|
Flyers Gameday: 1/12/24 @ MIN; Phantoms vs. Wolf Pack |
|
|
|
|
|
Update 1:00 p.m. ET
Carter Hart will get the start in net for the Flyers. The team will once again dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen. Nic Deslauriers will re-enter the lineup. Bobby Brink is a healthy scratch. Lineups are updated below.
**********
Game 42 Preview: Flyers @ Wild
The Philadelphia Flyers (21-14-6) are in St. Paul on Friday night to take on John Hynes' Minnesota Wild (17-19-4). Game time at the Xcel Energy Center is 8:00 p.m. ET.
The Flyers are 2-1-1 over their last four games but just 3-4-3 in the last 10 games. Philly enters this game coming off a 3-2 (1-0) home shootout win over the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday. For the season, the Flyers are 11-6-4 on the road.
The Wild have posted a 4-6-0 record over their last 10 games. The team got swept earlier this week in a home-and-home set against the Dallas Stars by scores of 4-0 on Monday and 7-2 on Wednesday. Minnesota is 10-8-2 on home ice to date this season.
Philly had a travel day on Thursday and canceled a previously scheduled practice. The Flyers will hold an 11:00 a.m. CT (noon eastern time) morning skate at the Xcel Center. Head coach John Tortorella will announce Friday's starting goalie and lineup personnel changes (if any) at that time. My feeling, which could be wrong, is that Carter Hart will get the game against the Wild and Samuel Ersson will get the unenviable task of trying to stop the scorching hot Winnipeg Jets on Saturday.
Apart from the goalie decision, Tortorella will have to decide whether to once again start seven defensemen and 11 forwards or reinsert Nicolas Deslauriers into the lineup as the 12th forward and scratch a defenseman (most likely one of Egor Zamula or Nick Seeler). The feeling here, which could also be proven wrong in a few hours, is that the Flyers go with seven D again on Friday in order to keep using Zamula on the power play and perodic five-on-five shifts.
The Wild are a badly banged-up team right now that is riddled with key injuries. Most notably, leading scorer Kirill Kaprizov, veteran defensemen Jonas Brodin and captain Jared Spurgeon, plus goalie Filip Gustavsson are all out with injuries.
The Wild, as with the Flyers, are right back in action on Saturday for their third game in four nights (and fourth game in six nights). An all likelihood, they'll split goaltending chores over the weekend with Marc-Andre Fleury getting one game and Jesper Wallstedt starting the other.
Starting lineups will be posted prior to game time. As of this writing, below is the most recent available information.
FLYERS (Wednesday's starting lineup, wingers rotated between lines)
86 Joel Farabee - 14 Sean Couturier - 11 Travis Konecny
74 Owen Tippett - 48 Morgan Frost - 89 Cam Atkinson
71 Tyson Foerster - 21 Scott Laughton - 19 Garnet Hathaway
44 Nicolas Deslauriers - 25 Ryan Poehling - (rotating wingers)
6 Travis Sanheim - 9 Jamie Drysdale
8 Cam York - 26 Sean Walker
24 Nick Seeler/ 5 Egor Zamula - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
79 Carter Hart
[33 Samuel Ersson]
WILD (Thursday's practice per Star Tribune)
12 Matt Boldy - 14 Joel Eriksson Ek - 36 Mats Zuccarello
90 Marcus Johansson - 23 Marco Rossi - 38 Ryan Hartman
17 Marcus Foligno - 89 Frederick Gaudreau - 20 Pat Maroon
19 Nic Petan - 26 Connor Dewar - 21 Brandon Duhaime
5 Jacob Middleton - 7 Brock Faber
33 Alex Goligoski - 24 Zach Bogosian
4 Jon Merrill - 6 Dakota Mermis
29 Marc-Andre Fleury
30 Jesper Wallstedt
*******
Game 34 Preview: Phantoms vs. Wolf Pack
Ian Laperriere's Lehigh Valley Phantoms (14-13-6) return to action on Friday night, hosting Steve Smith's Hartford Wolf Pack (18-8-5) at the PPL Center in Allentown on Friday evening. Game time is 7:05 p.m. ET. The game will be streamed live on AHLTV (subscription required). The same two teams will play each other again on Saturday.
The Phantoms have struggled in head-to-head meetings with Hartford so far this season, going 1-3-1 in five games. Lehigh Valley is currently in seventh place in the Atlantic Division.
The Phantoms learned earlier this week that rookie right winger Samu Tuomaala has been selected to represent the team in the AHL All-Star Game. With 27 points (10g, 17a) in 33 games played, Tuomaala trails only veteran Cooper Marody (9g, 21, 30 points) for the Phantoms' scoring lead and he ranks fifth leaguewide scoring among rookies.
Tanner Laczynski (8g, 15a, 23 points in 28 games) is third on Lehigh Valley in scoring, followed by Olle Lycksell (12g, 10a, 22 points), defenseman Ronnie Attard (6g, 11a, 17 points), veteran team captain Garrett Wilson (6g, 10a, 92 PIM), rookie defenseman Emil Andrae (3g, 13a in 24 games), second-year center Elliot Desnoyers (4g, 8a in 29 games), rookie forward J.R. Avon (7g, 4a in 27 games), and power forward Wade Allison (7g, 4a).
In goal, Cal Petersen has played in 13 games (4-7-2, 3.23 GAA, .892 SV%). Felix Sandström has appeared in 11 games (5-3-2, 3.27 GAA, .879 SV%).
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
Join the Discussion:
»