On the penultimate day of the 2015-16 NHL season, the Philadelphia Flyers defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins in Philadelphia by a score of 4-1 to clinch a spot in the playoffs. It was a fun day for all of us. I don’t think anything of significance has happened for the Pens since then, but maybe I’m forgetting something. It’s possible.
In any case, the first Flyers-Penguins game of the year takes place tonight, and with the way this matchup primarily went for the Flyers last season (read: not well), it’ll certainly be a tough out for them. It’s been an up-and-down start to the season for the Pens, who announced just before the season started that Sidney Crosby would miss time with another concussion, but he’s been back in the lineup for two games now and will play tonight. (And we’re sure the fans at the Wells Fargo Center tonight wouldn’t have it any other way.)
As far as lineup changes for the Flyers, NHL.com’s Adam Kimelman has your projected lineup based on what he’s seen in practice today and yesterday:
Here’s a guess on what the Flyers’ lineup will look like tonight vs. Penguins pic.twitter.com/r3UD07s4hR
— Adam Kimelman (@NHLAdamK) October 29, 2016
On defense, the one change will come as little surprise: Nick Schultz will take Andrew MacDonald’s spot in the lineup. MacDonald had a particularly rough game on Thursday night against Arizona, and as such he’ll watch from the press box for the first time this season. Schultz will play alongside Shayne Gostisbehere as MacDonald did, while the rest of the defensive lineup will remain the same.
Up front, it’s Nick Cousins who looks like he drew the short straw and will be the healthy scratch for tonight, which jives with the practice lines from yesterday that had him skating with Scott Laughton and Michael Raffl, two players who are currently out with injury. A tad surprising to see that happen after what looked like a strong game from the line of him, Brayden Schenn, and Dale Weise on Thursday night, but it appears he’ll sit regardless.
Schenn, meanwhile, will be back on the top line with Giroux and Wayne Simmonds, while the Travis Konecny – Sean Couturier – Jakub Voracek line looks like it’s been reunited after a one-game hiatus. Finally, Roman Lyubimov has been moved up to the third line, which is maybe a bit curious, but is likely a reward for maybe his best NHL game yet on Thursday.
Kimelman also noted that Steve Mason is likely to start, meaning the Flyers will be going back to him after his poor game on Thursday. Here’s hoping he rewards that faith with a bounce-back.
As for the flightless birds, they didn’t have a morning skate today, so we don’t quite know what they’ll be up to, but here’s what they ran with last game, via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Sam Werner:
#Pens forwards same as we saw this morning:
Wilson-Crosby-Hornqvist
Kunitz-Malkin-Kessel
Hagelin-Bonino-Rust
Kuhnhackl-Cullen-Fehr— Sam Werner (@SWernerPG) October 27, 2016
Some shuffling in the #Pens D pairs though:
Maatta-Daley
Dumoulin-Cole
Warsofsky-SchultzFleury in net.
— Sam Werner (@SWernerPG) October 27, 2016
That’s pretty close to the same cast they won the Cup with last spring, with two notable exceptions. Marc-Andre Fleury will probably start his ninth straight game as Matt Murray remains out with a hand injury. But the big question is with Kris Letang, the Pens’ best defenseman who has missed four straight games now. We still don’t quite know if he’ll be in the lineup or not — Mike Sullivan said yesterday that Letang was “getting closer” — so we’ll know closer to game time what his status is.
Still, even if Letang doesn’t play, this Pens team gave the Flyers fits in every one of the three games last season where they iced a full NHL lineup, and while the Flyers have shown they can skate and score with most every team they’ve played so far this year, they’re going to need to tighten up in every zone of the ice if they want to have a realistic chance of going toe-to-toe with this Pittsburgh team.
Tonight’s game starts at 7:00 p.m. ET and is on CSN Philly and 97.5 The Fanatic locally. In Pittsburgh (and, if this is you, we’re sorry), it’s on Root Sports. Elsewhere, you’ll be able to watch on NHL Network.
Philadelphia lineup
Forwards
- Brayden Schenn – Claude Giroux – Wayne Simmonds
- Travis Konecny – Sean Couturier – Jakub Voracek
- Matt Read – Pierre-Edouard Bellemare – Roman Lyubimov
- Chris VandeVelde – Boyd Gordon – Dale Weise
Defense
- Nick Schultz – Shayne Gostisbehere
- Ivan Provorov – Brandon Manning
- Radko Gudas – Mark Streit
Goalies
- Steve Mason
- Michal Neuvirth
Scratches: Andrew MacDonald, Nick Cousins
Injured: Michael Del Zotto, Scott Laughton, Michael Raffl
Suspended: still nobody!!!
Pittsburgh lineup
Forwards
- Scott Wilson – Sidney Crosby – Patric Hornqvist
- Chris Kunitz – Evgeni Malkin – Phil Kessel
- Carl Hagelin – Nick Bonino – Bryan Rust
- Tom Kuhnhackl – Matt Cullen – Eric Fehr
Defense
- Olli Maatta – Trevor Daley
- Brian Dumoulin – Ian Cole
- David Warsofsky – Justin Schultz
Goalies
- Marc-Andre Fleury
- Mike Condon
TBD: Kris Letang
