Game 75 Preview: Flyers vs. Sabres
John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (29-32-13) are home on Saturday evening to take on Don Granato's Buffalo Sabres (35-31-7). Game time at the Wells Fargo Center is 7:00 p.m. EDT. Prior to the start of the game, the Flyers will honor Steve Coates, who is retiring after 43 years of broadcasting for the team. Fans are requested to be in their seats by 6:30 p.m. EDT. This is the third and final meeting of the season between the Eastern Conference clubs, and the second game in Philadelphia. The Fyers are 2--0-0 against the Sabres to date this season. On Jan. 9, rookie goalie Sam Ersson backstopped the Flyers to a 4-0 win in Buffalo. On March 17 in Philadelphia, an Owen TIppett hat trick sparked the Flyers to a 5-2 victory.
The Flyers bring a seven-game point streak (5-0-2) into tonight's match. On Thursday in Ottawa, despite generating a mere 11 shots on goal for the game (a single-game low in franchise history), the Flyers pushed back from a 4-1 deficit in the third period to force overtime. However, the Senators prevailed over the Flyers, 5-4 in sudden death.
Carter Hart (lower-body injury) is still not ready to return but he practiced this morning with skills coach Angelo Ricci. The Flyers recalled Samuel Ersson once again on an emergency basis. Ersson will back up Felix Sandström in goal tonight.
The Flyers activated Travis Konecny (upper-body injury) from IR on Saturday morning. For Buffalo, leading scorer Tage Thompson is day-to-day with an upper-body injury. Thompson did not play last night.
The Sabres are playing their second game of a back-to-back set. On Friday at home against the New York Rangers, rookie goalie Devon Levi had a stellar NHL debut with 31 saves as the Sabres earned a 3-2 overtime win. Veteran forward Jeff Skinner notched the winning goal for Buffalo.
Potential lineups (subject to change)
Flyers
86 Joel Farabee - 48 Morgan Frost - 74 Owen Tippett 21 Scott Laughton - 49 Noah Cates - 11 Travis Konecny 25 James van Riemsdyk - 13 Kevin Hayes - 57 Wade Allison 44 Nicolas Deslauriers - xxxxxx - 22 Brendan Lemieux
9 Ivan Provorov - 45 Cam York 6 Travis Sanheim - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen 24 Nick Seeler - 77 Tony DeAngelo
32 Felix Sandström 33 Samuel Ersson
Sabres
53 Jeff Skinner - 37 Casey Mittelstadt - 89 Alex Tuch 77 JJ Peterka - 24 Dylan Cozens - 22 Jack Quinn 12 Jordan Greenway - 17 Tyson Jost - 72 Victor Olofsson 28 Zemgus Girgensons - 19 Peyton Krebs - 21 Kyle Okposo
23 Mattias Samuelsson - 26 Rasmus Dahlin 25 Owen Power - 10 Henri Jokiharju 78 Jacob Bryson - 46 Ilya Lyubushkin
1 Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen 27 Devon Levi