Flyers-Red Wings: Game 74 Preview

Team Leaders

Philadelphia Flyers	GP	G	A	P	Detroit Red Wings	GP	G	A	P
Claude Giroux	73	26	58	84	Dylan Larkin	72	9	41	50
Jake Voracek	73	18	60	78	Henrik Zetterberg	72	10	37	47
Sean Couturier	73	29	39	68	Anthony Mantha	70	23	18	41
Shayne Gostisbehere	69	12	41	53	Gustav Nyquist	72	19	15	34
Wayne Simmonds	66	23	20	43	Mike Green	65	8	25	33

 

Player to Watch
11 Travis Konecny	39 Anthony Mantha
Last 5 Games: 1 G, 3 A, 4 P, +5	Last 5 Games: 0 G, 0 A, 0 P, -5

 

The Flyers have seen a ton of energy around Travis Konecny, who has an adventurous day on Sunday in the Flyers win over the Capitals. Konecny comes into the game one goal away from a 20-goal season as the second-year forward continues to grow into a trusted and driving force in the Flyers offensive game.

 

Anthony Mantha leads the Red Wings in goals this season with 23, but has been mired in a slump of late. Since a two-goal, four-point night against Boston on March 6, Mantha has been held off the scoresheet for six games. Mantha has just three goals and two assists in total in his last 14 games, so this is a prolonged slump, but games like the one against Boston are always possible.

 

Goalie Matchup
34 Petr Mrazek	35 Jimmy Howard
13-12-4, 2.98 GAA, .903 SV%	18-25-8, 2.87 GAA, .909 SV%

The Flyers went out and traded for Petr Mrazek one month ago and now he gets to make a homecoming in Detroit. Mrazek struggled in his last few starts, but turned in a solid effort against Washington to get back into the win column. Playing against his former team should be plenty of motivation for this game.

At the other end, longtime Red Wings netminder Jimmy Howard is expected to get the start. Howard was in goal against the Flyers on Dec. 20, taking the loss after allowing four goals on 31 shots. Howard has been in goal for seven of Detroit's 10 losses on their current losing streak and allowed four goals in each of his last three starts.

Flyers Projected Lineup

Injuries: Brian Elliott, Michal Neuvirth, Johnny Oduya, Michael Raffl

Scratches: Dale Weise, Taylor Leier, Brandon Manning

Left Wing	Center	Right Wing
28 Claude Giroux	14 Sean Couturier	11 Travis Konecny
54 Oskar Lindblom	19 Nolan Patrick	93 Jake Voracek
40 Jordan Weal	51 Valtteri Filppula	17 Wayne Simmonds
15 Jori Lehtera	21 Scott Laughton	24 Matt Read
Defense
9 Ivan Provorov	53 Shayne Gostisbehere
6 Travis Sanheim	47 Andrew MacDonald
8 Robert Hagg	3 Radko Gudas
Goalie
34 Petr Mrazek

Lineup Notes

The only change expected for the Flyers is the addition of Jori Lehtera for Michael Raffl, who will be out for the next two weeks with an upper-body injury. 

Red Wings Projected Lineup

Scratches: David Booth, Luke Witkowski, Xavier Ouellet

Left Wing	Center	Right Wing
59 Tyler Bertuzzi	40 Henrik Zetterberg	14 Gustav Nyquist
43 Darren Helm	71 Dylan Larkin	39 Anthony Mantha
72 Andreas Athanasiou	51 Frans Nielsen	8 Justin Abdelkader
42 Martin Frk	41 Luke Glendening	77 Evgeny Svechnikov
Defense
52 Jonathan Ericsson	83 Trevor Daley
55 Niklas Kronwall	25 Mike Green
65 Danny Dekeyser	3 Nick Jensen
Goalie
35 Jimmy Howard

Game Notes

• Power Play: Flyers (18th, 7th on road), Red Wings (23rd, 20th at home)
• Penalty Kill: Flyers (27th, 22nd on road), Red Wings (22nd, T-15th at home) 
• Recent History vs. Red Wings
  • Dec. 20, 2017 – Flyers 4, Red Wings 3 (at PHI)
  • Jan. 23, 2018 – Flyers 3, Red Wings 2 (OT) (at DET)
• Flyers Leaders vs. Red Wings
  • Claude Giroux – 19 GP, 7 G, 15 A, 22 P
  • Jake Voracek – 32 GP, 6 G, 17 A, 23 P
  • Sean Couturier – 15 GP, 5 G, 5 A, 10 P
• Milestone Watch
  • Sean Couturier needs one goal to reach 100 for his career.
  • Jake Voracek needs one assist to reach 300 as a Flyer.
  • Claude Giroux needs one points to pass Eric Lindros for 5th all-time in Flyers history.
  • Jordan Weal will play in his 100th NHL game tonight.

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