|
Flyers Gameday: 4/2/2022 vs. TOR |
|
|
|
|
|
Game 68 Preview: Flyers vs. Maple Leafs
Interim head coach Mike Yeo's Philadelphia Flyers (21-35-11) return home to the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday evening to host Sheldon Keefe's Toronto Maple Leafs (43-19-5). Game time is 7:00 p.m. (NBCSP, 97.5 The Fanatic).
This is the second of three meetings between the teams this season and the second and final game in Philadelphia. The season series will conclude on April 19 at Scotiabank Arena.
Back on Nov. 10, the Flyers dropped a 3-0 home decision to Toronto. The Flyers enter this game coming off a 1-4-0 road trip. On Tuesday in St. Paul, the Flyers lost a 4-1 decision to the Minnesota Wild.
Flyers 2019 third-round pick Ronnie Attard will make his NHL debut in Saturday's game. It is possible that Keith Yandle (illness) will see his NHL-record 989-game ironman streak come to an end. Yandle missed practice on Thursday. although he returned on Friday and was on the "fourth pair" alongside Kevin Connauton. Attard was paired with Nick Seeler on both Thursday and Friday. Yeo said that a final decision would be made on Saturday morning.
Carter Hart, who missed Tuesday's game in Minnesota and Thursday's practice due to a nagging minor injury, returned to practice on Friday. Yeo indicated that the two games this weekend would be split between Hart and Martin Jones although he will make a decision on Saturday morning about which goalie gets the Toronto game and which one plays on Sunday at Madison Square Garden against the Rangers.
Nate Thompson, now fully rehabbed from shoulder surgery, will return to the lineup for the first time since Nov. 28. Hayden Hodgson will be a healthy scratch.
Scott Laughton has been medically cleared to play from the concussion he sustained back on March 10. Laughton has been pressing Yeo to get him back in the lineup this weekend. Saturday's game is unlikely but Laughton could suit up on Sunday against the Rangers.
The Maple Leafs blew out the visiting Winnipeg Jets, 7-3, on Thursday evening after trailing 2-0 in the first period and 3-2 early in the second period. The game was highlighted by Auston Matthews notching his 50th goal of the season, Nylander tallying a pair of power play goals (25th and 26th), and John Tavares scoring his 23rd goal of the season. The Leafs also got a shorthanded goal from Ilya Mikheyev (15th) and a late power play marker from Timothy Liljegren (2nd).
Jack Campbell was medically cleared on March 31. Ex-Flyers goalie Petr Mrazek will miss the rest of the regular season and be out roughly six weeks.
Auston Matthews tallied his 50th goal of the season in Toronto's 7-3 blowout win (after deficits of 2-0 and 3-2) on Thursday. In the meantime, Mitch Marner has racked up 11 points (2g, 9a) over his last five games, including four straight multi-point games.
For more, see Saturday's Five Things on PhiladelphiaFlyers.com.
LINEUPS
FLYERS
49 Noah Cates - 86 Joel Farabee - 89 Cam Atkinson
23 Oskar Lindblom - 13 Kevin Hayes - 42 Hayden Hodgson
25 James van Riemsdyk - 48 Morgan Frost - 74 Owen Tippett
44 Nate Thompson - 38 Patrick Brown - 17 Zack MacEwen
9 Ivan Provorov - 45 Cam York
6 Travis Sanheim - 70 Rasmus Ristolainen
24 Nick Seeler - 47 Ronnie Attard
79 Carter Hart
[35 Martin Jones]
MAPLE LEAFS
58 Michael Bunting - 34 Auston Matthews - 16 Mitchell Marner
65 Ilya Mikheyev - 91 John Tavares - 15 Alexander Kerfoot
88 William Nylander - 64 David Kampf - 47 Pierre Engvall
26 Nicholas Abruzzese - 11 Colin Blackwell - 17 Wayne Simmonds
44 Morgan Rielly - 46 Ilya Lyubushkin
78 TJ Brodie - 3 Justin Holl
55 Mark Giordano - 37 Timothy Liljegren
36 Jack Campbell
[50 Erik Källgren]
*********
Phantoms Update
The Lehigh Valley Phantoms maintained their faint playoff hopes with a 4-2 win over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in a must-win game at the PPL Center in Allentown on Friday night. The Phantoms trailed by scores of 1-0 and 2-1 and were outplayed by a significant margin for most of the first period but turned the tide dramatically as the game moved along.
Ryan MacKinnon (rebound, 1st career AHL goal), Tanner Laczynski (breakaway tally), Wade Allison (game-winng goal, snipe from the left dot) and Max Willman (buzzer-beating empty net goal from long distance) provided the goal support for the Phantoms. Felix Sandström stopped 29 of 31 shots to earn the win.
The Phantoms (23-27-11) return to action again on Saturday night. They will host the Utica Comets (39-15-7) in a 7:05 p.m. game at the PPC Center.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
Join the Discussion:
»