Flyers-Coyotes: Game 42 Preview

Kevin Durso

January 4 2020

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor

The first game of 2020 for the Flyers went a lot like their last of 2019. A little too much, in fact. The Flyers allowed four first-period goals for the second straight game. They trailed 5-2 to Vegas and were able to claw their way back to within a goal with nearly an entire period to go. A late 6-on-3 gave the Flyers a golden opportunity to get the game tied, and they were unable to do so, falling to 1-3-0 on the six-game road trip.

That has made Saturday's game that much more important. The losses on the road trip to San Jose, Los Angeles and Vegas have not really been as close as the scores would indicate — a 5-3 loss to LA and a 5-4 loss to Vegas — and the Flyers need to respond with a road effort that not only gets them back in the win column, but helps boost the numbers on the road. They take on the Arizona Coyotes on Saturday night in the final game on the West coast.

Game time is 8 p.m.

Team Leaders

Philadelphia Flyers	GP	G	A	P	Arizona Coyotes	GP	G	A	P
Travis Konecny	38	12	24	36	Nick Schmaltz	43	7	26	33
Jake Voracek	41	8	25	33	Clayton Keller	43	10	20	30
Sean Couturier	41	12	21	33	Christian Dvorak	43	10	15	25
Claude Giroux	41	13	17	30	Carl Soderberg	43	12	13	25
Ivan Provorov	41	9	15	24	Phil Kessel	43	9	14	23

Player to Watch
28 Claude Giroux	81 Phil Kessel
Last 5 Games: 2 G, 4 A, 6 P, +3	Last 5 Games: 1 G, 1 A, 2 P, E

Claude Giroux has scored goals in back-to-back games and is on a current five-game points streak. Even with the recent string of points, Giroux still ranks fourth on the team with 30 points on the season, showing that the other top players continue to contribute.

Phil Kessel's numbers this season have been down, but he certainly made an impact in the game against the Flyers in early December. Since scoring two goals against the Flyers, Kessel has just three goals and three assists in 13 games.

Projected Goalie Matchup
79 Carter Hart	32 Antti Raanta
28 GP, 13-9-3, 2.52 GAA, .908 SV%	19 GP, 8-8-2, 2.76 GAA, .918 SV%

By the numbers, Thursday's start was not a good one for Carter Hart, as he made 28 saves on 33 shots in the loss. That said, Hart was excellent in the final two periods after receiving virtually no help in front of the net in the first period. Hart will once again be in goal for the Flyers on Saturday, looking for his first win on the road since Nov. 1.

Antti Raanta has received a bulk of the starts since Darcy Kuemper went down with injury. Raanta has won his last two starts, making 38 saves on 39 shots against St. Louis on Dec. 31 and stopping 26 of 28 shots against Anaheim on Thursday.

Flyers Projected Lineup

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

Scratches: Robert Hagg (healthy), Chris Stewart (healthy), Mikhail Vorobyev (healthy)

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

Lineup Notes

Nicolas Aube-Kubel returns to the lineup and Andy Andreoff will be back in the lineup as well. Both Chris Stewart and Mikhail Vorobyev come out.

Coyotes Projected Lineup

Injuries: Niklas Hjalmarsson, Darcy Kuemper

Scratches: Michael Grabner, Kyle Capobianco

Left Wing	Center	Right Wing
91 Taylor Hall	18 Christian Dvorak	83 Conor Garland
9 Clayton Keller	34 Carl Soderberg	8 Nick Schmaltz
67 Lawson Crouse	21 Derek Stepan	81 Phil Kessel
13 Vinnie Hinostroza	15 Brad Richardson	36 Christian Fischer
Defense
23 Oliver Ekman-Larsson	55 Jason Demers
6 Jakob Chychrun	33 Alex Goligoski
42 Aaron Ness	46 Ilya Lyubushkin
Goalie
32 Antti Raanta	31 Adin Hill

Game Notes

Power Play: Flyers (13th), Coyotes (14th)
Penalty Kill: Flyers (14th), Coyotes (6th)
Recent History vs. Coyotes
- Nov. 5, 2018 – Flyers 5, Coyotes 2 (at ARI)
- Nov. 8, 2018 – Flyers 5, Coyotes 4 (F/OT) (at PHI)
- Dec. 5, 2019 – Coyotes 3, Flyers 1 (at PHI)
Flyers Leaders vs. Coyotes
- Claude Giroux – 17 GP, 7 G, 10 A, 17 P
- Shayne Gostisbehere – 8 GP, 2 G, 6 A, 8 P
- Kevin Hayes – 11 GP, 4 G, 6 A, 10 P
- Sean Couturier – 15 GP, 4 G, 9 A, 13 P
Milestone Watch
- Shayne Gostisbehere needs two points to reach 200 for his career.