Philadelphia Flyers

Flyers Gameday: 4/1/17 vs. NJ
April 1, 2017, 1:53 AM ET [138 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
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UPDATE 11:00 AM

The Flyers have recalled veteran forward Colin McDonald from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in place of the injured Matt Read. Roman Lyubimov will be a healthy scratch again.

Michal Neuvirth will get the start in goal. Steve Mason is out with an illness. Anthony Stolarz has been recalled to back up Neuvirth.

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PREVIEW: FLYERS VS. DEVILS

In the final game of a three-game homestand, Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers (37-32-8) play host to John Hynes' New Jersey Devils (27-36-14). Game time at the Wells Fargo Center is 7:00 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on CSN Philadelphia.

This is the fourth of five meetings this season between the Metropolitan Division teams, and the second and final game in Philadelphia. Through the years, whether the Devils have been a top team, buried in the standings or somewhere in between, they've often given the Flyers fits.

This season has been no exception, even with the Devils in the Eastern Conference basement. The Devils have struggled to score against most every team in the NHL (ranking 28th of the 30 teams in the league in goals per game). Against the Flyers, however, the Devils have enjoyed three lopsided victories: 4-0 in Newark on Dec. 22, 4-1 in Philadelphia on Jan. 21 and 6-2 in New Jersey on March 16. The season series concludes back in Newark on April 4.

Flyers Outlook

The Flyers have won three games in a row but have only inched closer to mathematical elimination from the Eastern Conference wildcard picture because the teams in front of them have been winning, too.

Factoring their tiebreaker disadvantage, the Flyers are seven points out of the final Eastern Conference playoff spot with just five games left on the schedule. The Flyers are just 14-21-4 on the road this season but 23-11-4 at home. The team has attained at least 50 points on home ice in each of the last eight seasons exluding the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season.

The Flyers enter this game game coming off a 6-3 blowout win against the New York Islanders that saw Wayne Simmonds score his 30th goal for the second straight year (19th player in franchise history to have two or more seasons of 30+ goals as a Flyer) and set a new team single-game record in conjunction with Dale Weise. Both had Gordie Howe Hat Tricks in the first period; the first time two Flyers players have done it in the same period and the third time it's happened in the same game. Weise recorded the fastest Gordie in franchise history, needing just 8:28 into the first period.

Also on Thursday, Sean Couturier had a goal and two assists in the first period; he now has 13 points (four goals, nine assists) in his last 13 games. Brayden Schenn collected a pair of first period assists for his 10th point (four goals, six assists) in the last 10 games. Weise has seven points (four goals, three assists) in the last nine.

Coming off back-to-back games of earning first-star honors, Jordan Weal scored for the third straight game for the seventh time since his recall from the American Hockey League. Flyers defenseman Radko Gudas chipped in his sixth goal of the season. Valtteri Filppula (one goal, one assist) added an empty net tally in the final two minutes.

After the first period, the Flyers took their foot off the gas in the second period, needing Steve Mason to make 21 saves on 22 shots -- including multiple tough saves -- to take a four-goal lead into the third period. The Islanders got back within 5-3 in the final stanza before the Filppula empty netter. Mason finished with 38 saves on 41 shots.

Mason has started 14 of the Flyers last 16 games. Over his last 15 games, Mason has posted a 9-5-1 record, .924 save percentage, 2.23 GAA, and two shutouts. However, the Devils are the only team he's never beaten in his NHL career (0-9-0, 3.93 GAA, .852). With the Flyers in the middle game of a 3-in-4, front end of a back-to-back and third game of a four-in-six, Hakstol may opt to start Michal Neuvirth, who play a strong game in a 1-0 losing cause in Columbus last Saturday.

On Friday, the Flyers made two significant announcements. They signed 24-year-old Hobey Baker Award finalist Mike Vecchione (Union College) to an entry-level contract. He will join the NHL team immediately and can become a restricted free agent on July 1 (a longer-term contract with the organization is inevitable). The center will not play on Saturday but could join the lineup as soon as Sunday against the New York Rangers in Madison Square Garden.

The Flyers also announced that Matt Read will miss the rest of the season with an upper-body injury (believed to be an arm injury suffered blocking a shot in Thursday's game). He is a six to eight week rehabilitation schedule. He finishes the season with 10 goals, 19 points, a plus-three at even strength and eight penalty minutes. Read is signed for one more season.

In place of Read, either Roman Lyubimov or Nick Cousins (if ready to play after being upgraded to day-to-day with an upper-body injury suspected to be a concussion) will start for the Flyers on Saturday against the Devils. Michael Raffl (lower-body injury) remains out.

Devils Outlook

The Devils lost 10 in a row before hammering the Flyers on March 16. Since that time, the team has gone 1-5-2. For the season, New Jersey is 12-21-6 on the road.

Saturday's game is the second half of a back-to-back set for the Devils. On Friday in Brooklyn, the Devils dropped a 2-1 regulation decision to the New York Islanders. The Devils trailed 2-0 midway in the third period. Adam Henrique's power play goal for his 20th tally of the season cut the gap to one but New Jersey was unable to tie the game. Keith Kinkaid got the start in goal, stopping 36 of 38 shots in a losing cause. Winning goalie Jaroslav Halak turned back 26 of 27 Devils' shots.

With Kinkaid starting on Friday, Cory Schneider is the likely to get tabbed for Philadelphia.

All-time leading Devils scorer Patrik Elias, who has announced his retirement after 19 seasons scored more goals (37) and points (84 in 86 regular season games) against the Flyers than any other opponent. The 40-year-old Czech forward last played on April 9, 2016. This season, he attempted to come back from knee surgery but was unable to do so. He will participate in warmups in the Devils' final home game of the season.


Projected lineups (Subject to change)

FLYERS

11 Travis Konecny - 28 Claude Giroux - 93 Jakub Voracek
40 Jordan Weal - 51 Valterri Filppula - 17 Wayne Simmonds
22 Dale Weise - 14 Sean Couturier - 10 Brayden Schenn
76 Chris VandeVelde - 78 Pierre-Édouard Bellemare - 36 Colin McDonald

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

30 Michal Neuvirth
[41 Anthony Stolarz]

Scratches: Nick Schultz (healthy), Roman Lyubimov (healthy), Matt Read (upper body), Michael Raffl (IR, lower body), Nick Cousins (day-to-day, upper body), Mike Vecchione (signed on Friday), Steve Mason (illness).


DEVILS

9 Taylor Hall - 19 Travis Zajac - 21 Kyle Palmieri
42 John Quenneville - 14 Adam Henrique - 13 Michael Cammalleri
64 Joseph Blandisi - 37 Pavel Zacha - 23 Stefan Noesen
44 Miles Wood - 40 Blake Coleman - 8 Beau Bennett

6 Andy Greene - 34 Steven Santini
2 John Moore - 28 Damon Severson
32 Michael Kapla - 12 Ben Lovejoy

35 Cory Schneider
[1 Keith Kinkaid]

Scratches: Jon Merrill (healthy), Dalton Prout (healthy), Jacob Josefson (upper body), Devante Smith-Pelly (lower body).