(Photo: Nina Weiss/Sports Talk Philly)
By Tommy Hendricks, Sports Talk Philly staff writer 
For the second straight year the Philadelphia Flyers will move a preseason game to the home of their AHL affiliate, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, as they host the New Jersey Devils in their fourth preseason game in three nights on Wednesday night.
The opening faceoff is set for 7 p.m. from PPL Center in Allentown.
The Flyers first took the ice at PPL Center for a preseason game last season, a 5-3 victory in a clash with the New York Islanders last Sept. 21. The fan atmosphere that was on display not only in that game, but during the entire Phantoms season, has brought the Flyers management back to helping tune up the depth of their roster to put a strong team in front of the Allentown crowd.
Much like last season, expect a healthy mix of NHLers and guys who are AHL bound on the Flyers side. Travis Konecny and Jake Voracek were the standouts for the Orange and Black in last year's affair, with each player contributing a goal and Voracek adding two assists to have a three-point night.
The young guns should have more of the spotlight however, with the World Cup of Hockey still going on and with the team's veterans who participated having been given until Saturday off by head coach Dave Hakstol.
This adds more opportunities for prospects to make their claim for roster spots, like reigning WHL Defenseman of The Year Ivan Provorov, who averaged over 25 minutes of ice time in back-to-back games the past two nights. Provorov also saw time a lot of power play time over those two nights, showing the coaching staff has faith in the 19-year-old.
The bulk of Provorov's minutes (28:48, including 8:03 of PP time) came during Monday's 2-0 loss to the Devils. The Flyers also got shut out in their other split-squad matchup against the Islanders on Monday night in a 3-0 result. Add that to Tuesday's 4-0 victory over the Islanders and you have a Flyers group that, despite being a split-squad Monday, has only scored four goals in nine periods of play, with a 1-2 record to show for it. The Devils come in with a 2-0 record, having had beaten the Montreal Canadiens in the other half of their split-squad matches on Monday night, 3-2, scoring five goals in six periods of play.
The Devils are known as a very tough defensive team to play against, and with both teams only playing one game tonight, expect the best players on both sides to be present along with some standout prospects. For the Flyers, the main focus should be getting the offense going, especially after a strong showing on Tuesday, and to keep scoring at a premium for the opposition.
Here is the roster for Wednesday night's game from Allentown:
Forwards: Travis Konency, Brayden Schenn, Michael Raffl, Colin McDonald, Boyd Gordon, Tyrell Goulbourne, Chris VandeVelde, Chris Conner, Nicholas Aube-Kubel, Radel Fazleev, Greg Carey, Taylor Leier
Defense: Brandon Manning, Andrew MacDonald, Samuel Morin, Mark Alt, Robert Hagg, Will O'Neill
Goalies: Anthony Stolarz, Alex Lyon
Player to watch: Travis Konency
Konecny was able to shine brightly in Allentown last preseason, and a repeat performance could help him solidify a roster spot given he is the only player in Wednesday's game not old enough to qualify for the AHL.
Wednesday's game will be televised on The Comcast Network.
