It’s the start of a pretty damn easy week for the Philadelphia Flyers, as they face off against the 14th place Carolina Hurricanes tonight and the 15th place New York Islanders on Thursday. On paper, these games should equal a quick four points for the Flyers, and they’ll try to grab the first two at RBC Center this evening.
It’s already the fourth and final meeting between the Flyers and the Hurricanes, who always seem to play each other in bunches throughout the schedule. It also always seems like the Flyers have their way with the ‘Canes, aside from that last snoozer of a matchup just before Thanksgiving at the Wells Fargo Center.
In that loss, the Flyers were weak defensively. It was the first game without Chris Pronger, and they were also without Braydon Coburn that night, so it’s easy to understand where the woes came from. Hopefully they aren’t recreated tonight, but given defensive woes against Ottawa, that’s not necessarily a guarantee.
That’s the one thing the Flyers have to overcome tonight. They’ve been a very, very good road team over the last two seasons or so because they’ve been able to simplify their game while away from Philadelphia. In Ottawa on Sunday, they got away from that. They passed when they should’ve held the puck, zigged when they should have zagged, held the puck when they should have gotten rid of it. Just bad decisions with the puck.
Hurricanes blog Canes Country has opposing coverage of tonight’s game.
Luckily, these are likely not problems that will plague a team for a long time. Perhaps it’s even just a one-game thing. The lowly Hurricanes seem like the perfect medicine. Sergei Bobrovsky will be in goal for the Flyers. A look at lineups after the jump.
The beat writers in Raleigh are reporting that Zac Rinaldo will be pulled out of the lineup in favor of Harry Zolnierczyk tonight. Other than that fourth line change and the change in goal, we’re looking at the same lineup as the Ottawa game.
#HartnellDown – Orange Jesus – Jags
Talbot – Briere – Voracek
Young James – Schenn – Simmonds
Read – Juicy – Scrabble
Coburn – Timonen
Bourdon – Carle
Lilja – Meszaros
Here are the line combinations for the Hurricanes, via Canes Country. Yes, that’s Andreas Nodl on the second line. No Jeff Skinner. No Chad LaRose. No Joni Pitkanen.
Tlusty – Staal – Ruutu
Dwyer – Brandon Sutter – Noodles
Samson – Jokinen – Ponikarovsky
Stewart – Brent – Brent Sutter
Gleason – McBain
Harrison – Faulk
Spacek – Allen
Cam Ward will be in goal for the Hurricanes. Justin Peters is the backup, Boosh is on IR. The damned Sixers are back in action again tonight, so as the team on the road, the Flyers are relegated to The Comcast Network. (Just kidding, we love the Sixers. But it sucks for those without TCN.) You can also listen on 94WIP. It’s a 7 p.m. puck drop. Game thread at 5:30 p.m.
