It was a bit of surprise when Luke Schenn found himself out of the Flyers lineup on Saturday night against the New York Rangers despite a solid performance against the Boston Bruins on Wednesday night. In justifying the decision, Flyers coach Dave Hakstol explained that he felt Manning’s speed was better suited to match up against the face-paced Rangers.
At practice this morning, Hakstol proved true to his word that Schenn’s benching was not due to on-ice performance. Schenn was right back in the top-six, paired with Evgeny Medvedev.
Looks like Luke Schenn is in for Brandon Manning.
— Dave Isaac (@davegisaac) October 27, 2015
Schenn has only played in three games this season for the Flyers, and despite struggling at times with the puck on his stick, he’s generally been able to push the play in a positive direction during limited on-ice action. At least from a statistical standpoint, he is a significant upgrade over Manning.
Michael Raffl also skated in his usual spot on the top line in practice, confirming that he will be back tonight against the Sabres. Raffl took an inadvertent elbow to the face on Saturday night from Jarret Stoll and collapsed on the bench soon after in a very scary situation. Raffl missed the rest of the game, but apparently has cleared all concussion protocol and will play tonight.
Sean Couturier, another Flyers forward dealing with concussion symptoms, will not return to the lineup tonight. Per the beats, Couturier did admit that he was suffering from a concussion and not just a vague “upper-body injury,” Couturier skated at practice but will at least miss one more game, though he could return on Thursday night against the New Jersey Devils.
Expected Lineup
Michael Raffl – Claude Giroux – Jakub Voracek
Matt Read – Sam Gagner – Wayne Simmonds
R.J. Umberger – Scott Laughton – Brayden Schenn
Chris VandeVelde – Pierre-Edouard Bellemare – Ryan White
Michael Del Zotto – Radko Gudas
Evgeny Medvedev – Luke Schenn
