Tonight brings us one of the most heated rivalries as the Penguins (42-23-8, 92 pts, 4th in the East) visit the Philadelphia Flyers (44-19-9, 97 pts, 1st in the East). This is the first of 2 matchups in 6 days between the teams and will go a long way in determining which team will finish 1st in the Atlantic.
Both teams are coming off of emotional and unpredictable rivalry games. The Penguins beat Detroit 5-4 in a shootout in their last game after blowing a 4-0 lead. Meanwhile, the Flyers faced an early 3-0 deficit against Washington before coming back with 4 goals to take the lead. Philadelphia then squandered the lead in regulation and lost the game in a shootout. Clearly no lead is safe with either of these teams on the ice.
The Flyers are expected to start Sergei Bobrovsky in net tonight. He started for Philly on Tuesday as well but was pulled after letting up 3 goals on 9 shots. He has 26 wins on the season, a 2.61 GAA, and a .914 save percentage. The Flyers are making a push to keep him as the starting goalie, but backup Brian Boucher is starting to put together better stats for the team. Getting to Bobrosvky early and rattling his shaky confidence is a big key for the Penguins tonight.
Note: Remember back when we were a month into the season and Bobrovsky still had more wins in Consol than any Penguins goalie? Times have changed.
Philadelphia will be without Jody Shelley (surgery for a fractured orbital bone) and Chris Pronger (wrist surgery). The Pronger injury is normally a big loss, but much less so in this game since he does not have Crosby or Malkin to neutralize (also, because Alex Kovalev seems to neutralize the Penguins on his own). Philly has also listed Kimo Timonen as day to day with neck soreness, but he is expected to play still.
The Penguins don't practice until after the Flyers, so I don't have the exact line combinations yet, but here's what I would expect:
Kunitz-Staal-Kennedy
Neal-Jeffrey-Kovalev
Conner-Talbot-Dupuis
Rupp-Adams-Asham
Letang-Niskanen
Martin-Michalek
Engelland-Lovejoy
Fleury
On the injury front, Comrie, Tangradi, and Orpik are all skating with the team now and taking regular shifts in practice. Crosby has continued to skate and drawn praise from his teammates for how quickly he is picking his game back up. However, he has not been cleared to practice with the team yet and there is no timetable, so temper your expectations a bit.
Keys to the game:
- Penalty Kill. The Penguins have allowed 4 powerplay goals since Matt Cooke departed for the season. While these were against the Rangers and Red Wings, 2 very talented teams, those results are unacceptable for a team that wants to make a run at 1st place.
- Alexei Kovalev. Has been a non-factor since the Toronto shootout win and is starting to actually harm the team. He took the penalty that allowed the Red Wings to tie up the game on Monday. His hesitancy to shoot has led to him being dropped off of the 1st powerplay line. It's time for him to pick up his game.
- Jordan Staal. Has played tremendously with Kunitz and Kennedy, creating a true bona fide first line for the Penguins for the first time since Malkin went out. The Flyers have great depth at forward, and Staal is going to have to neutralize Claude Giroux's line (who is already a Penguin killer) while adding some offense of his own.
Prediction: Three big questions exist for this game. 1) How will Bobrovsky bounce back for the Flyers? 2) Can the Penguins keep up with a Flyers team that has scoring depth on all 4 lines? 3) Can the Penguins penalty kill get back on track? I think question #3 hurts the Penguins tonight and they are in for a tough battle but a close loss. 3-2 Flyers.
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