Ehn - 8 Justin Abdelkader
55 Niklas Kronwall - 25 Mike Green
65 Dan Dekeyser - 3 Nick Jensen
52 Jonathan Ericsson - 83 Trevor Daley
45 Jonathan Bernier
[35 Jimmy Howard]
Scratches: 17 Filip Hronek (healthy), 28 Luke Witkowski (healthy), 51 Frans Nielsen (illness).
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