Game 69 Preview: Dallas Stars @ Philadelphia Flyers

Image courtesy of DallasNews.com

Dallas Stars (32-25-11) @ Philadelphia Flyers (36-25-7), 7:00pm, CSN-Philly/FS-SW

The Philadelphia Flyers look to keep rolling tonight against the Dallas Stars. Despite being in different conferences, both teams are fighting to make the playoffs, as the Flyers currently sit second in a congested Metropolitan Division and the Stars are fighting for a wild card spot against the Minnesota Wild and Phoenix Coyotes at the second. With the Orange and Black surging and the Stars slumping, can the Flyers extend their winning streak to four games?

It doesn’t get much better than Claude Giroux’s game-winner on Tuesday, as his laser past Antti Raanta’s right shoulder handed the Flyers a 3-2 decision in overtime over the defending Stanley Cup champions in the Chicago Blackhawks. The game may have needed overtime, but the Orange and Black dictated play, as the Flyers had 71 shot attempts to the Hawks’ 49. The win came a few days after Philly swept a back-to-back against the division-leading Pittsburgh Penguins.

It’s easy to say the Flyers beat a depleted Pens’ team and a Chicago team that was looking forward to their matchup with their division rival St. Louis Blues the following night, which they won 4-0, but the wins are impressive nonetheless for Philly. It’s important for the Flyers to build confidence this time of season, especially since they are still fighting, and will likely be fighting for the rest of the season, for a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Sometimes, it’s not the quality of wins a team strings together, but rather the quantity of wins. Both the Penguins and Blackhawks can have excuses as to why they didn’t beat the Flyers, but the Orange and Black have still won three in a row in during a key stretch of the season.

As for this game, it will be crucial for Sean Couturier and Matt Read to come up big yet again, as they will have their hands full with the tandem of Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn. In the midst of a career year in his first season with the Stars, Seguin is currently on a six-game point streak where he has six goals, six assists, two multi-point games (a three-point game and a five-point game), and a hat trick. The former Boston Bruin has an NHL-high three hat tricks this season and is tied for sixth in the NHL with six multi-goal games. Seguin sits fifth in the NHL with 70 points in 66 games, which is due to his amazing skill set, but it doesn’t hurt playing alongside Benn. The Team Canada forward had a seven-game point streak snapped in the team’s 5-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday, as Benn had a four-game goal streak and six assists during the point streak. Having scored at least one point in 42 of his 68 games this season, Benn has 64 points and is also in the midst of setting his career-high for points in a single season.

Despite the impressive play of Seguin and Benn, Dallas has dropped three straight games, as they have only grabbed one point in the process. After a 4-3 shootout loss to the lowly Calgary Flames on Friday night, the Stars were blown out 7-2 by the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday and 5-1 by the Pens on Tuesday. A losing streak by a team that is still fighting for a playoff spot just means the Stars will come out swinging tonight. With the Flyers riding the high of a three-game winning streak and the Stars ticked off due to their three-game losing streak, Philly might be in for another tough contest against a team that beat them 5-1 earlier in the season.

As for the Flyers, it’s amazing to look at the season Giroux has had. After not scoring a goal in the first 15 games of the year, Giroux now has 24 goals in his last 53 games. On top of that, the Flyers’ captain is fifth in the NHL with 47 assists and he sits fourth in the NHL with 71 points. To further express the magnitude of Giroux’s skills, the forward is tied for third in the NHL with 21 multi-point games and is tied for sixth in the league with 44 games with at least one point this year. Imagine where his numbers would be if he didn’t mess his hand up in the offseason with a freak golfing accident.

After their second game of their current four-game home stand tonight, the Flyers look to take on the St. Louis Blues Saturday afternoon and the Los Angeles Kings on Monday night.

RECORDS
Dallas Stars
Overall: 32-25-11
Away: 14-15-4
Against the Eastern Conference: 10-13-2
Against the Metropolitan Division: 4-7-1

Philadelphia Flyers
Overall: 36-25-7
Home: 20-12-1
Against the Western Conference: 13-9-2
Against the Central Division: 5-4-2

PROJECTED LINEUPS
Dallas Stars
Jamie Benn – Tyler Seguin – Alex Chiasson
Antoine Roussel – Cody Eakin – Ryan Garbutt
Erik Cole – Vernon Fiddler – Colton Sceviour
Ray Whitney – Chris Mueller – Valeri Nichushkin

Alex Goligoski – Trevor Daley
Jordie Benn – Brenden Dillon
Kevin Connauton – Sergei Gonchar

Tim Thomas
Kari Lehtonen

Philadelphia Flyers
Scott Hartnell – Claude Giroux – Jakub Voracek
Vincent Lecavalier – Brayden Schenn – Wayne Simmonds
Matt Read- Sean Couturier – Steve Downie
Zac Rinaldo – Adam Hall – Michael Raffl

Kimmo Timonen – Braydon Coburn
Nicklas Grossmann – Mark Streit
Andrew MacDonald – Luke Schenn

Steve Mason
Ray Emery

TEAM LEADERS
Dallas Stars
Goals: Tyler Seguin, 31 goals
Assists: Tyler Seguin, 39 assists
Points: Tyler Seguin, 70 points
Power-Play Points: Tyler Seguin, 20
Plus/Minus: Valeri Nichushkin, plus-17
PIMs: Antoine Roussel, 178
Average TOI: Alex Goligoski, 24:09
GAA: Kari Lehtonen, 2.52
Save Percentage: Kari Lehtonen, .915

Philadelphia Flyers
Goals: Claude Giroux, 24
Assists: Claude Giroux, 47
Points: Claude Giroux, 71
Power-Play Points: Claude Giroux, 30
Plus/Minus: Scott Hartnell and Erik Gustafsson, plus-9
PIMs: Zac Rinaldo, 124
Average TOI: Braydon Coburn, 22:34
GAA: Steve Mason, 2.57
Save Percentage: Steve Mason, .914

INJURIES
Dallas Stars
Rich Peverley – Heart surgery (out for season)
Shawn Horcoff – Upper-body injury (doubtful)

Philadelphia Flyers
NONE

FORMER PLAYERS
Former Flyers in Dallas’ organization
With Dallas: Mark Recchi (Senior Advisor)
With the Texas Stars (AHL): Brendan Ranford (Flyers’ seventh-round pick in 2010)
With the Idaho Steelheads (ECHL): Charlie Dodero (Greenville Road Warriors), Andrew Conboy (Trenton Titans), Brett Robinson (Greenville Road Warriors), Mitch Wahl (Adirondack Phantoms), Neil Graham (Assistant Coach, Greenville Road Warriors)
With the Allen Americans (CHL): Daniel Tetrault (Trenton Titans), Greger Hanson (Greenville Road Warriors), Kale Kerbashian (Greenville Road Warriors), Garrett Klotz (Adirondack Phantoms), Steve Duchesne (Franchise Owner)

Former Stars in Philadelphia’s organization
With Philadelphia: Nicklas Grossmann, Paul Holmgren (Minnesota North Stars), Derian Hatcher (Director of Player Development), Chris Pryor (Minnesota North Stars, Director of Scouting), Dennis Patterson (Minnesota North Stars, Amateur Scout), Ilkka Sinisalo (Minnesota North Stars, European Scout), Bobby Clarke (Minnesota North Stars, Senior VP of Hockey Operations)
With the Adirondack Phantoms (AHL): NONE
With the Greenville Road Warriors (ECHL): Bretton Cameron (Texas Stars)