Game 10 Preview: Philadelphia Flyers vs. Ottawa Senators

The Ottawa Senators finish off their five-game homestand tonight, and will try to avoid a fifth overtime/shootout loss against the Philadelphia Flyers. With a record of 4-1-4, the Senators have gotten out to a decent start, albeit with a strange record.

The Flyers finished a five-game homestand of their own before this, in which they went 3-2-0. Their overall record is 5-4-0, yet that is only good for fifth in a tough looking Metropolitan division.  So far, the Senators home record is only 1-1-4, and it is 1-1-2 on this current home-stand, so it would be nice to head off to New Jersey late tonight after a win.

Ottawa will have quite a different lineup than they would like tonight, as Kyle Turris, Bobby Ryan, Zack Smith, Colin White, and Clarke MacArthur (as usual) are all injured. Instead, Jack Rodewald and Filip Chlapik got their first call-ups to the NHL, although Rodewald will most likely not be playing.

As of now, it looks like Guy Boucher will be going with 11 forward and 7 defensemen, but I’ll update that as soon as I know more.

Projected lines for the Senators have not come out yet, but here they are for the Flyers:

Forwards:

Giroux-Couturier-Voracek

Weal-Filppula-Simmonds

Lethera-Patrick-Konecny

Weise-Leier/Laughton/Raffl

Defense:

Provorov-Gostisbehere

Sanheim-Hagg

Manning-Gudas

Things to note:

• Claude Giroux is back to being his old self, as he has five goals and six assists in nine games, and his 5v5 production is back to where it should be. Him and Jakub Voracek provide for a lethal combo, even if Voracek has yet to score (he has 12 assists though).
• The top-end players for each team have produced a lot of points. Sean Couturier, Wayne Simmonds,  Shayne Gostisbehere, Claude Giroux, and Jakub Voracek all have at least a point per game, while Mark Stone and Derick Brassard have done the same, but there are many more secondary contributors as well.
• Michal Neuvirth will be in net tonight, he of a .957 SV% in three games so far. Neuvirth struggled last year posting an .891 SV%, but he’s capable of being a solid 1B type goalie.
• I’m excited to see what Chlapik can do, even if he only gets about 5 minutes in ice-time. He seems like a player that is ready to make the jump soon.
• Can the penalty kill continue its excellent work? The Senators have only allowed two PK goals, and they even scored while short-handed last game, bringing their goal differential to just -1. The Flyers will be a tough test in this department though.
• Losing Bobby Ryan hurts, but with no Kyle Turris, the forwards take an even bigger hit. I’m not expecting much in terms of offense tonight, so hopefully they can eke out a 2-1 or 3-2 win.
• On the other hand, perhaps we will see Erik Karlsson totally dominate and single-handedly get Ottawa the win. We can always hope for that./

Stats from NHL.com and Corsica.hockey:

Team Stats

Player Stats