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Flyers Gameday: 3/7/23 @ TB

March 7, 2023, 12:44 PM ET [268 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Game 64 Preview: Flyers @ Lightning

John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (24-28-11) are in the Sunshine State on Tuesday to take on Jon Cooper's Tampa Bay Lightning (37-21-5). Game time at Amalie Arena is 7:00 p.m. ET.

This is the third and final meeting of the season between the teams. On Oct. 18 at Amalie Arena, the Flyers overcame a 2-0 deficit to rally for a 3-2 victory. On Dec. 1 at the Wells Fargo Center, the Lightning dominated the final 40 minutes on the way to a 4-1 win over the Flyers.

On Sunday, the Flyers snapped a four-game winless streak (0-3-1) with a 3-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings. Nicolas Deslauriers (SHG, 5th), Noah Cates (10th) and Scott Laughton (ENG, 15th) scored for the Flyers. Carter Hart made 24 saves on 25 shots.

The Flyers have recently been double-shifting Owen Tippett throughout games while going with 11 forwards and seven defensemen. He played 27:40 against the Rangers two games ago and 24:09 against Detroit on Sunday. He's likely to again see time on both Morgan Frost and Tanner Laczynski's lines with a few shifts playing with Kevin Hayes and opportunities both on PP1 and the penalty kill.

Both the Flyers and Lightning have struggled since the All-Star break. Philly is 3-7-2 while the Lightning, normally a league powerhouse, are 5-6-4 since the start of February. Tampa is winless in its last five games (0-4-1) and suffered ugly back-to-back losses over the weekend against the Sabres and Hurricanes. The latter game was a 6-0 defeat on the heels of Cooper benching Steven Stamkos, Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov in the third period of the Sabres game one night earlier.

Top Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman was forced to leave the Carolina game after going awkwardly into the end boards on a hit by Andrei Svechnikov. Initial word was that the Lightning are hopeful it won't be a lengthy absence. However, Hedman's availability for the Flyers game is questionable.

For an in-depth game preview, with deep-dive looks at Tippett, Joel Farabee, the Flyers struggling special teams (apart from their prowess for scoring shorthanded goals), and more, see today's Five Things on PhiladelphiaFlyers.com.

Projected lineups (subject to change)

Flyers

86 Joel Farabee - 48 Morgan Frost - 74 Owen Tippett
25 James van Riemsdyk - 13 Kevin Hayes - 57 Wade Allison
21 Scott Laughton - 49 Noah Cates - 22 Brendan Lemieux
44 Nicolas Deslauriers - 58 Tanner Laczynski - [Tippett, double-shifts]

9 Ivan Provorov - 45 Cam York
6 Travis Sanheim - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
24 Nick Seeler - 77 Tony DeAngelo
61 Justin Braun

79 Carter Hart
[32 Felix Sandström]

Lightning (based on Sunday's lineup)

91 Steven Stamkos - 21 Brayden Point - 86 Nikita Kucherov
38 Brandon Hagel - 20 Nick Paul - 17 Alex Killorn
23 Michael Eyssimont - 71 Anthony Cirelli - 84 Tanner Jeannot
79 Ross Colton - 41 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - 10 Corey Perry

77 Victor Hedman (?) - 48 Nicklaus Perbix
98 Mikhail Sergachev - 24 Zach Bogosian
28 Ian Cole - 7 Haydn Fleury

88 Andei Vasilevskiy
1 Brian Elliott
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