Carolina Hurricanes (35-31-15) at Philadelphia Flyers (39-33-9)
April 9, 2017 - 7:00 p.m. ET
Wells Fargo Center - Philadelphia, PA
FOX Sports Carolinas - 99.9 The Fan - WRALSportsFan web and app
SB Nation rival blog: Broad Street Hockey
Vital Statistics
Category | Hurricanes | Bruins |
---|---|---|
Category | Hurricanes | Bruins |
Record | 8-6 | 11-5 |
Goals/Game | 2.79 | 3.31 |
Goals Against/Game | 2.71 | 2.06 |
Shots/Game | 30.9 | 34.3 |
Faceoff % | 49.1% | 53.3% |
Power Play % (Rank) | 10.0% (14) | 31.9% (1) |
Penalty Kill % (Rank) | 70.8% (14) | 85.7% (4) |
ES Corsi For % | 55.61% | 51.66% |
ES PDO | 101.2% | 101.0 |
PIM/Game | 8:38 | 6:30 |
Goaltender #1
Category | Cam Ward | Steve Mason |
---|---|---|
Category | Cam Ward | Steve Mason |
Record | 26-22-12 | 32-20-5 |
ES Save % | .910 | .919 |
GAA | 2.69 | 2.66 |
Goaltender #2
Category | Curtis McElhinney | Jaroslav Halak |
---|---|---|
Category | Curtis McElhinney | Jaroslav Halak |
Record | 3-1 | 0-0 |
Save % | .943 | N/A |
GAA | 1.70 | N/A |
Game Notes
- Not much to say here. The Hurricanes’ season comes to an end today, as have entirely too many before it, with a meaningless game in Philadelphia between two teams that won’t make the playoffs.
- Jeff Skinner has an outside shot at a 40-goal season, which would be the first for the Hurricanes since 2008-09 when Eric Staal hit the mark. Even now at 37, only two players since the move have gotten to that level: Staal three times, and Jeff O’Neill once. It’s rarefied air that Skinner is in after two goals last night.
- More to the point, the only players ahead of Skinner this season in goal scoring in the entire NHL are a bunch of nobodies named Sidney Crosby, Nikita Kucherov, Auston Matthews, Brad Marchand and Vladimir Tarasenko.
- Sebastian Aho will today become the second player in franchise history to play in every game of his rookie season. (The first? Skinner, of course.) Ron Francis never did it. Neither did Chris Pronger, Eric Staal, Justin Faulk...the list goes on.
- The Canes and Flyers have met four other times this season, the Flyers winning three of the four games. The Canes can pull to NHL .500 against the Flyers with a win today, after going 1-2-1 in their first four.
- Carolina has been surprisingly good the past two seasons in Philadelphia, going 3-1-2. It’s been quite a change from their historically abysmal performance, 17-36-3 with eleven ties all-time on the road against the Flyers.
- Tonight is Bryan Bickell’s swan song in the NHL after an emotional game that included two standing ovations last night. He will be in the starting lineup again, and even Flyers fans might be willing to cheer him tonight.
Projected Lines and Rosters
Both teams played yesterday, so neither had a morning skate today. We do know that the Flyers plan to make three changes to their lineup, and aside from starting Eddie Lack in net, the Hurricanes will roll with the same lineup that lost to the Blues last night in a shootout.
The Flyers’ Robert Hagg will be making his NHL debut, and you all know what that means, so plan accordingly. Here are the projections:
Hurricanes
Sebastian Aho - Jordan Staal - Teuvo Teravainen
Jeff Skinner - Elias Lindholm - Lee Stempniak
Joakim Nordstrom - Victor Rask - Sergey Tolchinsky
Bryan Bickell - Derek Ryan - Brock McGinn
Jaccob Slavin - Justin Faulk
Noah Hanifin - Brett Pesce
Klas Dahlbeck - Matt Tennyson
Eddie Lack
Cam Ward
Injuries and Scratches: Jay McClement (lower body), Ryan Murphy (lower body)
Flyers
Travis Konecny - Claude Giroux - Jakub Voracek
Jordan Weal - Valtteri Filppula - Wayne Simmonds
Dale Weise - Sean Couturier - Brayden Schenn
Mike Vecchione - Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - Nick Cousins
Ivan Provorov - Andrew MacDonald
Michael Del Zotto - Nick Schultz
Robert Hagg - Shayne Gostisbehere
Anthony Stolarz
Steve Mason
Injuries and Scratches: Radko Gudas (upper body), Matt Read (upper body), Michal Neuvirth (upper body), Brandon Manning (healthy), Roman Lyubimov (healthy), Chris VandeVelde (healthy), Michael Raffl (lower body)