Flyers-Devils: Game 43 Preview

Coming off the bye, the Philadelphia Flyers find themselves in another crucial game in their first meeting of the season with the New Jersey Devils.

By Dan Heaning, Sports Talk Philly staff writer 

After a heralding bye week, the Philadelphia Flyers will try to make it four straight wins against division rival and one of the league's top surprises this season, the New Jersey Devils from the Prudential Center at 7 p.m.

Before heading into their week-long bye, the Flyers won three straight games and were playing some of the best hockey they had all season after losing to the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-1. Philadelphia pulled out victories over the New York Islanders, St. Louis Blues and Buffalo Sabres to effectively re-enter the playoff discussion.

On the other side of the ice, the Devils rolled through most of the first half of the season thanks to the play of rookies Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt and Will Butcher. However, before heading into their bye week, the Devils dropped five-straight games and managed to eek out only three points in that span. Due to those respective trends, the Devils are only six points ahead of the Flyers for third in the divisional playoff race. 

This game will also mark the first meeting between the two rivals this season and, therefore, the first contest between Hischier and Nolan Patrick who were the No. 1 and No. 2 picks in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft.

Team Leaders

It's been a rough go for Brian Elliott for the last few weeks. Since Dec. 18, Elliott has only three games with save percentages over .900 and two over .910. In fact, after going six games with allowing only two or fewer goals, Elliott has only had two games where he allowed fewer than three goals in his last nine games. It is believed that fatigue had a role in Elliott's diminishing numbers after being one of the Three Stars of the Week in two consecutive weeks. After a week off, fatigue will have little to do with Elliott's performance in this game.

Like the opposing goaltender, Cory Schneider has had a rough few games as well. In his last four starts, Schneider has allowed four goals in each. He hasn't seen a save percentage above .900 since Dec. 27. Schneider isn't impressive lifetime against the Flyers either. He is 5-4-1 with a 2.46 and .915 save percentage against the Orange and Black. However, last season, he was stellar against Philadelphia with a 1.50 GAA and .947 SA. Don't let anything this become misleading, Schneider has been rock solid this season. He is ninth in medium danger save percentage and 11th in high danger save percentage among all goaltenders with a minimum of 600 minutes of ice time.

Flyers Projected Lineup

Scratches: Shayne Gostisbehere, Taylor Leier, Dale Weise