Flyers-Coyotes: Game 61 Preview

 

 

The Philadelphia Flyers (27-22-11) are back on home ice for the second game of a six game homestand when they welcome the Arizona Coyotes (27-28-6) to the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday afternoon. Game time is 1:00.

 

This is the first of two meetings between the two clubs. They will meet in Arizona on March 26.

 

Player to Watch
17 Wayne Simmonds	19 Shane Doan
Last 5 Games: 1G, 3A, 4Pts, +1	Last 5 Games: 2G, 2A, 4Pts, +1

 

Wayne Simmonds has been on a bit of cold streak lately. Simmonds has just 1 goal in his last five games and none in each of the last four. He has also been held off the scoresheet in three of the last games. Jakub Voracek will be out of the lineup this afternoon and the team has not said how long they expect Jake to be out. Simmonds will need to get on one of his typical hot streaks in the absence of Voracek for Philadelphia to be successful.

 

Shane Doan is the longest tenured player with one team in the NHL. Doan is in his 20th season with the Coyotes franchise and is still leading the way. His 23 goals are tops on the roster. Doan has topped 50 pts in all but two full seasons since 1999-00. Doan has been the talk of numerous trade rumors in each of the past three or four seasons but has remained in Arizona. At 39 years old, this could be his last season and last trip to Philadelphia. 

 

Goalie Matchup
30 Michal Neuvirth	35 Louis Domingue
14-7-4, 2.20 GAA, .927 SV%	12-12-4, 2.68 GAA, .913 SV%

Michal Neuvirth looks to get the start today for the Flyers. Neuvirth picked up the win on Thursday against Minnesota. Neuvirth made perhaps the save of the year in the entire NHL when he stopped Wild forward Charlie Coyle on the goal line with a diving save in the final seconds.

Louis Domingue will make his 10th straight start on Saturday. Domingue is 3-6-0 in the previous nine starts and has lost four straight. He has never faced the Flyers. 

Flyers Projected Lineup

Scratches: Jakub Voracek, R.J. Umberger, Evgeny Medvedev, Jordan Weal, Micheal Del Zotto

Left Wing	Center	Right Wing
10 Brayden Schenn	28 Claude Giroux	17 Wayne Simmonds
12 Michael Raffl	14 Sean Couturier	89 Sam Gagner
76 Chris VandeVelde	78 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare	25 Ryan White
21 Scott Laughton	52 Nick Cousins	24 Matt Read
Defense
47 Andrew MacDonald	53 Shayne Gostisbehere
32 Mark Streit	55 Nick Schultz
23 Brandon Manning	3 Radko Gudas
Goalie
30 Michal Neuvirth

Claude Giroux is expected to return to the lineup today while Jakub Voracek will miss his first game since the 2012 season. The defense pairs will remain the same. 

Game Notes

• Power Play: Flyers (18th, 22nd at home), Coyotes (14th, 22nd on road) 
• Penalty Kill: Flyers (24th, 23rd at home), Coyotes (25th, 10th on road)
• Former Flyers defenseman Nicklas Grossmann will be back in Philly for the first time since being traded this past offseason.
• Philadelphia is 15-11-0 all time against the Coyotes, including an 8-5-0 record at home. 

Where to Watch
TV: CSN
Radio: 97.5 The Fanatic

Bill Minchin is a contributing writer for Flyerdelphia. Follow Bill on Twitter @wtfd103074.