Flyers-Wild: Game 73 Preview

Kevin Durso

March 23 2017

(Kate Frese/Sports Talk Philly)

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor

If it wasn't over before Tuesday, it certainly is now. A lifeless performance by the Flyers in Tuesday's loss to Winnipeg, which on the scoreboard read 3-2, was likely the final nail in the coffin.

There are 10 games remaining, including three incredibly difficult opponents on the remainder of this road trip, starting with the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night.

The opening face-off is set for 8 p.m.

Flyers Leaders	GP	G	A	P	Wild Leaders	GP	G	A	P
Jake Voracek	72	17	38	55	Mikael Granlund	72	25	41	66
Claude Giroux	72	14	39	53	Eric Staal	72	24	31	55
Wayne Simmonds	72	29	19	48	Mikko Koivu	71	18	35	53
Brayden Schenn	69	22	25	47	Charlie Coyle	72	17	32	49
Valtteri Filppula	69	8	29	37	Nino Niederreiter	72	20	29	49

Player to Watch
93 Jake Voracek	64 Mikael Granlund
Last 5 Games: 0 G, 1 A, 1 P, -5	Last 5 Games: 2 G, 1 A, 3 P, -6

Jake Voracek moves back to the top line with Claude Giroux and Matt Read. Let's see if it does anything for him.

The Wild's leader in goals and points has been excellent all season long. Consider this, back on Nov. 12 when the Wild visited Philadelphia, Mikael Granlund had two goals and four assists on the season. He scored a goal that night. His totals are up to 25 goals and 66 points.

Goalie Matchup
35 Steve Mason	40 Devan Dubnyk
21-21-7, 2.77 GAA, .905 SV%	37-18-3, 2.17 GAA, .927 SV%

Steve Mason dropped Tuesday's game in Winnipeg as he continued his heavy workload in the past few weeks. That shows no signs of slowing down, as he is back in net for Thursday's game.

Devan Dubnyk has been a driving force of Minnesota's success this season, racking up 37 wins and posting one of the best GAA's in the league.

Flyers Projected Lineup

Scratches: Roman Lyubimov, Michael Del Zotto, Nick Cousins (upper-body injury, day-to-day), Michael Raffl (lower-body injury, out 6-8 weeks)

Left Wing	Center	Right Wing
24 Matt Read	28 Claude Giroux	93 Jake Voracek
40 Jordan Weal	51 Valtteri Filppula	17 Wayne Simmonds
10 Brayden Schenn	14 Sean Couturier	22 Dale Weise
76 Chris VandeVelde	78 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare	11 Travis Konecny
Defense
9 Ivan Provorov	47 Andrew MacDonald
53 Shayne Gostisbehere	55 Nick Schultz
23 Brandon Manning	3 Radko Gudas
Goalie
35 Steve Mason

Game Notes

Power Play: Flyers (T-13th, 15th on road), Wild (9th, 1st at home)
Penalty Kill: Flyers (23rd, 24th on road), Wild (7th, 2nd at home)
Recent History vs. Wild
- Nov. 12, 2016 - The Flyers picked up a 3-2 win over the Wild at home. The Wild took the early lead with a goal by Nino Niederreiter just 21 seconds into the game. Jake Voracek scored to tie the game at one at 12:27 of the first. Mikael Granlund scored at 11:22 of the second to give Minnesota the lead again, but Michael Del Zotto scored to tie the game again at two with 2:15 to go in the second. In the third, a power-play goal by Brayden Schenn was the difference with 11:17 to play, as Steve Mason, on in relief for an injured Michal Neuvirth, made a big save in the final seconds to seal the win.
Flyers leaders vs. Wild

Brayden Schenn - 8 games, 1 goal, 7 assists, 8 points
Jake Voracek - 7 games, 4 goals, 4 assists, 8 points
Wayne Simmonds - 20 games, 5 goals, 9 assists, 14 points
Steve Mason - 14 games, 7-6-1, 2.59 GAA, .911 Sv%

Milestone Watch
- Matt Read needs one assist to reach 100 in his career.
- Claude Giroux needs two goals to move into 15th all-time in Flyers history.
- Wayne Simmonds needs one point to reach 300 as a Flyer.