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Flyers Gameday: 2/19/19 vs. TB

February 18, 2019, 10:14 PM ET [348 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Game 60 Preview: FLYERS vs. LIGHTNING

Interim head coach Scott Gordon's Philadelphia Flyers (28-24-7) are home on Tuesday to take on Jon Cooper's Tampa Bay Lightning (45-11-4). Game time at the Wells Fargo Center is 7:00 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 third and final meeting of the season between the teams, and the second in Philadelphia. Both of the previous games this season, Nov. 17 in Philadelphia and Dec. 27 in Tampa Bay, were high-scoring affairs in which the Flyers pulled off a multi-goal comeback in the third period (four goals in the first meeting, three in the second) only to have a miscue on the first shift of overtime and settle for one point from a 6-5 defeat.

Flyers Outlook

The Flyers have gone 13-8-3 in the 24 games since the leaguewide Christmas break. However, the club is on a run of going 13-2-1 over its last 16 games since an 0-6-2 spell, including a mark of 12-1-1 over the last 14 games. The club has won three games in a row. Over the weekend, the Flyers pulled off a home-and-home sweep of the Detroit Red Wings but it wasn't easy.

On Saturday at the Wells Fargo Center, the Flyers built a 5-1 lead by early in the third period only to see it evaporate. Ultimately, Philly pulled out a 6-5 OT win. On Sunday at Little Caesars Arena, the Flyers were outplayed for the majority of the game but pulled out a 3-1 win courtesy of a 37-save performance by Carter Hart, even strength and empty net goals by Oskar Lindblom set up by Sean Couturier and an early third period goal by Ivan Provorov through a Travis Konecny screen.

The Flyers used a seven-defensemen, 11-forward lineup on Sunday, which enabled highly touted second-year pro Philippe Myers to make his NHL debut. Right winger Justin Bailey was a healthy scratch. Projected lines against Tampa will be updated, if necessary, after the morning skate. The Flyers took an off-day on Monday. They will hold a 10:30 a.m. morning skate on Tuesday at the Skate Zone in Voorhees.

The game against Tampa will be the Flyers' third in four nights. If Hart is tabbed for the start, it will be the first time in his pro career he will be asked to play every segment of a three-in-four.

By the time the Flyers host the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday in the 2019 Stadium Series game at Lincoln Financial Field, it will be Philly's fifth game in eight nights. The next three games, which lead into the NHL tradeline on Feb. 25, will go a long way toward determining whether the Flyers will legitimately be in the playoff chance come the post-deadline stretch drive.

Acquired last weekend from Edmonton in exchange for Anthony Stolarz, Cam Talbot will not be able to join his new team until his U.S. work permits are in order (a Canadian citizen who has played the last few years for the Alberta-based Oilers, Talbot needs to renew the process). Monday was a national holiday in the U.S., so Tuesday is the first business day since the trade was made. Although Thursday's game is in Montreal, where Talbot could join the team regardless of whether everything has been finalized here, he will by then run into the issue of not having had a proper practice in about a week and needing at least one with the Flyers before he could ideally play in a game.

It is also possible that the Flyers could activate Brian Elliott from IR, but he has looked rusty in two injury-rehab starts in the AHL for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms after being out of action for the better part of three months due to a lower-body injury. The Flyers also still have veteran Mike McKenna on the NHL roster.

Lightning Outlook

Tampa is running away with the President's Trophy race but is showing no signs of going into cruise control yet with 22 games left in the regular season. The club has rattled off six straight wins and has points in 10 of its last 11 games (8-1-2). The firepower-packed Lightning have been dominant on the road (21-6-2) as well as on home ice (24-5-2).

As with the Flyers, Tuesday's game will be Tampa's third game in four nights, albeit with Sunday having been the Bolts' off-day.

On Saturday, the Lightning shut out the visiting Montreal Canadiens, 3-0. The game was scoreless for two periods before Nikita Kucherov scored for the fourth straight game and broke the deadlock. Yanni Gourde and Tyler Johnson added additional insurance, while Andrei Vasilevskiy nailed down a 20-save shutout.

On Monday, the Lightning were on the road to the Columbus Blue Jackets. The result: a 5-1 victory for Tampa despite being outshot by a 40-20 margin.

The scorching hot Kucherov made it five straight games with at least one goal, tallying his 28th and 29th of the season. He also had three assists (No. 68, 69 and 70) to build a five-point night to run his season point total to 99 points. Brayden Point notched power play and even strength tallies for his 34th and 35th goals of the season and also assisted on a Steven Stamkos power play goal (33rd). Point now has 78 points on the season.

Vasilevskiy stopped the first 38 shots he faced in Columbus in a bid for his third straight shutout, dating back to 32-save blanking of Dallas on Feb. 14. The shutout run was broken late in the third period by Lukas Sedlak. He finished with 39 saves. With Tampa playing for the third time in four nights and fourth time in six, the Flyers might catch a break and face backup Louis Domingue (18-4-0, 2.90 GAA, .907 SV%) rather than Vasilevskiy.

Superstar defenseman Victor Hedman left Monday's game early with a lower-body injury and did not return. His status for Tuesday is unknown as of this writing.

Projected Lines (Subject to change)

FLYERS

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
[37 Brian Elliott]

Scratches: 61 Philippe Myers (healthy), 56 Mike McKenna (healthy), 33 Cam Talbot (acquired Feb. 16), 30 Michal Neuvirth (IR, lower body), 5 Sam Morin (AHL rehab for ACL surgery).


LIGHTNING

37 Yanni Gourde - 9 Tyler Johnson - 86 Nikita Kucherov
18 Ondrej Palat - 91 Steven Stamkos - 10 J.T. Miller
17 Alex Killorn - 71 Anthony Cirelli - 73 Adam Erne
62 Danick Martel - 13 Cedric Paquette - 34 Ryan Callahan

98 Mikhail Sergachev - 5 Dan Girardi
27 Ryan McDonagh - 81 Eric Cernak
55 Braydon Coburn - 6 Anton Strålman

70 Louis Domingue
[88 Andrei Vasilevskiy]

Scratches: 21 Brayden Point (healthy, reportedly missed team meeting), 77 Victor Hedman (lower-body injury in Monday's game).
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