Flyers-Stars: Game 32 Preview

Team Leaders

Philadelphia Flyers	GP	G	A	P	Dallas Stars	GP	G	A	P
Jake Voracek	31	7	31	38	Jamie Benn	32	13	16	29
Claude Giroux	31	13	21	34	Tyler Seguin	32	14	14	28
Sean Couturier	31	15	15	30	John Klingberg	32	4	23	27
Shayne Gostisbehere	28	4	18	22	Alexander Radulov	32	10	16	26
Wayne Simmonds	31	10	9	19	Radek Faksa	31	10	7	17

 

Player to Watch
28 Claude Giroux	91 Tyler Seguin
Last 5 Games: 2 G, 4 A, 6 P, +1	Last 5 Games: 0 G, 2 A, 2 P, -5

 

Claude Giroux's line has been at the center of the action for the Flyers all season. But in recent games, while Giroux has continued to put up numbers, he hasn't been the guy in the clutch. He set up Sean Couturier's game-winner on Tuesday. Jake Voracek has been all over the ice with assists of late, setting up more secondary scoring. Wayne Simmonds has gotten his numbers back into the neighborhood of where they usual are. Giroux has truly had the bounce-back season everyone was looking for. And after scoring the first goal of the game for the Flyers on Tuesday, look for him to be active in the closing moments of this one.

 

This last stretch of games for Tyler Seguin hasn't been great. While the Stars have a solid team, Seguin has just two assists in his last five games and was a minus-3 in Friday's 5-2 loss to the Devils. The one thing that makes him worth watching though: shots. In the last five games, Seguin has taken 24 shots, the most on the Stars, even without a goal. He had four more on Friday as well and as long as he keeps shooting, one of those chances will find the net. He's worth keeping an eye on throughout the game.

 

Goalie Matchup
37 Brian Elliott	30 Ben Bishop
11-6-6, 2.68 GAA, .913 SV%	13-9-0, 2.75 GAA, .909 SV%

Brian Elliott has really been the catalyst behind the Flyers winning streak. Elliott started eight of the 10 games on the Flyers losing streak, but the results really weren't on him. In the Flyers current winning streak, he's had to be the everyday guy with Michal Neuvirth out and has done a tremendous job just being a steady netminder. He's allowed just eight goals during the winning streak, making 142 saves (.947 save percentage) in that time.

It's primarily been Ben Bishop's net for the Stars this season, as this is Bishop's 24th game of the season to Kari Lehtonen's 12 appearances. But Bishop's been shaky lately and it's led to more starts for Lehtonen. Bishop's last start was last Saturday in a loss to the Vegas Golden Knights where he allowed four goals on 38 shots. He allowed three goals on 15 shots to Nashville in his start before that on Dec. 5. Since a personal four-game winning streak from Nov. 24 to Dec. 2, Bishop has lost both starts, making 46 saves on 53 shots, a .868 save percentage.

Flyers Projected Lineup

Injuries: Michal Neuvirth, Brandon Manning

Scratches: Mark Alt, Jori Lehtera

Left Wing	Center	Right Wing
28 Claude Giroux	14 Sean Couturier	17 Wayne Simmonds
12 Michael Raffl	51 Valtteri Filppula	93 Jake Voracek
40 Jordan Weal	19 Nolan Patrick	22 Dale Weise
20 Taylor Leier	21 Scott Laughton	11 Travis Konecny
Defense
9 Ivan Provorov	47 Andrew MacDonald
53 Shayne Gostisbehere	8 Robert Hagg
6 Travis Sanheim	3 Radko Gudas
Goalie
37 Brian Elliott

Lineup Notes

Expect no changes to the Flyers lineup again with Alt and Lehtera being the scratches. Manning and Neuvirth remain out with injuries.

Stars Projected Lineup

Injuries: Marc Methot

Scratches: Jason Dickinson, Gemel Smith, Jamie Oleksiak

Left Wing	Center	Right Wing
40 Remi Elie	91 Tyler Seguin	17 Devin Shore
13 Mattias Janmark	90 Jason Spezza	47 Alexander Radulov
14 Jamie Benn	12 Radek Faksa	18 Tyler Pitlick
21 Antoine Roussel	10 Martin Hanzal	25 Brett Ritchie
Defense
23 Esa Lindell	3 John Klingberg
2 Dan Hamhuis	29 Greg Pateryn
28 Stephen Johns	6 Julius Honka
Goalie
30 Ben Bishop

Game Notes

• Power Play: Flyers (16th, 28th at home), Stars (15th, 10th on road)
• Penalty Kill: Flyers (T-28th, 29th at home), Stars (16th, 21st on road) 
• Recent History vs. Stars
  • Dec. 10, 2017 – Flyers 4, Stars 2 (in PHI)
  • Dec. 17, 2017 – Stars 3, Flyers 1 (in DAL)
• Flyers Leaders vs. Stars
  • Claude Giroux – 13 GP, 3 G, 8 A, 11 P
  • Valtteri Filppula – 29 GP, 4 G, 13 A, 17 P
  • Wayne Simmonds – 25 GP, 7 G, 7 A, 14 P
  • Brian Elliott – 13 GP, 7-5-0, 2.62 GAA

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