Game 36 Preview: FLYERS @ LIGHTNING
Interim head coach Scott Gordon's Philadelphia Flyers (15-16-4) are in the Sunshine State on Thursday to play Jon Cooper's Tampa Bay Lightning (28-7-2) in the first game after the NHL's three-day Christmas break. Game time at Amalie Arena is 7:00 p.m. ET.
The game will be televised nationally on NBC Sports Network. 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 teams and the lone game in Tampa. The season series concludes on Feb. 19 in Philadelphia. On Nov. 17, the Flyers rallied back from a 5-1 deficit in the third period to force overtime in a wild game at the Wells Fargo Center. Ultimately, Tampa prevailed in OT, winning 6-5.
Flyers Outlook
The Flyers have had the NHL minimum three-day break (Dec. 24-26) over the Christmas holiday. Because team travel is not allowed during the break under NHL rules, the Flyers will have a rare day-of-game flight to Tampa Bay on Thursday.
On Sunday evening, the Flyers received excellent goaltending from Michal Neuvirth and prevailed over the host New York Rangers in a shootout, 3-2, at Madison Square Garden. Neuvirth made a host of key saves and had little to no chance of stopping either of the two goals that got past him on 34 shots. In the shootout, Neuvirth went 4-for-4.
The Flyers got goals from three players who were in dire need of something to go right for them with a scoring opportunity: Michael Raffl (1st of the season), Wayne Simmonds (a much-needed Flyers power play goal for his 11th goal of the season) and the shootout winner by Nolan Patrick. Philadelphia improved to 3-1-0 in four games since the dismissal of Dave Hakstol and promotion of Gordon from head coach of the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms to the interim job behind the Flyers' bench.
The Flyers penalty kill has been doing well for the last month after a hideous start over the first seven weeks of the season. The Black Friday game against the Rangers was a springboard. Dating back to that game, the Flyers are 37-for-42 (88.1 percent) in the last 14 games. Overall, though, the PK still only ranks tied for 27th in the NHL at 75.2 percent (opposing power plays are 28-for-115) because Philly was under 70 percent through the first 21 games.
On the power play, the Flyers tallied goals in each of the last two games before the holiday break but the club had been in a deep funk since a 5-for-20 start with the exception of coming alive in the first game this season against Tampa. Overall, the Flyers are 14-for-105 (13.3 percent, ranked 29th) on the season.
The Flyers have scored three shorthanded goals this season, all within the month of December: Dale Weise at Pittsburgh on Dec. 1, Claude Giroux in Buffalo on Dec. 8, Sean Couturier in Calgary on Dec. 12. Opponents have scored six shorthanded goals against the Flyers; only four teams have allowed more.
At 5-on-5, the Flyers have scored 73 goals (tied for 13th most) and allowed 78 (22nd overall). Heading into Thursday's game, the Flyers are averaging 2.91 goals per game (T-18th) and have a team 3.57 GAA (29th).
Lightning Outlook
Tampa had an extra day over the holiday break, last playing on Saturday; a 6-3 road win over the Edmonton Oilers. The Lightning lead the Eastern Conference with 58 points and have posted a 15-4-0 record on home ice. Tampa took a 9-0-1 run, including three straight wins, into the Christmas break.
Andrei Vasilevskiy recently returned from injury, making an already dangerous Tampa team even tougher to beat. The Russian netminder brings a 12-3-2 record, 2.39 GAA, .928 save percentage and one shutout into Thursday's game. Backup goaltender Louis Domingue is 15-4-0 with a 2.99 GAA and .904 save percentage.
Nikita Kucherov leads the Lightning with 57 points (16 goals, 41 assists) and is second in the Art Ross Trophy race across the NHL, trailing Colorado's Mikko Rantanen by two points. His is followed by dynamic center Brayden Point (21 goals, 26 assists, 47 points), veteran Steven Stamkos (20 goals, 19 points, 39 points) and Tyler Johnson (16 goals, 11 assists, 27 points). Early season injuries have limited superstar defenseman Victor Hedman (four goals, 16 assists, 20 points) to 30 games but he had six points in seven games leading into the holiday break.
Claimed off waivers from the Flyers by Tampa late in the preseason, Danick Martel has only dressed in four games this season for the Bolts but those include each of the team's last three games leading into the break. He recorded his first NHL point (an assist) and was involved in a controversial play in Vancouver on Dec. 18 during the Tampa's pre-break road trip through western Canada.
