Flyers hit the road, take on Blues in St. Louis

The Philadelphia Flyers (28-27-13) head out on the road for a clash with the St. Louis Blues (42-19-5). This is the second of two meetings between the two teams and the lone game in St. Louis. The Flyers beat the Blues last Thursday 3-1 in Philadelphia. Game time is 8:00.

The Flyers enter tonight coming off a 2-1 home loss to the Dallas Stars on Tuesday. The loss all but knocked Philadelphia from playoff contention. The Flyers are now nine points behind Boston with the Bruins still holding two games in hand. 

The loss on Tuesday was a microcosm of the season. Steve Mason was outstanding. He turned aside 37 Dallas shots. The problem was, as has been the case most of the season, an inconsistent effort by the team in front of him.

The Flyers jumped out to a 1-0 lead less than two minutes in. That was all they would get. After a dominant first ten minutes, Dallas dictated play for much of the rest of the game and potted the game winner midway through the third.

Since returning from knee surgery on February 26th, Mason has been nothing short of spectacular. He has started the last six games and kept the team in all but one of them. With the exception of the New Jersey game this past Sunday, you have to go all the way back to the end of January to find a game in which Mason has let in more than two goals in regulation.

Jakub Voracek and Claude Giroux, who were both in the top five in scoring at times this season, have fallen off the pace of late. The problem has been a lack of secondary scoring from the rest of the team. 

Coach Craig Berube has tried splitting the two up in addition to all sorts of different line combinations. Some of the changes produced moderate improvement at first but ultimately did not work.

Former Flyers coach Ken Hitchcock has the Blues in contention for the Central Division crown. St. Louis sits two points behind Nashville with two games in hand. They are also just two points behind Anaheim for the top spot in entire conference with three games in hand on the Ducks.

Vladimir Tarasenko leads the team in goals (33) and points (66). Alexander Steen paces the team with 35 assists. 

Brian Elliott, 22-10-2 with a 2.21 goals against average, a .920 save percentage and three shutouts, is expected to get the start tonight. Elliot was the losing goaltender in last week's match up.

Game Notes

• Power Play: Flyers (4th), Blues (3rd) 
  
• Penalty Kill: Flyers (28th), Blues (13th) 
• Wayne Simmonds needs two more goals for 100 as a Flyer

Flyers scratches: R.J Umberger, Brandon Manning, Radko Gudas, Michael Del Zotto

Flyers Projected Lineup

Line 1:  Brayden Schenn-Claude Giroux-Wayne Simmonds
Line 2: Matt Read-Sean Couturier-Wayne Simmonds
Line 3: Ryan White-Michael Raffl-Zac Rinaldo
Line 4:Chris VandeVelde-Pierre-Edouard Bellemare-Vincent Lecavalier

D-Pair 1: Nick Schultz-Mark Streit
D-Pair 2: Carlo Colaiacovo-Luke Schenn
D-Pair 3:Nicklas Grossmann-Andrew MacDonald

Goalie: Steve Mason

Where to Watch
TV: CSN Philly
Radio: 97.5 The Fanatic 

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