Philadelphia Flyers

Flyers Gameday: 3/21/17 @ WPG
March 21, 2017, 10:54 AM ET [177 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
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PREVIEW: FLYERS @ JETS

Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers (33-30-8) begin a four-game road trip with a visit to Manitoba to play Paul Maurice's Winnipeg Jets (32-33-7). Game time at the MTS Centre is 8:00 p.m. EDT.

This is the second and final meeting of the season between the inter-conference teams. The Flyers bring a six-game winning streak against the Jets into this game, including a 5-2 home win this season on Nov. 17.

Flyers Outlook

The Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Boston Bruins on Monday night, which was bad news for the Flyers. Factoring their tiebreaker disadvantage, the Flyers have an eight-point deficit in the chase for the final Eastern Conference playoff spot with 11 games remaining. While still mathematically alive, Philly has little practical shot at pulling off a miracle.

For the second time in three years, a poor road record has been the Flyers' undoing in the playoff chase. While the Flyers are 21-11-4 at home, the club is just 12-19-4 on the road as it begins the current stretch of four away games in six nights.

On Sunday night, a rested Flyers team dominated a weary Carolina Hurricanes club that was playing for the fifth time in seven nights. However, after building a 2-0 lead, the Flyers had to rally back from a 3-2 deficit in the final minute of the third period to force OT and eventually prevail, 4-3. Brayden Schenn potted a Sean Couturier rebound for the game winner. Couturier had a career-high three assists in the game. Ivan Provorov (one goal, two assists), Dale Weise and Travis Konecny also scored. Konecny has three goals in his last four games.

On the injury front, Michael Raffl (lower-body injury) remains on injured reserve. Forward Nick Cousins is day-to-day with an upper-body issue. Brandon Manning (upper body) practiced on Monday and could play in Winnipeg after missing the previous four games.

Jets Outlook

The Jets are not yet mathematically eliminated from the Western Conference playoffs but stand even less chance than the Flyers of qualifying for the postseason.

Winnipeg, which has only made the playoffs twice in its 17-season franchise history dating back to the Atlanta Thrashers era, is 10 points behind the St. Louis Blues. The Jets also have one fewer game remaining on their schedule (10 for Winnipeg, 11 for the Blues) and a tiebreaker disadvantage of 30 regulation/OT wins to 37.

Unlike the Flyers, venue has been a non-factor for Winnipeg this year. The Jets have posted so-so records both on home ice (17-18-1) and on the road (15-15-6). Winnipeg enters this game coming off a bizarre 5-4 regulation home win against the rival Minnesota Wild on Sunday.

The Jets took a 3-0 lead to the first intermission. After Dustin Byfuglien's 12th goal of the season built a 4-0 edge early in the second period, the Wild roared back to score four unanswered goals to take a 4-4 tie into the third period. Josh Morrissey put the Jets ahead again in the middle stages of the final stanza, and Minnesota was unable to find an equalizer. Andrew Copp (ninth), Adam Lowry (13th) and Ben Chiarot (2nd) and scored for the Jets. Winnipeg was outshot by a huge margin (48-21) for the game, including a 21-5 disparity in the disastrous second period, but Michael Hutchinson stopped all 13 shots he faced in the third period in relief of starter Connor Hellebuyck (31 saves on 35 shots through 40 minutes).

Veteran defenseman Mark Stuart is banged up with various nagging injuries the team says are related to blocking shots throughout the season. He did not practice on Monday but could play against the Flyers. The depleted blueline is already missing Tyler Myers (lower body), Jacob Trouba (upper body) and Tobias Enström (concussion).

Paul Postma is questionable with a lower body injury, while Shawn Matthias (shoulder surgery) will be on injured reserve for the rest of the season.

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) or Brandon Manning (questionable), Roman Lyubimov (healthy), Michael Raffl (IR, lower body), Nick Cousins (day-to-day, upper body).


JETS

85 Mathieu Perreault - 55 Mark Scheifele - 26 Blake Wheeler
27 Nikolaj Ehlers - 18 Bryan Little - 29 Patrik Laine
9 Andrew Copp - 17 Adam Lowry - 40 Joel Armia
56 Marko Dano - 19 Nicolas Petan - 22 Chris Thorburn

71 Julian Melchiori - 33 Dustin Byfuglien
47 Brian Strait - 44 Josh Morrissey
5 Mark Stuart - 7 Ben Chiarot

34 Michael Hutchinson / 37 Connor Hellebuyck

Scratches: Nelson Nogier (healthy), Tobias Enström (concussion), Tyler Myers (IR, lower body), Paul Postma (questionable, lower body), Jacob Trouba (doubtful, upper body), Mark Stuart (day-to-day, strains and bruises), Shawn Mattias (IR, shoulder surgery).