Game Preview #56: Devils vs the Philadelphia Flyers

The Matchup: The New Jersey Devils (19-29-7) versus the Philadelphia Flyers (24-23-8)

The Opposition Blog: Broad Street Hockey

The Time: 7:00 PM EST

The Broadcast: MS+2

The Devils will close out their season tonight with one final game against the Philadelphia Flyers. Neither team is a playoff contender and there’s little implication for draft position based on this game, so the whole motivation for tonight will simply be attempting to close out the season on a positive note. The Flyers have continued to struggle since losing the majority of their last meetings against the Devils. Since we last saw them they slapped the Penguins 7-1, but then proceeded to lose 7-3 the next day. They beat the Capitals 4-2, then lost to them in overtime 2-1 despite carrying a 1-0 lead through until the final 40 seconds of the third period. Hopefully, the Devils can continue the season tradition of walking over the Flyers and we can add one final tally to the win column before packing up for the offseason.

The Last Lineup:

The Devils:
Kuokkanen - Hughes - Sharangovitch
Zacha - Hischier - Bratt
Wood - McLeod - Bastian
Foote - Boqvist - Johnsson

Murray - Severson
Butcher - Siegenthaler
Bahl - Tennyson

Blackwood

The Flyers:

Giroux - Couturier - Konecny
Farabee - Hayes - Voracek
Van Riemsdyk - Laughton - Aubé-Kubel
Lindblom - Patrick - Allison

Provorov - Sanheim
Morin - Myers
York - Braun

Who starts for Philadelphia will be interesting to see, because it is their final game left to choose who will remain as their backup to Carter Hart for next season (assuming Brian Elliot is planning to re-sign once again). Given the ample experience they have seen from Elliot I am inclined to say we will see Alex Lyon in net, but it’s anyone’s guess.

Your Take

What are you looking to see from this team for their final game of the season? Who scores our last goal of the year? Leave your thoughts in the comments, and thanks for reading!