For all intents and purposes, Tuesday night is a playoff game at Wells Fargo Center. It’ll pretty much be that way the last seven home games and the additional eight games on the road.
There are 15 games remaining on the Flyers’ schedule and they’re three points back of Tuesday’s opponent, the Detroit Red Wings, for the Eastern Conference’s final playoff spot. The Flyers have two games in hand on Detroit, which has made the playoffs in each of the last 24 seasons. And the two teams meet once more in early April.
The pressure has been dialed up for a few weeks now, and the Flyers have been answering the bell. They’re 7-2-1 in their last 10 and have climbed into serious playoff contention.
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SIGN UP HERE “I think it’s been a few weeks now that we kind of take it one game at a time and every game is important,” center Sean Couturier said. “But tonight’s probably the most important game of the year so far. They’re right in front of us in the standings. If we want to make the playoffs we kind of need to beat them. It’s a playoff-type game tonight.”
The Red Wings, who have been banged up lately like the Flyers, are coming off a 1-0 defeat at the hands of the Toronto Maple Leafs Sunday at home. In a 3-2 overtime win over the New York Rangers Saturday, defenseman Niklas Kronwall was limited to 10 minutes of ice time and later an MRI revealed a slight sprain in his knee, putting him out 1-3 weeks.
The Flyers, of course, have been without Jakub Voracek for their last seven games. But they’re 5-1-1 in his absence.
Clearly, momentum is in the Flyers’ favor Tuesday night. But Flyers captain Claude Giroux isn’t convinced.
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“They’re a really good team,” Giroux said. “They have a lot of veterans that have been around a lot. Teams like that, it really doesn’t get to them. They’ve been to the Stanley Cup Final. They’ve been through all that. They can handle that kind of stuff. We gotta make sure we’re ready to go tonight.”
The luxury for the Flyers right now is having games in hand and upcoming games against teams in front of them. Seventh-seeded Pittsburgh comes to town Saturday. The Penguins enter Tuesday’s action four points clear of the Flyers and 14 games remaining on their schedule, three of which coming against the Flyers.
So five of the Flyers’ remaining 15 come against Pittsburgh and Detroit. A loss Tuesday night and a Penguins win against the Islanders would stunt the Flyers’ momentum.
“It gives us a chance to control our own destiny,” Wayne Simmonds said. “If we can get all those games, I think we have a pretty good chance of getting in. But we just gotta worry about ourselves and take care of what’s next, which is Detroit."
Mason gets the call
The Flyers will send Steve Mason to the net for the fifth straight game, marking the longest consecutive stretch of starts for the 27-year-old in a month, when Mason started six in a row from February 2-11.
After taking a backseat to Michal Neuvirth for five straight, Mason is 3-0-1 in four March starts with a .918 save percentage.
The Flyers have been playing some of their best defense of the season in front of him of late.
Projected lineup
Forwards
Wayne Simmonds – Claude Giroux – Brayden Schenn
Michael Raffl – Sean Couturier – Sam Gagner
Scott Laughton – Nick Cousins – Matt Read
Chris VandeVelde – Pierre-Edouard Bellemare – Ryan White
Defense
Mark Streit – Nick Schultz
Shayne Gostisbehere – Andrew MacDonald
Radko Gudas – Brandon Manning
Goalies
Steve Mason
Michal Neuvirth
Scratches
R.J. Umberger
Evgeny Medvedev
Jordan Weal
Injured
Michael Del Zotto (wrist, out for season)
Jakub Voracek (lower body, day to day)