The Philadelphia Flyers are back home on Tuesday night, and with it they’ll have a new top line.
Wayne Simmonds, Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek will be together on the first unit against the Montreal Canadiens tonight as coach Dave Hakstol hopes to shake up the league’s second-worst offense. Doing so means taking Voracek away from second-line center Sean Couturier, who had found success with Jake and Michael Raffl on his wings in recent games. But after a three-game slump that’s helped the Flyers fall seven points out of playoff contention, you can understand why Hakstol might want to shake things up.
There will be more than just that shake up, though: the Flyers skated seven defensemen in Los Angeles on Saturday, but will switch back to six tonight. Evgeny Medvedev will reportedly come out as a healthy scratch, and forward Matt Read checks back in after sitting as a healthy scratch. It remains baffling that Medvedev has been a scratch multiple times this season while Nick Schultz somehow remains immune, but nevertheless that’s the move tonight.
The Habs haven’t played since Friday, when they won a big game against the Bruins in the Winter Classic. At 22-15-3, they’re sitting comfortably in second place in the Atlantic Division and will be a tough test as usual. The Flyers haven’t beaten Montreal since December 12, 2013.
Michal Neuvirth gets the start in goal again. Ben Scrivens will go for Montreal as Carey Price remains sidelined.
Canadiens vs. Flyers
When: 7:30 p.m. ET, Tuesday night
Where: Wells Fargo Center, South Philadelphia
Local broadcasts: CSN Philly, 97.5 The Fanatic,
Elsewhere in the U.S.: NBCSN (live stream here)
In the Montreal area (English): Sportsnet East
In the Montreal area (French): RDS
Everywhere else: NHL Center Ice, NHL GameCenter Live
Flyers lineup
Voracek – Giroux – Simmonds
Raffl – Couturier – B. Schenn
Read – Laughton – Umberger
VandeVelde – Bellemare – White
Del Zotto – Gudas
Schultz – Streit
Gostisbehere – L. Schenn
Montreal lineup
Pacioretty – Plekanec – Gallagher
Eller – Galchenyuk – Carr
Fleischmann – Desharnais – Weise
Byron – Mitchell – Flynn
Beaulieu – Subban
Markov – Petry
Emelin – Barberio
