Bolts Take on the Flyers in a Matinee Showdown

By Jake Ricker

Overview

Today it’s the Tampa Bay Lightning (44-17-4) taking on the Philadelphia Flyers (34-20-10). The Bolts will look to start their long home stand off right, while the Flyers will look to bounce back after falling to Carolina on Thursday. This will be the 3rd time these two teams face off with the first meeting ending in a 5-3 Lightning victory and the second ending in a 5-1 Lightning victory. The Bolts will look to take the series sweep while the Flyers will look to avoid the sweep. Let’s take a look at the game plan for these two teams as they get set to square off.

 

Tampa’s Outlook and Past

The Bolts have won 4 of their last 5 games scoring 18 goals over that span. The Bolts had a crazy game against the stars and played well for the most part. They will look to continue their recent success again tonight. The Bolts are currently ranked 3rd in the league in power play percentage (23.9%). They will look to continue this success tonight as they take on the Flyers who have the 4th worst PK in the NHL (75.4%). This is the start of an 8 game homestand for the Bolts and will look to get started off right. The Bolts will look to maintain their top spot in the league with another win tonight.

Three Keys To The Game

1. Keep It Rollin

The Bolts have played well these past few games, keep this up tonight against a hot Flyers team.

2. Home Sweet Home

The crowd will surely be rocking tonight as they Bolts start the long homestand. Feed off that energy and get on the board first.

3. Defense!

The Bolts had a hard time shutting down the Stars last game and clearing the puck. lock down the defense tonight and don’t let the Flyers get the momentum.

Projected Lines

Offense 

Kunitz – Stamkos – Callahan

Gourde – Point – Miller

Erne – Johnson – Conacher

Killorn – Paquette – Cirelli

Defense

Hedman – Girardi

Sergachev – Stralman

Coburn – Sustr

Goalies

Andrei Vasilevskiy: 37-12-3 GAA: 2.34  SV%: .927 (Likely)

Injuries

Ondrej Palat (1-2 Weeks)

Ryan McDonagh (3-5 Days)

Nikita Kucherov (Day to Day)

Peter Budaj (Week to Week)

 

Philadelphia’s Outlook and Past

The Flyers have had a great season and have been very hot as of late, they will look to continue that success today. The Flyers have won 4 of their last 5 games scoring 12 goals over that span. The Flyers are ranked 12th overall on the power play (20.8%) and will look to use that to their advantage as they take n the Bolts who are ranked 24th (77.6%) in the PK department. this will be the start of a 2 game road trip before they head back home for just one quick game. The Flyers will look to take the top spot in the Metropolitan division with a win tonight.

Three Keys To The Game

1. Offense

The Flyers have only scored 12 goals over their last 5 games, to get a win tonight they will need to make sure they are shooting the puck and getting quality chances.

2. Stop the Crowd

The Bolts will likely have the crowd into the game tonight, shut down the crowd by getting on the board first.

3.  Mrazek Time

Mrazek has won 3 of his last 4 with the Flyers, get behind him and feed off his recent success.

Projected Lines

Offense 

Giroux – Couturier – Konecny

Lindblom – Patrick – Vorecek

Leier – Laughton – Raffl

Lehtera – Filppula – Weise

Defense

Provorov – Gostisbehere

Hagg – MacDonald

Manning – Gudas

Goalies

Peter Mrazek  11-8-3  GAA: 2.73   SV%: .912 (Unconfirmed)

Injuries

Wayne Simmons (1-2 Weeks)

Brian Elliot (2-4 Weeks)

Michal Neuvirth (3-5 Weeks)