Peter Laviolette is shifting his lines for tonight’s game at the New Jersey Devils. Can’t say that’s really much of a surprise considering a) the Flyers offense has looked mostly like crap in the first two games and b) Zac Rinaldo is hurt and won’t play, necessitating at least some sort of change.
Big changes, though. Brayden Schenn is no longer a first-line winger. The experiment last two games. According to reports from Newark this morning, here’s the Flyers’ lineup for tonight’s game:
Hartnell – Giroux – Voracek
Fedotenko – Couturier – Read
McGinn – Schenn – Simmonds
Talbot – Laughton – Wellwood
Tom Sestito and Jody Shelley are your healthy scratches. A few thoughts. First, the Ginger Line we expected to see at the start of the season will finally be a thing, so that’ll be fun. That line of Tye McGinn, Schenn (who moves back to center) and Wayne Simmonds should be pretty dang up-tempo. I’m curious to see what type of minutes that Laughton line gets and how Laviolette matches these lines up against the Devils tonight.
On defense, Kurtis Foster will likely sit. The Flyers are calling it a maintenance day, but whatever. Long story short is that Foster sits, Bruno Gervais gets in, and none of it really makes all that much of a difference.
Coburn – Grossmann
Timonen – Schenn
Gervais – Meszaros
And here’s the expected lineup for the Devils via Tom Gulitti of the Bergen Record:
Zubrus – Zajac – Kovalchuk
Tendenby – Elias – Clarkson
Carter – Gionta – Bernier
Matteau – Josefson – Janssen
Salvador – Zidlicky
Greene – Fayne
Tallinder – Volchenkov
Scratches: Barch, Darche, Larsson, Harrold
Martin Brodeur vs. Ilya Bryzgalov in goal.
