Flyers-Jets: Game 19 Preview

Team Leaders

Philadelphia Flyers	GP	G	A	P	Winnipeg Jets	GP	G	A	P
Jake Voracek	18	4	17	21	Blake Wheeler	17	5	18	23
Claude Giroux	18	9	11	20	Mark Scheifele	17	10	11	21
Sean Couturier	18	10	9	19	Patrik Laine	17	9	4	13
Shayne Gostisbehere	15	1	14	15	Nikolaj Ehlers	17	8	4	12
Wayne Simmonds	18	6	5	11	Dustin Byfuglien	15	0	10	10

 

Player to Watch
28 Claude Giroux	29 Patrik Laine
Last 5 Games: 3 G, 3 A, 6 P, +5	Last 5 Games: 4 G, 2 A, 6 P, +2

 

The player to watch lately has been every player, whichever one can figure out how to score a goal. For a team struggling to score, you need your best players to do big things in key spots. For the Flyers, that means getting the top line going again and trying to loosen the entire team up. It starts with Claude Giroux, who still has three goals and three assists in the last five games despite the back-to-back shutouts.

 

The first 11 games of the 2017-18 season were a struggle for Patrik Laine. He had just four goals and two assists in that time and admitted that the game felt difficult. But in November, he's turned things around. The second overall pick from the 2016 NHL Draft is on a six-game points streak with five goals in that time. 

 

Goalie Matchup
37 Brian Elliott	37 Connor Hellebuyck
6-5-1, 2.59 GAA, .910 SV%	9-1-2, 2.32 GAA, .930 SV%

It's hard to get much more out of Brian Elliott right now. After starting the season with a couple of rough games against Nashville and Anaheim, Elliott has made four starts in six games in November and has allowed just five goals despite a 1-3-0 record. He makes his fourth straight start on Thursday.

While this game was certainly there for Steve Mason to face his former team, Connor Hellebuyck has been the hotter goalie for Winnipeg. In 13 games this season, Hellebuyck has nine wins and a .930 save percentage, easily eclipsing Mason's numbers.

Flyers Projected Lineup

Injuries: Andrew MacDonald (lower-body)

Scratches: Matt Read, Jori Lehtera, Mark Alt

Left Wing	Center	Right Wing
28 Claude Giroux	14 Sean Couturier	93 Jake Voracek
22 Dale Weise	40 Jordan Weal	17 Wayne Simmonds
51 Valtteri Filppula	19 Nolan Patrick	11 Travis Konecny
20 Taylor Leier	21 Scott Laughton	12 Michael Raffl
Defense
9 Ivan Provorov	8 Robert Hagg
53 Shayne Gostisbehere	23 Brandon Manning
6 Travis Sanheim	3 Radko Gudas
Goalie
37 Brian Elliott

Lineup Notes

The Flyers did not run lines at practice on Wednesday and had an optional morning skate. The Flyers did confirm that Nolan Patrick will return to the lineup, but who comes out is a question. The assumption would be that Jori Lehtera does not play as a healthy scratch. Lehtera was out of the lineup until Patrick's injury on Oct. 24 and Dave Hakstol noted that he was pleased with the line of Jordan Weal, Wayne Simmonds and Dale Weise but did not specifically mention Lehtera's line.

Jets Projected Lineup

Injuries: Mathieu Perreault

Scratches: Marko Dano, Ben Chairot

Left Wing	Center	Right Wing
81 Kyle Connor	55 Mark Scheifele	26 Blake Wheeler
27 Nikolaj Ehlers	18 Bryan Little	29 Patrik Laine
9 Andrew Copp	17 Adam Lowry	13 Brandon Tanev
16 Shawn Matthias	15 Matt Hendricks	40 Joel Armia
Defense
44 Josh Morrissey	8 Jacob Trouba
39 Tobias Enstrom	33 Dustin Byfuglien
5 Dmitry Kulikov	57 Tyler Myers
Goalie
37 Connor Hellebuyck

Game Notes

• Power Play: Flyers (18th, 20th on road), Jets (7th, 4th at home)
• Penalty Kill: Flyers (T-17th, 20th on road), Jets (19th, 29th at home) 
• Recent History vs. Jets
  • Nov. 17, 2016 – Flyers 5, Jets 2
  • March 21, 2017 – Jets 3, Flyers 1
• Flyers Leaders vs. Jets
  • Claude Giroux – 25 GP, 7 G, 18 A, 25 P
  • Jake Voracek – 19 GP, 4 G, 11 A, 15 P
  • Jordan Weal – 1 GP, 1 G, 0 A, 1 P
  • Brian Elliott – 17 GP, 10-2-4, 2.40 GAA
• Milestone Watch
  • Claude Giroux needs five points to reach 600 for his career and seven points to pass Rod Brind'Amour for 8th on the Flyers all-time list.

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