| 2014-15 NHL Season :: Game 51 of 82 | ||
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| 22-24-4, 48 points 6th in Atlantic |
21-22-7, 49 points 5th in Metropolitan | |
| Saturday, January 31, 2015 :: 7:00 p.m. ET | ||
| Wells Fargo Center :: South Philadelphia | ||
| Get the Toronto perspective at Pension Plan Puppets | ||
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Saturday night hockey! Quick preview notes:
* The Flyers have three wins in a row! Which is pretty neat and/or pulling them farther out of lottery contention depending on your viewpoint. But in either case, a win tonight would mark their longest win streak of the season at four games. And after a strong all-around contest on Thursday against a very good Winnipeg team, it should be interesting to see how they come back tonight against a not-quite-as-good team.
* Nicklas Grossmann skated with the team this morning but won’t play tonight. Michael Raffl didn’t skate with the team this morning and (predictably) also won’t play tonight. And Zac Rinaldo is on game number three of his eight-game suspension. As such, we should expect similar lineups to what we saw against Winnipeg on Thursday.
* Steve Mason will be in net tonight. It’s his 100th regular-season appearance as a member of the Flyers. He has put up a .921 save percentage in that time, which is pretty cool.
* Also of note: Jakub Voracek and Wayne Simmonds are both playing in their 500th NHL games tonight. Crazy coincidence, that.
* The Maple Leafs are not very good! Right now in particular, they are very not good! They’re 1-8-1 in their last 10 games despite firing noted bad coach Randy Carlyle. There’s some talent on their roster but by and large they are lacking in a few key areas.
* Having said that, they’ve been not very good for a while, and they’ve always played the Flyers pretty well in recent years, so this is no gimme (granted, no Flyers game this year is a gimme). The teams last met in late December in that weird 7-4 game which was fun.
* Did you know that James van Riemsdyk used to play for the Flyers? It’s true! Wow! In fact you’ll probably hear about it a few more times tonight! /gag
* James Reimer will start for the Leafs.
Hockey night in Canada. Fun times. Go Flyers.
