Game Preview: Carolina Hurricanes at Philadelphia Flyers 02-02-13

Carolina Hurricanes at Philadelphia Flyers
Saturday, February 2, 2013 - 7:00 pm EST
Wells Fargo Center - Philadelphia, PA
TV - Fox Sports Carolinas HD Radio - 99.9 The Fan

SB Nation Flyers Blog: Broad Street Hockey (twitter @BroadStHockey)

Hurricanes Record: 3-3-0, 6 pts.
Flyers Record: 2-6-0, 4 pts.

Tonight marks the first of three meetings this season between the Carolina Hurricanes and Philadelphia Flyers. Last year the teams met four times with the Flyers taking 3-1 series bragging rights. Both teams played last night. The Flyers lost 3-2 to the Capitals on the road in Washington, while the Hurricanes won at home against the Ottawa Senators in a 1-0 shutout.

Game Notes

The Hurricanes hit the road coming off a solid home win against a strong Ottawa Senators team. The Canes were only able to muster one goal against hot netminder Craig Anderson, but Eric Staal's tip-in of a blueline shot from Alexander Semin proved enough to seal the deal, as the team performed solid defensively and goaltender Dan Ellis was perfect in net.

Staal now has points in four straight games and Semin has points in three straight games.

Kirk Muller didn't tip his hand with regarding to tonight's starting goaltender (or any other line-up changes) in his post-game interview, saying the decision would be made "on the plane."

Coming of their disappointing performance against the Capitals, the Flyers may consider a home game against the Hurricanes to be just what they need to break their last-in-conference slump. They had not lost in ten straight home games against the Hurricanes before losing the last time the two teams met in Philly, a 4-2 loss on November 21, 2011.

The Flyers have been unable to put much in the net so far this season, with only 16 goals scored in eight games (seven of those coming in one game). Matt Read leads the team with three goals. The Flyers offense may take another step backwards if forward Wayne Simmonds is unable to play. Simmonds left last night's game after taking an elbow to the face from John Erskine late in the first period.

Also out of line-up for the Flyers are Scott Hartnell (foot), Andrej Meszaros (shoulder).

Brian will have more analysis on our opponent later in the day, and we'll start the game thread at 6:30 pm. See you there.