Flyers-Penguins: Game 50 Preview

Kevin Durso

January 21 2020

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor

It has been nearly 11 months since the last time the Flyers played host to the Pittsburgh Penguins. It was one of the more memorable games in recent Flyers history, a dramatic comeback win in front of 70,000 fans at Lincoln Financial Field in the 2019 Stadium Series.

The Penguins handled the Flyers with ease in their only meeting of the 2019-20 season so far, a 7-1 drubbing on Oct. 29. A lot has changed for both teams since then. The Flyers have maintained positioning as a team in contention in the playoff picture — despite entering the game outside of the playoffs — and the Penguins have surged despite injuries to star players Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby and Jake Guentzel.

The next chapter in the Battle of Pennsylvania has a lot at stake for both sides. The Penguins are challenging for the division lead, just four points behind the Capitals, while the Flyers look to go into the All-Star break and bye week on a high note.

Game time is 7:30 p.m.

Team Leaders

Philadelphia Flyers	GP	G	A	P	Pittsburgh Penguins	GP	G	A	P
Sean Couturier	49	13	29	42	Evgeni Malkin	36	15	35	50
Travis Konecny	46	17	25	42	Jake Guentzel	39	20	23	43
Jake Voracek	49	9	28	37	Bryan Rust	35	21	22	43
Claude Giroux	49	13	21	34	Kris Letang	41	10	21	31
James van Riemsdyk	49	13	15	28	Jared McCann	47	14	14	28

Player to Watch
11 Travis Konecny	87 Sidney Crosby
Last 5 Games: 3 G, 1 A, 4 P, -2	Last 5 Games: 3 G, 5 A, 8 P, +1

Travis Konecny will be the lone Flyer at the All-Star Game this weekend and his recent performance has shown why. Konecny opened the scoring with the first two goals of Saturday's win against the Kings, increasing his team lead in goals to 17 and bringing him to 42 points on the season. He is seven goals and seven points away from matching his career highs in goals and points, numbers he should easily eclipse at this rate following the All-Star break.

Sidney Crosby recently returned to the Penguins lineup and picked up where he left off. After posting a three-point game against the Flyers on Oct. 29, Crosby was held without a point for four straight games and suffered an injury that kept him out of action for over two months. In the four games since his return, Crosby has three goals and five assists for eight points.

Projected Goalie Matchup
37 Brian Elliott	35 Tristan Jarry
23 GP, 11-5-3, 3.03 GAA, .901 SV%	24 GP, 16-7-1, 2.16 GAA, .929 SV%

Brian Elliott turned in another strong performance on Saturday, making 34 saves on 35 shots in the win over the Kings. In his two games since Carter Hart went down with an injury, Elliott has stopped 64 of 68 shots.

Tristan Jarry was on a three-game winning streak before taking the loss to Boston last Thursday. Jarry has certainly been consistent. In his last six starts, he's allowed three goals in each.

Flyers Projected Lineup

Injuries: Michael Raffl (upper-body, day-to-day), Carter Hart (lower right abdominal, 2-to-3 weeks), Shayne Gostisbehere (knee, 3 weeks), Nolan Patrick (migrane disorder, out indefinitely), Oskar Lindblom (Ewing's sarcoma, out for season)

Left Wing	Center	Right Wing
25 James van Riemsdyk	28 Claude Giroux	11 Travis Konecny
49 Joel Farabee	14 Sean Couturier	93 Jake Voracek
21 Scott Laughton	13 Kevin Hayes	62 Nicolas Aube-Kubel
50 German Rubtsov	82 Connor Bunnaman	18 Tyler Pitlick
Defense
9 Ivan Provorov	15 Matt Niskanen
6 Travis Sanheim	5 Phil Myers
8 Robert Hagg	61 Justin Braun
Goalie
37 Brian Elliott	34 Alex Lyon

Lineup Notes

Michael Raffl practiced on Monday as a regular, but will not be able to play due to an upper-body injury. German Rubtsov, called up on Monday, will play on the fourth line and Joel Farabee will move up to take Raffl's place in the lineup.

Penguins Projected Lineup

Injuries: Jake Guentzel, Dominik Kahun, Nick Bjugstad, Justin Schultz, Brian Dumoulin

Scratches: Sean Lafferty, Kevin Czuczman

Left Wing	Center	Right Wing
12 Domonik Simon	87 Sidney Crosby	72 Patric Hornqvist
19 Jared McCann	71 Evgeni Malkin	17 Bryan Rust
46 Zach Aston-Reese	53 Teddy Blueger	13 Brandon Tanev
18 Alex Galchenyuk	26 Andrew Agozzino	36 Joseph Blandisi
Defense
3 Jack Johnson	58 Kris Letang
28 Marcus Pettersson	6 John Marino
50 Juuso Riikola	2 Chad Ruhwedel
Goalie
35 Tristan Jarry	30 Matt Murray

Game Notes

Power Play: Flyers (17th), Penguins (16th)
Penalty Kill: Flyers (11th), Penguins (T-13th)
Recent History vs. Penguins
- Dec. 1, 2018 – Flyers 4, Penguins 2 (at PIT)
- Feb. 11, 2019 – Penguins 4, Flyers 1 (at PHI)
- Feb. 23, 2019 – Flyers 4, Penguins 3 (F/OT) (at PHI)
- March 17, 2019 – Flyers 2, Penguins 1 (F/OT) (at PIT)
- Oct. 29, 2019 – Penguins 7, Flyers 1 (at PIT)
Flyers Leaders vs. Penguins
- Claude Giroux – 49 GP, 16 G, 34 A, 50 P
- Jake Voracek – 41 GP, 21 G, 20 A, 41 P
- Sean Couturier – 35 GP, 6 G, 16 A, 22 P
- Brian Elliott – 15 GP, 8-4-2, 3.18 GAA, .911 SV%
Milestone Watch
- Claude Giroux needs four points to reach 800 for his career.