Philadelphia Flyers

Flyers Gameday: 3/19/17 vs. CAR, Quick Hits: Alumni, Phantoms, Prospects
March 19, 2017, 12:33 AM ET [95 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
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PREVIEW: FLYERS VS. HURRICANES

Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers (32-30-8) host Bill Peters' Carolina Hurricanes (30-27-12) on Sunday night. Game time at the Wells Fargo Center is 7:30 p.m. EDT. The game will be televised on CSN Philadelphia.

This is the fourth of five meetings between the Atlantic Division clubs this season and the second of three in Philadelphia. The Flyers earned a 6-3 home win on Oct. 22. Eight days later in Raleigh, Philly prevailed by a 4-3 count. On January 31, the visiting Flyers got blown out by a 5-1 score.

Flyers Outlook

Factoring their tiebreaker disadvantage, the Flyers have an eight-point deficit in the chase for the final Eastern Conference playoff spot with 12 games remaining. While still mathematically alive, Philly has little practical shot at pulling off a miracle.

During much of the first half of the season, the Flyers survived largely on their special teams, especially the power play. The power play has struggled of late (although still an overall respectable 20.1 percent on the season) and the penalty kill, which was in the middle of the NHL pack just a couple weeks ago, has plummeted to 79.5 percent on the season.

Playing for the fourth time in six nights, the Flyers churned out a 6-2 clunker of a loss in Newark against a more energetic and seemingly more motivated New Jersey Devils team that was coming off a four-night break after going winless in its previous 10 games (with the last six in a row lost in regulation). Michael Del Zotto and Brayden Schenn scored for Philadelphia. Steve Mason allowed four goals before leaving the game in the third period due to severe cramping. Mason is expected to get the start on Sunday; his ninth start in the team's last 10 games.

On the injury front, Michael Raffl (lower-body injury) remains on injured reserve and could miss the rest of the regular season. Forward Nick Cousins is day-to-day with an upper-body issue. Brandon Manning (upper body) practiced and could play on Sunday after missing the previous three games.

Hurricanes Outlook

Add Carolina to the teams that have caught up to passed the Flyers in the standings heading into Sunday. Both teams have 72 points but the Hurricanes hold one game in hand.

Unlike Thursday's game, the Flyers could be the team with the energy advantage in this game, especially by the third period. Philly has had back-to-back open nights on the schedule and a full day of rest on Friday. Canes will be playing the second half of a back-to-back set, for the third time in four nights, the fifth time in seven nights and the sixth time in nine nights.

On Saturday night, however, the Hurricanes won for their second straight game, downing the visiting Nashville Predators by a 4-2 count. Jeff Skinner tallied his 24th and 25th goals of the season and added an assist, while Jordan Staal (14th) and Elias Lindholm (shorthanded empty netter, 8th) tallied once apiece. Eddie Läck stopped 27 of 29 shots to get the win.

Phil DiGiuseppe (upper body) participated in Saturday's morning skate and is questionable for Sunday but could play. Both Jay McClement (lower body) and Valentin Zykov (upper body) are doubtful to play.


Projected lineups (Subject to change)

FLYERS

40 Jordan Weal - 28 Claude Giroux - 17 Wayne Simmonds
11 Travis Konecny - 51 Valtteri Filppula - 93 Jakub Voracek
22 Dale Weise - 14 Sean Couturier - 10 Brayden Schenn
76 Chris VandeVelde - 78 Pierre-Édouard Bellemare - 24 Matt Read

9 Ivan Provorov - 47 Andrew MacDonald
23 Brandon Manning - 53 Shayne Gostisbehere
15 Michael Del Zotto - 3 Radko Gudas

35 Steve Mason
[30 Michal Neuvirth]

Scratches: Nick Schultz (healthy), Roman Lyubimov (healthy), Michael Raffl (IR, lower body), Nick Cousins (day-to-day, upper body).


