Philadelphia enters the game coming off a sloppy effort and a 5-1 loss to the Rangers Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden. The Flyers look to rebound with a win against the Leafs tonight on an emotional night for big Eric Lindros.
Toronto enters the game coming off a 2-1 OT loss to the Blues Tuesday night. Going into the last minute of the game, the Leafs held a 1-0 lead. They gave up a goal with 13.6 seconds left and eventually lost in OT. The Maple Leafs look to end a 3 game losing streak with a win in Philadelphia.
Flyers Lineup (Projected 1/18)
Giroux – Couturier – Konecny
Raffl – Filppula – Voracek
Weal – Patrick – Simmonds
Lehtera – Laughton – Goulbourne
Provorov – Gostisbehere
Hagg – MacDonald
Manning – Gudas
Starter – Neuvirth
Rebound Needed
With the Flyers suffering a demolishing 5-1 loss to the Rangers Tuesday, they need to bounce back quickly. The loss on Tuesday put the Flyers back in more ways than one.
First, it was just a poor effort. The Flyers scored the games 1st goal. But, after that, they looked sluggish and got outplayed the rest of the game in the 5-1 defeat.
Second, they lost the opportunity to jump into a playoff spot with a win. The worse part? With the Rangers winning, the Flyers are now 3 points out of a playoff spot.
With all that said, the Flyers need to rebound quickly to not lose anymore ground. But, they face a tough task in a Maple Leafs team that is needing a victory after losing 3 straight.
Who’s In Net?
Another key moment in Tuesday’s loss was when would coach Dave Hakstol pull goalie Brian Elliott. Many believed it was going to be after the 1st. Elliott, who looked like he was struggling tracking the puck, gave up 3 goals in the 1st, two on the break-away.
However, Hakstol stuck with Elliott. That was not a good decision for the Flyers. Elliott gave up 2 more goals in the 2nd period. Both goals where off extremely weak shots by Rangers players and Elliott should have saved both.
Neuvirth did come in to start the 3rd however. In his one period of relief, Neuvirth was a perfect 8 for 8, including a highway robbery save to rob Rick Nash of his hat trick.
With Neuvirth only playing the 3rd period on Tuesday, could Hakstol have been saving him to set up for the weekend? Starting tonight, the Flyers play 3 games in 4 days. Even worse? Both games on the weekend are day games.
However, who ever starts in net for the Flyers tonight will play 2 games out of the 3.
#88 To The Rafters
Finally the Flyers organization is recognizing greatness. The big old freight train, Eric Lindros, will have his number 88 retired and sent to the rafters tonight.
With all great things comes a party. The Flyers will do their usual ceremony with the #88 being retired and some special things will happen for Lindros.
He will get to make his speech, do a ceremonial puck drop, and the big finish? Lindros will be reunited with his former legion-of-doom line-mates one last time in-front of the Philadelphia crowd.
Expect game time to be delayed about 5-10 minutes for all the ceremonies.
Game 45 – Toronto Maple Leafs, Philadelphia PA, 7:00pm NBCSports Philadelphia
