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The Philadelphia Flyers face off against the Toronto Maple Leafs in what will be the last game of a long home stand for Toronto. They have a back-to-back, on the road, against a borderline dynasty—Chicago—tomorrow, starting a heavy road schedule against some very good teams.

The Leafs could use the points in the bank before the gruelling road trip starts, but the easy points have been anything but for this team this season, with a combined 5-7-2 record against below .500 teams.

The state of the Flyers D and goaltending situation (Steve Mason is out hurt) should have the high-scoring Leafs‘ eyes lighting up, but the Leafs top line in particular can’t fall into the trap of smelling blood and cheating for chances. The Leafs have been slowly but surely drifting away from the things that saw them start to improve elements of their possession game, but the good news is that the Flyers are pretty much in the same boat there.

Jake Gardiner is going to take a seat, always a controversial decision but perhaps considerably less so this time around given Gardiner’s recent lapses and minimal productivity. As Anthony Petrielli pointed out on Twitter, these lineup choices (Holzer over Gardiner) are often criticized in a vacuum depending on how the result goes, but the idea is to give Gardiner the perspective of the press box, hope he responds, and that both the team and the player benefit in the long run.

This is a good chance to get right back to their winning, high-scoring ways if the Leafs don’t take the challenge lightly and show up prepared to battle.

Philadelphia Flyers Projected Lineup

Michael Raffl – Claude Giroux – Jakub Voracek
(8-1-9) – (8-27-35) – (12-26-38) (28g, 82pts)
Brayden Schenn – Scott Laughton – Wayne Simmonds
(9-13-22) – (1-3-4) – (14-8-22) (24g, 48pts)
R.J. Umberger – Sean Couturier – Matt Read
(2-3-5) – (7-8-15) – (3-8-11) (12g, 31pts)
Zac Rinaldo – Pierre-Edouard Bellemare – Vincent Lecavalier
(0-1-1) – (3-2-5) – (2-4-6) (5g, 12pts)

Nicklas Grossmann – Mark Streit
(2-5-7) – (4-15-19) (6g, 26pts)
Nick Schultz – Braydon Coburn
(0-7-7) – (1-2-3) (1g, 10pts)
Andrew MacDonald – Luke Schenn
(1-5-6) – (1-1-2) (2g, 8pts)

Ray Emery
(5W-4L-1OT)
Rob Zepp

Scratched: Chris VandeVelde, Michael Del Zotto, Carlo Colaiacovo
Injured: Kimmo Timonen (blood clots), Ryan White (chest), Steve Mason (back)

Toronto Maple Leafs Projected Lineup

James van Riemsdyk – Tyler Bozak – Phil Kessel
(13-15-28) – (12-15-27) – (17-17-34)
(42G, 89PTS TOT)
Daniel Winnik – Nazem Kadri – Mike Santorelli
(1-12-13) – (9-11-20) – (6-16-22)
(16G, 55PTS TOT)
Joffrey Lupul – Peter Holland – David Clarkson
(7-5-12) – (7-7-14) – (8-3-11)
(22G, 37PTS TOT)
David Booth – Trevor Smith – Richard Panik
(1-1-2) – (0-2-2) – (6-1-7)
(7G, 11PTS TOT)

Dion Phaneuf – Cody Franson
(2-15-16) – (5-15-20)
(7G, 36PTS TOT)
Morgan Rielly – Stephane Robidas
(4-6-10) – (0-4-4)
(4G, 14PTS TOT)
Jake Gardiner – Roman Polak
(2-6-8) – (3-2-5)
(5G, 13PTS TOT)

Jonathan Bernier
(13-6-3, 2.53GAA, .922SV%)
James Reimer

Scratched: Korbinian Holzer
Injured: Leo Komarov (concussion)

Status report: Komarov has missed nine games with a concussion and is not expected to play Saturday. He skated with the team for the first time since being hurt Friday … The Maple Leafs adjusted their lines Thursday against the Hurricanes putting Lupul with Bozak and Kessel and van Riemsdyk on a line with Kadri and Santorelli.

Who’s hot: Kessel (four goals, three assists) and van Riemsdyk (three goals, four assists) each have seven points in their past six games … Bernier is 4-1-0 in his past five games with a .951 save percentage … Simmonds has four goals in his past six games … Giroux has a goal and seven assists in his past seven games.

Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Philadelphia Flyers - Head to Head

Head to Head:Maple LeafsFlyers
Record19-9-3 (.641% - 8th)11-14-5 (.452 - 24th)
Goal Differential+19 (6th)-11 (22nd)
GF/G3.38 (1st)2.61 (18th)
GA/G2.81 (23rd)2.81 (21t)
PP20.5% (9th)24.0% (5th)
PK83.5 (10th)75.5% (29th)
SF/G30.3 (15th)29.3 (21st)
SA/G33.9 (27th)31.2 (23rd)
5v5 SF/G28.4 (20th)26.8 (26th)
5v5 SA/G32.9 (27th)30.4 (24th)
5v5 CF%45.4% (27th) 47.2% (25th)
5v5 FF%46.1% (27th)47% (24th)
5v5 Sh%9.70% (2nd)6.89% (23rd)
5v5 Sv%92.70% (12th)92.85% (9th)
FO%49.7% (15th)50.9% (10th)
PP=Power Play %
PK=Penalty Kill %
GF/G=Goals for per game
GA/G=Goals against per game
SF/G=Shots for per game
SA/G=Shots against per game
Sh%=Shooting %
Sv%=Save percentage
F0%=Faceoff percentage
CF%=Corsi for % (shot attempts: shots, blocked shots, missed shots)
FF%=Fenwick for% (shots+missed shots)
VIANHL
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