(Photo: Joel Auerbach/Getty Images)
There are ten regular season games left for the Philadelphia Flyers. Seven of their remaining ten games are against teams currently in the top nine teams in the Eastern Conference. Tonight is one of those games. The Eastern Conference’s third seed and Southeast Division leading Florida Panthers (35-23-13) visit the Wells Fargo Center. The Panthers are coming off of a four game homestand which they took all four games. They beat the likes of the Sabres and Bruins. The Panthers come in hot. The Flyers (42-22-8) are also playing some of their best hockey of the year. They are coming off of a three point weekend and are 8-1-1 in their last ten. Sunday’s games was an enormous boost as the Flyers ended the Penguins 11 game win streak when Scott Hartnell beat Marc-Andre Fleury with .9 seconds left in overtime.
Ilya Bryzgalov continued his stellar play on Sunday making 38 saves and keeping the Flyers in the game despite trailing for the majority of the game. Bryzgalov was named the NHL’s First Start of the Week for the second straight week. Bryzgalov will be in net again tonight. In the past week, Bryzgalov is 3-0-1 with a 1.44 GAA and a .950 SV%. Overall in the month of March, Bryzgalov is 8-0-1 with 1.19 GAA and a .960 SV%. Scott Hartnell has been hot of late. He notched his 34th and 35th goals on Sunday against the Penguins. He is tied for third place in the NHL in goals scored. These two teams met 12 days ago as the Flyers won 5-0 at the Wells Fargo Center.
The Florida Panthers are a very familiar team. Former Flyers Scottie Upshall and Kris Versteeg are both contributing forwards for Florida. In addition to Upshall and Versteeg, Flyers fans probably recognize John Madden, Tomas Kopecky, and Brian Campbell as they all were members of the 2009-2010 Chicago Blackhawks that beat the Flyers in six games in the Stanley Cup Final. In goal for the Panthers, Jose Theodore might be the only goaltender that is equally as hot as Ilya Bryzgalov. Theodore is 4-0-1 in his last five games and boasts a gaudy .953 SV%. He has allowed two goals or fewer in his last four starts and 12 of his last 15 starts.
Puck drops tonight at 7:00 pm at the Wells Fargo Center. The game can be seen on Comcast Sportsnet and heard on 94.1 WIP.
-Steve Dolan
Follow Steve on Twitter @SDolan3
Follow Whiz Wit on Twitter @WhizWitSports
Ilya Bryzgalov continued his stellar play on Sunday making 38 saves and keeping the Flyers in the game despite trailing for the majority of the game. Bryzgalov was named the NHL’s First Start of the Week for the second straight week. Bryzgalov will be in net again tonight. In the past week, Bryzgalov is 3-0-1 with a 1.44 GAA and a .950 SV%. Overall in the month of March, Bryzgalov is 8-0-1 with 1.19 GAA and a .960 SV%. Scott Hartnell has been hot of late. He notched his 34th and 35th goals on Sunday against the Penguins. He is tied for third place in the NHL in goals scored. These two teams met 12 days ago as the Flyers won 5-0 at the Wells Fargo Center.
The Florida Panthers are a very familiar team. Former Flyers Scottie Upshall and Kris Versteeg are both contributing forwards for Florida. In addition to Upshall and Versteeg, Flyers fans probably recognize John Madden, Tomas Kopecky, and Brian Campbell as they all were members of the 2009-2010 Chicago Blackhawks that beat the Flyers in six games in the Stanley Cup Final. In goal for the Panthers, Jose Theodore might be the only goaltender that is equally as hot as Ilya Bryzgalov. Theodore is 4-0-1 in his last five games and boasts a gaudy .953 SV%. He has allowed two goals or fewer in his last four starts and 12 of his last 15 starts.
Puck drops tonight at 7:00 pm at the Wells Fargo Center. The game can be seen on Comcast Sportsnet and heard on 94.1 WIP.
-Steve Dolan
Follow Steve on Twitter @SDolan3
Follow Whiz Wit on Twitter @WhizWitSports
RSS Feed