The Lightning have scored an average 4.08 goals per game; tops in the NHL. The club has a team 2.87 GAA to rank 13th. At 5-on-5, the team has outscored opponents by a 99-75 margin. Tampa has scored the most 5-on-5 goals of any team in the NHL, and also tops the NHL with its 28.9 percent (37-for-128) efficiency on the power play. Tampa has given up two opposing shorthanded goals.
On the penalty kill, the Lightning rank eight in the NHL at 82.9 percent success. Opponents are 21-for-123. Tampa has scored five shorthanded goals: three by Anthony Cirelli and one apiece by Cedric Paquette and Tyler Johnson.
Projected Lines (Subject to change)
FLYERS
25 James van Riemsdyk - 28 Claude Giroux - 11 Travis Konecny
17 Wayne Simmonds - 14 Sean Couturier - 93 Jakub Voracek
21 Scott Laughton - 19 Nolan Patrick - 12 Michael Raffl
23 Oskar Lindblom - 44 Phil Varone - 22 Dale Weise
9 Ivan Provorov - 6 Travis Sanheim
53 Shayne Gostisbehere - 8 Robert Hägg
47 Andrew MacDonald - 3 Radko Gudas
30 Michal Neuvirth
[79 Carter Hart]
Scratches: 15 Jori Lehterä (healthy), 40 Jordan Weal (healthy), 26 Christian Folin (healthy), 41 Anthony Stolarz (IR, lower body), 37 Brian Elliott (IR, lower body), 10 Corban Knight (IR, collarbone), 5 Sam Morin (ACL surgery).
LIGHTNING
10 J.T. Miller - 91 Steven Stamkos - 9 Tyler Johnson
18 Ondrej Palat - 21 Brayden Point - 86 Nikita Kucherov
17 Alex Killorn - 71 Anthony Cirelli - 37 Yanni Gourde
24 Ryan Callahan - 13 Cedric Paquette - 62 Danick Martel
77 Victor Hedman - 6 Anton Stralman
27 Ryan McDonagh - 81 Eric Cernak
55 Braydon Coburn - 5 Dan Girardi
88 Andrei Vasilevskiy
[70 Louis Domingue]
Scratches: 73 Adam Erne (healthy), 29 Slater Koekkoek (healthy), 98 Mikhail Sergachev (healthy), 7 Mathieu Joseph (IR, lower body).
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PHANTOMS BEAT PENS, 5-3
In the first game after the American Hockey League's holiday break, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms earned a 5-3 Boxing Day road victory over the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins. A four-goal explosion by the Phantoms in the third period lifted the team to victory after it entered the third period trailing by a 3-1 score.
All scoring in the game came at 5-on-5 (the Phantoms were 0-for-2 on the power play and 3-for-3 on the penalty kill). Winning goaltender Alex Lyon, who has started each of the last four games since the promotion of rookie Carter Hart to the NHL, stopped 29 of 32 shots. Tristan Jarry denied 27 of 32 Phantoms shots in a losing cause.
The Penguins took a 2-0 lead to the first intermission as right winger Ben Sexton notched two late-period goals, including one within the final three seconds of the period. Adam Johnson assisted on both goals.
Coming off a two-goal game against Hershey in the final game before the break, Tyrell Goulbourne (fourth goal of the season) got the Phantoms back within 2-1 with 2:02 left in the second period. However, the Phantoms gave up a potential backbreaker as frequent Lehigh Valley nemesis Teddy Blueger restored a two-goal margin with six ticks left on the second period clock.
Himself coming off a two-goal game against Hershey, Taylor Leier (7th goal of the season) got the Phantoms back within 3-2 as deflected home a puck that defenseman Philippe Myers put toward the net at 2:38 of the third period. The Phantoms (14 third period shots) continued to push but it took until the 13:23 mark to get the game tied at 3-3.
On the tying goal, Myers found rookie center Connor Bunnaman with a stretch pass for a breakaway. From the slot, Bunnaman snapped off a shot that beat Jarry into the top right corner of the net.
The Phantoms took their first lead of the game with 1:02 left in the game. Myers once again was the catalyst. He found Goulbourne near the net, but Goulbourne was unable to finish. Veteran winger Colin McDonald retrieved the loose puck and slid it back out to Goulbourne near the left post. This time, Goulbourne did not miss, scoring his second goal of the game and fifth of the season for a 4-3 lead at 18:58.
The Penguins were unable to get Jarry off for an extra attacker before the Phantoms had scored again to open a 5-3 lead. On the ensuing center ice faceoff, Steven Swavely got the puck to veteran defenseman Philip Samuelsson. From the red line, Samuelsson was simply trying to get the puck in deep as he put a skittering puck into the the WB/S end. The puck then knuckeballed and eluded Jarry, going into the net. A total fluke, but Samuelsson gladly took his third goal of the season and the Phantoms welcomed the insurance goal.
