Flyers-Lightning: Game 65 Preview

Team Leaders

Philadelphia Flyers	GP	G	A	P	Tampa Bay Lightning	GP	G	A	P
Claude Giroux	64	22	53	75	Nikita Kucherov	63	33	49	82
Jake Voracek	64	13	56	69	Steven Stamkos	65	25	47	72
Sean Couturier	64	29	33	62	Brayden Point	65	26	29	55
Shayne Gostisbehere	60	10	40	50	Yanni Gourde	65	22	27	49
Wayne Simmonds	59	20	17	37	Tyler Johnson	64	18	27	45

 

Player to Watch
28 Claude Giroux	21 Brayden Point
Last 5 Games: 2 G, 4 A, 6 P, +3	Last 5 Games: 3 G, 0 A, 3 P, +1

 

Even during the Flyers winning ways, captain Claude Giroux has not always been satisfied with his level of play. Thursday's game was really the first where the Flyers ended up with none of the breaks or success, which is why the game was put out of reach by the start of the third period. As the team looks to rebound, look for Giroux to be a central figure.

 

There has been no sophomore slump for Brayden Point. The Tampa forward has already set new career-highs in goals and points this season in just 65 games. He fell into a nine-game goalless drought after scoring in Tampa's last meeting against the Flyers on Jan. 25, but has since snapped out of that with six goals in the last seven games.

 

Goalie Matchup
34 Petr Mrazek	88 Andrei Vasilevskiy
11-8-3, 2.73 GAA, .912 SV%	37-12-3, 2.34 GAA, .927 SV%

There was also finally a bump in the road for Petr Mrazek on Thursday, his first loss in a Flyers uniform. Expect Mrazek to be back in goal with the Flyers taking on a high-powered offense that he is sure to be familiar with from playing in the Atlantic Division with Detroit all those years.

It will be no surprise to see Andrei Vasilevskiy in goal for Tampa. All he has done is led the league in wins and GAA from the beginning. He'll be in goal after getting a game off in the Lightning's last game on Thursday.

Flyers Projected Lineup

Injuries: Brian Elliott, Michal Neuvirth, Wayne Simmonds

Scratches: Jordan Weal, Johnny Oduya

Left Wing	Center	Right Wing
28 Claude Giroux	14 Sean Couturier	11 Travis Konecny
54 Oskar Lindblom	19 Nolan Patrick	93 Jake Voracek
20 Taylor Leier	21 Scott Laughton	12 Michael Raffl
15 Jori Lehtera	51 Valtteri Filppula	22 Dale Weise
Defense
9 Ivan Provorov	53 Shayne Gostisbehere
8 Robert Hagg	47 Andrew MacDonald
23 Brandon Manning	3 Radko Gudas
Goalie
34 Petr Mrazek

Lineup Notes

It doesn't appear that there will be any changes to the Flyers lineup from Thursday. The only possible change could be the addition of Jordan Weal back into the lineup after sitting Thursday as a healthy scratch, but any change to the lineup will likely not be known until warmups.

Lightning Projected Lineup

Injuries: Nikita Kucherov, Ondrej Palat, Ryan McDonagh, Peter Budaj, Erik Condra

Scratches: Slater Koekkoek, Jake Dotchin

Left Wing	Center	Right Wing
17 Alex Killorn	21 Brayden Point	91 Steven Stamkos
89 Cory Conacher	37 Yanni Gourde	73 Adam Erne
14 Chris Kunitz	9 Tyler Johnson	10 J.T. Miller
71 Anthony Cirelli	13 Cedric Paquette	24 Ryan Callahan
Defense
77 Victor Hedman	6 Anton Stralman
98 Mikhail Sergachev	5 Dan Girardi
55 Braydon Coburn	62 Andrej Sustr
Goalie
88 Andrei Vasilevskiy

Game Notes

• Power Play: Flyers (T-9th, 5th on road), Lightning (3rd, 3rd at home)
• Penalty Kill: Flyers (28th, 24th on road), Lightning (24th, 22nd at home) 
• Recent History vs. Lightning
  • Dec. 29, 2017 – Flyers 5, Lightning 3 (at TB)
  • Jan. 25, 2018 – Lightning 5, Flyers 1 (at PHI)
• Flyers leaders vs. Lightning*
  • Claude Giroux – 31 GP, 3 G, 27 A, 30 P
  • Travis Konecny – 5 GP, 2 G, 2 A, 4 P
  • Jake Voracek – 22 GP, 4 G, 13 A, 17 P
  • Petr Mrazek – 11 GP, 1-8-1, 3.78 GAA
• Milestone Watch
  • Sean Couturier needs one goal to reach 100 for his career.
  • Claude Giroux needs one point to pass Tim Kerr for 6th all-time in Flyers history.

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