Flyers-Coyotes: Game 16 Preview

Team Leaders

Philadelphia Flyers	GP	G	A	P	Arizona Coyotes	GP	G	A	P
Claude Giroux	15	6	11	17	Clayton Keller	13	5	5	10
Jake Voracek	15	4	11	15	Oliver Ekman-Larsson	13	1	7	8
Wayne Simmonds	15	7	3	10	Michael Grabner	13	3	4	7
Nolan Patrick	12	4	4	8	Alex Goligoski	13	1	6	7
Oskar Lindblom	15	4	4	8	Brad Richardson	13	4	2	6

 

Player to Watch
28 Claude Giroux	40 Michael Grabner
Last 5 Games: 3 G, 3 A, 6 P, +3	Last 5 Games: 3 G, 3 A, 6 P, +5

 

The Flyers captain struggled in San Jose and then lifted his team to victory on Monday to close out the road trip on a high note. With five games coming up at home and just a 2-4-0 record on home ice so far, Claude Giroux will want to make a similar impact in front of the home fans.

 

Michael Grabner certainly has the scorer's touch of late with three goals in his last five games and six points as well. Grabner's line was among the best against the Flyers on Monday, even in a loss, so look for him to be active around the net again, especially on the penalty kill, where he can be particularly dangerous.

 

Goalie Matchup
33 Cal Pickard	35 Darcy Kuemper
3-1-1, 3.94 GAA, .876 SV%	2-2-0, 2.02 GAA, .936 SV%

Brian Elliott was back in practice on Wednesday after leaving with an injury on Sunday, but he'll serve as backup for Thursday's game as Cal Pickard makes his third straight start. Pickard was excellent in a 35-save performance on Monday and nearly carried the Flyers to a win on Saturday in San Jose.

Darcy Kuemper allowed four goals in Monday's loss to the Flyers. He probably wasn't expected to start Thursday's game, but a practice injury to Antti Raanta will put Kuemper back between the pipes for the Coyotes in Philadelphia.

Flyers Projected Lineup

Injuries: James van Riemsdyk, Michael Raffl, Michal Neuvirth

Scratches: Andrew MacDonald

Left Wing	Center	Right Wing
28 Claude Giroux	14 Sean Couturier	11 Travis Konecny
23 Oskar Lindblom	19 Nolan Patrick	93 Jake Voracek
22 Dale Weise	40 Jordan Weal	17 Wayne Simmonds
21 Scott Laughton	15 Jori Lehtera	62 Nicolas Aube-Kubel
Defense
9 Ivan Provorov	8 Robert Hagg
53 Shayne Gostisbehere	26 Christian Folin
6 Travis Sanheim	3 Radko Gudas
Goalie
33 Cal Pickard

Lineup Notes

The Flyers are carrying 12 forwards, so no changes to the forward group. Andrew MacDonald remains the only healthy scratch.

Coyotes Projected Lineup

Injuries: Antti Raanta, Christian Dvorak, Jakob Chychrun

Scratches: Josh Archibald, Ilya Lyubushkin

Left Wing	Center	Right Wing
14 Richard Panik	17 Alex Galchenyuk	9 Clayton Keller
25 Nick Cousins	21 Derek Stepan	36 Christian Fischer
40 Michael Grabner	15 Brad Richardson	13 Vinnie Hinostroza
67 Lawson Crouse	20 Dylan Strome	11 Brendan Perlini
Defense
23 Oliver Ekman-Larsson	55 Jason Demers
33 Alex Goligoski	4 Niklas Hjalmarsson
44 Kevin Connauton	82 Jordan Oesterle
Goalie
35 Darcy Kuemper

Game Notes

• Power Play: Flyers (24th, T-22nd at home), Coyotes (23rd, 15th on road)
• Penalty Kill: Flyers (30th, 29th at home), Coyotes (1st, 1st on road) 
• Recent History vs. Coyotes
  • Oct. 30, 2017 – Coyotes 4, Flyers 3 F/OT (at PHI)
  • Feb. 10, 2018 – Flyers 4, Coyotes 3 F/SO (at ARI)
  • Nov. 5, 2018 – Flyers 5, Coyotes 2 (at ARI)
• Flyers Leaders vs. Coyotes
  • Claude Giroux – 15 GP, 7 G, 8 A, 15 P
  • Sean Couturier – 13 GP, 4 G, 7 A, 11 P
  • Shayne Gostisbehere – 6 GP, 1 G, 5 A, 6 P
  • Cal Pickard – 5 GP, 3-2-0, 1.87 GAA, .939 SV%
• Milestone Watch
  • Claude Giroux passes Chris Therien for fourth all-time in games played in Flyers history tonight. This is the 754th career game for Giroux.

Where to Watch
TV: NBC Sports Philadelphia
Radio: 97.5 The Fanatic

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