Flyers-Maple Leafs: Game 15 Preview

Flyers Leaders	GP	G	A	P	Maple Leafs Leaders	GP	G	A	P
Claude Giroux	14	4	11	154	William Nylander	13	4	8	12
Jake Voracek	14	6	9	15	Auston Matthews	13	6	5	11
Wayne Simmonds	14	6	6	12	James van Riemsdyk	13	4	6	10
Mark Streit	14	3	7	10	Mitchell Marner	13	4	6	10
Shayne Gostisbehere	14	3	6	9	Nazem Kadri	13	6	3	9

 

Player to Watch
9 Ivan Provorov	34 Auston Matthews
Last 5 Games: 0 G, 1 A, 1 P, -2	Last 5 Games: 0 G, 1 A, 1 P,-4

 

Toronto is not the only team with some exciting rookies n this game. While Travis Konecny has rightfully gotten praise for his play, Ivan Provorov has improved with each game. The nineteen year old defenseman has had struggles but all rookies do especially at that age.  Since playing arguably  his worst game as pro in Carolina, Provorov has steadied the ship. 

He has been close on numerous occasions to getting his first NHL goal. In a wide open offense game like this could be, tonight might just be the night he does it. 

 

Auston Matthews bursted onto the scene scoring four goals in his first NHL game. Since then, the first overall pick in this year's NHL Entry Draft, has cooled down somewhat. He has just two goals and five assists since that opening night. 

 

A talent like Matthews will not be held down long and thinking so is flirting with fire. He will need to be accounted for each and every time he is on the ice.

 

 

Goalie Matchup
35 Steve Mason	31 Frederik Andersen
2-4-2, 3.23 GAA, .888 SV%	5-3-3, 3.41 GAA, .897 SV%

Steve Mason gets the start tonight for the Flyers. Mason took the 3-2 shoot out loss to Detroit on Tuesday night in Philadelphia. Mason played a good game Tuesday night in his first action in over a week.

Frederik Andersen will be back between the pipes for the Maple Leafs. Andersen has is in his first season with Toronto replacing former starter Jonathon Bernier. The Danish netminder has proven to be a valuable number one goalie so far in his NHL career and when he is on can be tough to beat.

 

Flyers Projected Lineup

Scratches:  Andrew MacDonald, Nick Schultz, Boyd Gordon, Chris VandeVelde

Left Wing	Center	Right Wing
10 Brayden Schenn	28 Claude Giroux	17 Wayne Simmonds
11 Travis Konecny	14 Sean Couturier	93 Jake Voracek
12 Michael Raffl	25 Nick Cousins	22 Dale Weise
24 Matt Read	78 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare	13 Roman Lyubimov
Defense
53 Shayne Gostisbehere	15 Michael Del Zotto
9 Ivan Provorov	32 Mark Streit
3 Radko Gudas	23 Brandon Manning
Goalie
35 Steve Mason

Game Notes

• Power Play: Flyers (2nd, 6th on road), Maple Leafs (7th, 21st at home)
• Penalty Kill: Flyers (22nd, 22nd on road), Maple Leafs (9th, 19th at home)
• The Flyers and Maple Leafs have been infrequent trade partners however the teams did trade Bernie Parent, twice, and most recently traded picks which allowed Philadelphia to draft Travis Konecny

Where to Watch
TV: TCN
Radio: 97.5 The Fanatic