(Photo: Mike Kruce)
By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor
The Flyers made a change in plans with Alain Vigneault announcing that veterans would see more playing time in the preseason. So the roster was cut to 36 players — including injuries — leaving only a select group of players off the ice for the remaining preseason games.
Saturday marks the final time the Flyers will take the ice at Wells Fargo Center before the home opener in Philadelphia on Oct. 9. Once again, there will definitely be a lot of veterans in the lineup. Game time is at 7 p.m.
Among the veterans getting playing time tonight are Claude Giroux, Kevin Hayes, James van Riemsdyk and Jake Voracek. It will be the third preseason game for van Riemsdyk and Voracek already. Travis Konecny makes his preseason debut. Ivan Provorov and Matt Niskanen are back in the lineup after making their debut on Thursday.
It appears that Morgan Frost, Joel Farabee and Chris Stewart are at the front of the third-line winger competition, which has certainly expanded with more possibilities with Nolan Patrick unable to join the team for practices or play in preseason games. German Rubtsov is also at the front of that competition, but gets Saturday off after playing in each of the first three preseason games.
Carter Hart will get the start in goal for the Flyers with Jean-Francois Berube serving as backup. Hart will play the first two periods.
Here are the Flyers lines for the game:
Forwards
25 James van Riemsdyk
28 Claude Giroux
11 Travis Konecny
23 Oskar Lindblom
13 Kevin Hayes
93 Jake Voracek
12 Michael Raffl
48 Morgan Frost
49 Joel Farabee
81 Carsen Twarynski
21 Scott Laughton
44 Chris Stewart
Defensemen
9 Ivan Provorov
6 Travis Sanheim
8 Robert Hagg
15 Matt Niskanen
55 Sam Morin
59 Mark Friedman
Goalies
79 Carter Hart
35 Jean-Francois Berube
The Rangers are bringing a handful of veterans, but after playing in a game on Friday night as well, will have a lot of young players in the lineup as well.
Here is the Rangers lineup for Saturday's game:
20 Chris Kreider
72 Filip Chytil
74 Vitali Kravtsov
28 Phillip Di Giuseppe
50 Lias Andersson
16 Ryan Strome
38 Micheal Haley
15 Boo Nieves
14 Greg McKegg
25 Tim Gettinger
71 Nick Jones
33 Connor Brickley
76 Brady Skjei
8 Jacob Trouba
55 Ryan Lindgren
97 Matthew Robertson
43 Libor Hajek
23 Adam Fox
31 Igor Shesterkin
32 Adam Huska
The Rangers have started the preseason 0-2, including Friday's 4-2 loss to the Devils.
Where to Watch
TV: NBC Sports Philadelphia+Radio: 97.5 The Fanatic/97.3 ESPN