In a lot of ways it doesn’t even feel like the Philadelphia Flyers lost their season opener against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday night. They hung with one of the best teams in the East, on the road, in the first game of the year, and at times in that game they actually frustrated and bottled up the speedy Bolts. And hey, they got a point.
So despite the overtime loss, the Flyers feel pretty good heading into Game 2 of the regular season against the Florida Panthers. It’s the season opener for the Cats, who are looking to improve even more after making a 25 point leap in the standings a year ago. They’re young and skilled and will push for a playoff spot this year, more than likely.
They have a very strong first line with Jonathan Huberdeau, Aleksander Barkov and, yes, Jaromir Jagr, and their defense is led by last year’s Calder Trophy winner, Aaron Ekblad. In goal they have Roberto Luongo, who is getting into the back end of his 30s but is still a very good goaltender, assuming health.
The Flyers’ lineup is expected to stay the same, because why changed what worked so well against Tampa. We will update if any changes are evident during the morning skate.
We’ll have a brief scouting report on the Panthers up later today at 1 p.m. ET, and our game thread will be here at 5 p.m. ET. Puck drop is at 7 p.m. ET and you can watch the game locally in the Delaware Valley on CSN Philly. Elsewhere the game can be seen on FS Florida, or NHL Center Ice and NHL GameCenter.
| 2015-16 NHL Season :: Game 2 of 82 | ||
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| 0-0-1, 1 point 2nd in Metropolitan |
0-0-0, 0 points last in NHL | |
| Saturday, October 10, 2014 :: 7 p.m. ET | ||
| BB&T Center :: Sunrise, Florida, USA | ||
| Get the Florida perspective at Litter Box Cats | ||
| Local & Opposing team Coverage | ||
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| National & Streaming Coverage | ||
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| Projected Lineups | ||
| Raffl – Giroux – Voracek | 1st Line | Huberdeau – Barkov – Jagr |
| B. Schenn – Couturier – Simmonds | 2nd Line | Pirri – Bjugstad – Smith |
| Read – Laughton – Umberger | 3rd Line | Jokinen – Bolland – Trocheck |
| VandeVelde – Bellemare – White | 4th Line | Brickley – MacKenzie – Howden |
| Streit – Schultz | 1st D Pair | Campbell – Ekblad |
| Del Zotto – Manning | 2nd D Pair | Mitchell – Gudbranson |
| Medvedev – L. Schenn | 3rd D Pair | Kulikov – Petrovic |
| Mason / Neuvirth | Goalies | Luongo / Montoya |
| Lecavalier, Gagner, Gudas | Scratches | |