With the win, the Phantoms improved to 18-9-3 overall; 3-0-1 under Kerry Huffman. Lehigh Valley is two points behind the Bridgeport Sound Tigers (18-9-5) for second place in the Atlantic Division. On Friday, the Phantoms will host the Providence Bruins (13-13-5) at the PPL Center in Allentown.
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WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS UPDATE
All seven of the Flyers prospects participating in 2018-19 World Junior Championships in British Columbia saw action as the round-robin portion of the tournament got underway on Boxing Day. The big star of the day was Flyers 2017 first-round pick Morgan Frost, but there were other standouts as well.
Canada 14 - Denmark 0: Morgan Frost collected five points and Player of the Game honors for Team Canada in an opening game rout that saw Canada lead 3-0 after the first period and 8-0 by the end of the second period. Frost figured in four of Canada's first five goals, and finished the game with a hat trick and a pair of primary assists in his official debut game for Team Canada.
Frost opening the scoring at 4:53 of the first period, making the Danes pay for a turnover near their blueline as he took a pass from Brett Leason and slid the puck under the left pad of goaltender Mads Soegaard. At 8:32 of the first period, Frost made a beautiful cross-ice feed to Owen Tippett for a slam dunk near the left post. Frost later sent Canada to the first intermission with a 3-0. At 19:17, Frost used a defenseman as a screen from above the left hash marks and fired a wrister off the short-side post and into the net.
Frost completed his hat trick at 1:50 of the second period, opening a 5-0 lead. On this goal, Frost found a wide seam in the D and skated down the left slot to take a tape-to-tape pass from Nick Suzuki and stash the puck home. Much later in the game, Frost passed to Leason, who greeted relief goaltender William Rorth with a wrister into the back of the net at 12:47 of the third period as Canada opened a 12-0 lead.
Overall, Frost skated 14:56 of ice time and was plus-six on left wing of a line with Barrett Hayton and Leason. Frosty had five shots on goal for the evening.
Next up for Canada is a meeting with Switzerland on Thursday. Game time is 8 p.m. ET.
Sweden 2 - Finland 1: Flyers goaltending prospect Samuel Ersson flirted with a shutout until late in the third period and had little chance to stop an Aarne Talvitie goal off the rush -- Ersson nearly made a spectacular pad save on it but wasn't quite able to get enough as extended laterally -- as Sweden held off archrival Finland on Wednesday night. Ersson finished with 29 saves on 30 shots.
Ersson was not tested much in the game until late in the second period. However, he had to come up big numerous times -- including an excellent series of saves on a third-period penalty kill before the Finns went the length of the ice to score with 3:34 left in the game. Thereafter, Ersson authored a couple more big stops to nail down the win. A pair of power play goals by Erik Brannström proved to be just enough for the Swedes to prevail.
Eighteen-year-old Flyers defense prospect Adam Ginning skated 17:29 of ice time across 31 shifts. The Flyers' 2018 second-round pick was paired with New York Rangers 2018 first-round pick Nils Lundkvist.
Next up for Sweden is a meeting with Slovakia on Thursday. Game time is 6:30 p.m. ET. It is likely that Ersson will serve as the Swedes' backup goaltender in this game with Adam Åhman getting the start while Olle Eriksson Ek serves the second and final game of his IIHF suspension for being one of the Swedish players to take off his silver medal during the medal ceremony at last year's final game in Buffalo.
USA 2 - Slovakia 1: Team USA controlled the territorial play but found themselves trailing 1-0 until a two-goal outburst in the third period to hold off the Slovaks. None of the four participating Flyers prospects got on the scoresheet in this game.
Noah Cates had one shot on goal in 15:41 of ice time across 21 shifts. Joel Farabee skated 18 shifts and 13:14. Jay O'Brien had one shot in 11 shifts and 10:54 TOI. Defenseman Jack St. Ivany was used sparingly, receiving just 9 shifts and skating 6:37.
Cates skated left wing on a line with Delaware Valley product Evan Barratt (who scored the game winning goal). Farabee started on left wing with his U18 national team linemates Jack Hughes and Oliver Wahlstrom. O'Brien played fourth-line right wing with Logan Cockerill and Alexander Chmelevski. St. Ivany was mixed and matched as the seventh defenseman.
On Friday, Team USA plays Kazakhstan. Game time is 10:30 p.m. ET.
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