After falling to the Penguins in the season opener shortly after 6 p.m. on Saturday night, the Flyers bolted to Philadelphia International, hopped on a plane and were in Buffalo by 8:45.
Today, they’ll be at First Niagara Center for a 12:30 p.m. puck drop on NBC, ready to forget all about the season-opening defeat.
Philadelphia Flyers (0-1-0) at Buffalo Sabres (0-0-0)
12:30 p.m. | First Niagara Center | Buffalo, N.Y.
TV: NBC, NBCSports.com | Radio: 97.5 The Fanatic
Get the Buffalo perspective at Die By The Blade
The Flyers were clearly rusty in the first period of yesterday’s game, and it was that slow start that ultimately did them in. But in today’s game, could the quick turnaround be adventageous for the Flyers against a Buffalo team that was one of four in the NHL to not play on opening day?
A few things to look out for today:
* What does Peter Laviolette do with his lines? The offense struggled yesterday, and Lavi is known to be a habitual line-shuffler. For example, if Brayden Schenn in particular doesn’t get it together quickly today, will he find himself bumped off the top line, or will he get an extended chance to show he can stick there?
* The power play just has to be better today, notably the second unit. They were the Flyers’ weakest link on Saturday and aside from the slow start were the reason Pittsburgh won the game.
* We’ll have to keep an eye on defensive ice time again. They stacked minutes on Braydon Coburn and Nicklas Grossmann yesterday, and the only reason Kimmo Timonen and Luke Schenn came close in overall ice time was because of a lot of special teams play. If the game is played more at even strength, Coburn and Grossmann are gonna be really damn busy.
* Ilya Bryzgalov was good yesterday and we expect that again.
* Keeping a more-watchful eye on Scott Laughton today is a personal objective of mine. Many noted yesterday that while he looked good, it was evident that he’s not necessarily as strong as some of his NHL competition. Interested in hearing everybody’s thoughts about Laughton as his five-game look rolls on.
Ville Leino is hurt for Buffalo but could play. If he doesn’t, Matt Ellis will jump in and the lineups below will be a little different. Nevertheless, here’s what we’re looking at for today’s game:
It’s Ilya Bryzgalov vs. Ryan Miller in goal.
Flyers Projected Lineup
Hartnell – Giroux – B. Schenn
Talbot – Couturier – Voracek
Read – Laughton – Simmonds
Fedotenko – Wellwood – Rinaldo
Timonen – L. Schenn
Grossmann – Coburn
Foster – Meszaros
Scratch: Gervais, Sestito, Shelley.
Buffalo Projected Lineup
Vanek – Hodgson – Pominville
Foligno – Ennis – Stafford
Ott – Grigorenko – Leino
Scott – Hecht – Kaleta
Myers – Regehr
Ehrhoff – Sulzer
Sekera – Leopold
Scratches: Ellis, Weber, Brennan
