Flyers-Lightning: Game 59 Preview

Kevin Durso

February 15 2020

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor

The Flyers kicked off their stay in Florida by defeating the Panthers for the second time this week, opening up a 4-0 lead before finishing off the game in a 6-2 victory.

Their final game of a three-game road trip comes against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Much like the first meeting against the Lightning, Tampa enters as the hottest team in the league, currently on a nine-game winning streak, just as they were when they paid a visit to Philadelphia on Jan. 11.

Game time is 4 p.m.

Team Leaders

Philadelphia Flyers	GP	G	A	P	Tampa Bay Lightning	GP	G	A	P
Sean Couturier	58	17	34	51	Nikita Kucherov	56	27	43	70
Travis Konecny	55	19	28	47	Steven Stamkos	52	26	33	59
Jake Voracek	58	11	32	43	Brayden Point	55	20	35	55
Claude Giroux	58	15	27	42	Victor Hedman	56	9	38	47
James van Riemsdyk	58	17	20	37	Alex Killorn	56	21	21	42

Player to Watch
11 Travis Konecny	86 Nikita Kucherov
Last 5 Games: 2 G, 1 A, 3 P, -2	Last 5 Games: 3 G, 6 A, 9 P, +6

Travis Konecny has goals in two of the past four games for the Flyers and his speed is an element that will be needed in this game. Konecny can serve as a spark plug in these games and should be a player looking to get involved early.

Nikita Kucherov missed Tampa's last game with injury after leaving their 2-1 win over the Penguins on Tuesday early. Kucherov has three goals in the last five games and has tallied nine points, so he's getting hot at the right time as the Lightning make a run.

Projected Goalie Matchup
79 Carter Hart	88 Andrei Vasilevskiy
34 GP, 17-11-3, 2.54 GAA, .908 SV%	43 GP, 31-9-3, 2.41 GAA, .921 SV%

Two games since his return from injury, Carter Hart has picked up two wins against the Panthers. He was excellent through the first two periods of Thursday's game, then allowed two tough goals before locking things down in the third period, finishing with 26 saves. His only loss in his last five starts dates back to the first meeting of the season against the Lightning, where he allowed just one goal on 28 shots in a 1-0 loss.

It's been quite the run for Andrei Vasilevskiy. First, he's on a seven-game winning streak and has won 17 of his last 18 starts, with his only loss coming in overtime on Jan. 27 to Dallas. In fact, his last two losses have come in overtime to Dallas, the other on Dec. 19, and he hasn't lost in regulation since Dec. 14 against Washington. Vasilevskiy posted a 23-save shutout against the Flyers on Jan. 11.

Flyers Projected Lineup

Injuries: Nolan Patrick (migrane disorder, out indefinitely), Oskar Lindblom (Ewing's sarcoma, out for season)

Scratches: Shayne Gostisbehere

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

Lineup Notes

There are no changes expected to the Flyers lineup for Saturday. Morgan Frost was sent down to Lehigh Valley on Friday, as the team will head home following Saturday's game and don't need the extra forward at this time.

Lightning Projected Lineup

Injuries: Ryan McDonagh, Jan Rutta

Scratches: Mathieu Jospeh, Cameron Gaunce

Left Wing	Center	Right Wing
91 Steven Stamkos	21 Brayden Point	86 Nikita Kucherov
18 Ondrej Palat	71 Anthony Cirelli	9 Tyler Johnson
17 Alex Killorn	13 Cedric Paquette	14 Patrick Maroon
23 Carter Verhaeghe	67 Mitchell Stephens	37 Yanni Gourde
Defense
77 Victor Hedman	81 Erik Cernak
98 Mikhail Sergechev	22 Kevin Shattenkirk
55 Braydon Coburn	2 Luke Schenn
Goalie
88 Andrei Vasilevskiy	35 Curtis McElhinney

Game Notes

Power Play: Flyers (19th), Lightning (5th)
Penalty Kill: Flyers (T-12th), Lightning (2nd)
Recent History vs. Lightning
- Nov. 17, 2018 – Lightning 6, Flyers 5 (F/OT) (at PHI)
- Dec. 27, 2018 – Lightning 6, Flyers 5 (F/OT) (at TB)
- Feb. 19, 2019 – Lightning 5, Flyers 2 (at PHI)
- Jan. 11, 2020 – Lightning 1, Flyers 0 (at PHI)
Flyers Leaders vs. Lightning
- Claude Giroux – 36 GP, 5 G, 31 A, 36 P
- James van Riemsdyk – 35 GP, 15 G, 13 A, 28 P
- Jake Voracek – 27 GP, 5 G, 15 A, 20 P
- Kevin Hayes – 14 GP, 5 G, 5 A, 10 P
- Carter Hart – 2 GP, 0-2-0, 3.53 GAA, .892 SV%
Milestone Watch
- Claude Giroux needs two power-play assists to pass Bobby Clarke for first on the Flyers all-time list.
- Scott Laughton needs three points to reach 100 for his career.