GAME DAY | Canadiens – Flyers: Preview, Lines, Goalies, TV, Fantasy
Jordan Lambe
Pre-game Notes and Quotes
Flyers’ forward Wayne Simmonds on the Flyers’ recent struggles: “You come back [from Christmas break] and we don’t play three good games, and that’s what happens, it’s a quick turn. We’ve got to stop it and we’ve got to stop it now. There’s no more time to lose more points here. The teams that are above us, they’re winning games. So we can’t afford to lose any more here.”
Flyers’ head coach Dave Hakstol on the teams thoughts going into the second half of the season: “We talk about the big picture of what we’re working towards, a week like last week puts a big dent in a lot of the work that we did before we went for the Christmas break. Now we have to readjust and we have to scratch and claw and get those points back. You’re not going to do that overnight or in one day. That’s got to be a sustained effort over time.”
Tomas Fleischmann on the recent return of Brendan Gallagher and loss of Dale Weise to injury: “It’s tough, you know. You get one guy back and then another one goes down. But it’s just hockey. The season is long. We have some pretty good players waiting to get into the lineup, so I think we are going to be fine,”
The recent addition of Mark Barberio to the Canadiens’ lineup has paid off according to head coach Michel Therrien who said this about his performance: “I have no reason to leave Barberio out of the lineup, especially with how well he’s played over the last few games, he’s a great skater and he is also very responsible with and without the puck. We are very happy with his game at the moment.”
Although this is the first game between these two teams this season, the Canadiens won all three match-ups last season (albeit two extended past regulation time).
While the Canadiens have a 18-6-3 record versus teams in the Eastern Conference this season, the Flyers boast a 9-7-4 record against teams from the East.
The Canadiens have jumped up in the goals against standings, they are currently in a tie for 10th in the league in goals against, with 99 in 40 games. The Flyers’ defensive game has been hovering around average, as they have allowed 102 goals against in their first 37 games and are in a tie for 12th in the league.
The Canadiens have surprisingly maintained their standing in the goals for category as they are currently in a tie for 3rd place in the NHL, with 116 over their first 40 games. The Flyers’ offense has been anemic in the same category, as they sit in 29th in the NHL with 79 goals.
Matchup
Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, PA. | January 5, 7:30 PM ET | TV: NBCSN, RDS, SNE, CSN-PH
2015-16 statistics
FLYERS
CANADIENS
37 (13th)
Points (Eastern Con. rank)
47 (4th)
15-15-7
Record
22-15-3
8-5-4
Home
11-6-2
7-10-3
Road
11-9-1
4-4-2
Last 10
3-7-0
2.11
G/G
2.85
2.68
GA/G
2.45
16.4
PP%
18.8
77.3
PK%
84.8
48.7
CF%*
53.5
51.8
CF60*
56.4
54.5
CA60*
49.0
*Advanced statistics: Score adjusted, even strength. CF%: Corsi for percentage of total CF60: Corsi For/60 minutes CA60: Corsi Against/60 minutes (via War on Ice)
Projected forward lines, defense pairings and goaltenders
2015-’16 regular season: Record: 8-5-2 GAA: 2.06 Sv%: .937 SO: 3 Alternate: Steve Mason
2015-’16 regular season: Record: 0-1-0 GAA: 3.10 Sv%: .900 SO: 0 Alternate: Mike Condon
Fantasy Outlook
Usually rookie players have peaks and valleys in their fantasy value. They typically find getting a consistent amount of ice time very difficult, but this hasn’t been the case so far for Shayne Gostisbehere.Although his ice time dipped to 16:16 on Dec. 19, he has only played less than 19:42 once in his five games since (18:13 in his last game versus the Kings on Jan. 2, 2016). Not only has Gostisbehere been been a regular on the Flyers’ blueline, he is also playing on the first powerplay unit. This is formally Mark Streit’s place on the powerplay, but the 38 year-old is just returning from surgery, so it may take him awhile to return to full strength. It would be very hard for Dave Hakstol to justify taking a player who has seven PPP in only 21 games so far this season off the top unit. The 22 year-old has also been averaging over two shots per game (43 in 21 games) and blocking nearly a shot per game (15 blocked shots). If your fantasy team is in need of a defenseman, or you are in a keeper league, Gostisbehere is a must own at this point. Note: He is also in the top three for points on home ice while playing eight less home games than most players on his team. See below for the full list of the top three.
Top scorers for the Flyers at home this season are:
Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek (with 12 points in 17 games).
Brayden Schenn (with 10 points in 17 games)
Shayne Gostisbehere (with 8 points in 9 games)
Top scorers for the Canadiens on the road this season are:
Max Pacioretty (with 17 points in 20 games)
Tomas Plekanec and P. K. Subban (both with 16 points in 20 games)
Alex Galchenyuk and Andrei Markov (both with 15 points in 21 games)
Player stats from War-on-Ice, NHL.com and Yahoo Sports.