HURRICANES
20 Sebastian Aho - 11 Jordan Staal - 86 Teuvo Teräväinen
23 Brock McGinn - 49 Victor Rask - 16 Elias Lindholm
53 Jeff Skinner - 33 Derek Ryan - 21 Lee Stempniak
42 Joakim Nordström - 36 Patrick Brown - 34 Phillip DiGiuseppe

74 Jaccob Slavin - 27 Justin Faulk
5 Noah Hanifin - 22 Brett Pesce
6 Klas Dahlback - 7 Ryan Murphy

30 Cam Ward
[31 Eddie Läck]

Scratches: Matt Tennyson (healthy), Phillip DiGiuseppe (questionable, upper body), Jay McClement (doubtful, lower body), Valentin Zykov (doubtful, upper body).

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QUICK HITS: MARCH 19, 2017

1) The Flyers Alumni Team prevailed, 8-6, against the Penguins Alumni Team at Santander Arena in Reading, PA on Saturday afternoon. Brian Boucher and Ray Emery shared the goaltending duties for the Flyers side. Dan Carcillo (hat trick, one assist), Danny Briere (two goals, three assists), team captain Eric Lindros (one goal, one assist), John LeClair (one goal, two assists) and Dave Brown scored for the Flyers Alumni. All proceeds raised at the game went to Reading Royals Charities to benefit those in need in the Reading community and toward the Flyers Alumni Association's pledge to donate $2 million to the construction of the Ed Snider/Flyers Alumni Rink under the direction of the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation.



2) AHL: In the back end of a home-and-home set, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms avenged their home regulation loss to the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins on Friday as they captured a 3-2 regulation road win in Wilkes Barre on Saturday night. The Phantoms built a 3-0 lead and then hung on for a one-goal win after the Pens made a heavy late push. The Phantoms goals were scored by Tyrell Goulbourne (1st), Reece Willcox (3rd) and Danick Martel (19th). Anthony Stolarz earned the win with 37 saves on 39 shots.

3) NCAA Frozen Four: Harvard University prevailed, 4-1, over Cornell at the ECAC Championship game in Lake Placid on Saturday. Flyers goaltending prospect Merrick Madsen, a junior, stopped 25 of 26 shots and flirted with a shutout until the final 1:47 of the third period.

4) NCAA Frozen Four: Bowling Green University lost a 3-2 double overtime heartbreaker to Michigan Tech in the WCHA Broadmoor Trophy Championship game on Saturday. Flyers defense prospect Mark Friedman, a junior, did not record a point. He was minus-one for the game, as he was out on the ice when Shane Hanna scored the conference championship winning goal at 6:35 of the second overtime.

5) NCAA Frozen Four: Western Michigan lost 3-1 to Denver in the NCHC consolation game for third place. Flyers power forward prospect Wade Allison, a freshman, did not play in the game after being taken last week to the hospital for precautionary reasons after being stretchered off the ice. Allison, thankfully, was OK. He practiced earlier this week and was officially day-to-day. The 19-year-old had had a strong first collegiate season with 29 points (12 goals, 17 assists) and a plus-10 rating in 35 games.

6) SHL Playoffs (quarterfinals): Flyers wing prospect Oskar Lindblom recorded a pair of assists as Brynäs jumped out to a 1-0 series lead against Linköping on Saturday with a 6-0 romp. Flyers goalie prospect Felix Sandström was the back-up goalie for Brynäs.

7) QMJHL Playoffs: The Chicoutimi Sagueneens will take on the Victoriaville Tigres in the first round of the QMJHL playoffs. Flyers 2016 first-round pick German Rubtsov (22 points in 16 games since leaving the KHL to play junior hockey in Canada) plays for Chicoutimi while 2016 second-round pick Pascal Laberge (12 goals, 32 points in 46 games) plays for Victoriaville. Rubtsov, who is nursing an injury, was held out of Chicoutimi's regular season finale.