Flyers at Coyotes preview
Philadelphia tries to avoid third loss in row; Raanta to make seventh straight start for Arizona
by Alan Robinson / NHL.com Independent Correspondent
FLYERS (22-14-5) at COYOTES (23-16-4)
8 p.m. ET; FS-A, FS-A PLUS, NBCSP, NHL.TV
The Game
Goalie Antti Raanta will make his seventh consecutive start when the Arizona Coyotes go for their third straight win, against the Philadelphia Flyers at Gila River Arena on Saturday.
Raanta is 3-3-0 with a 2.85 goals-against average and .916 save percentage in his past six starts for the Coyotes, who have won two straight after going 1-4-0 in their previous five games.
The Flyers will try to avoid their third loss in a row; they're 1-3-0 in their past four games following a four-game winning streak. Philadelphia has allowed four power-play goals in as many opportunities in losing its past two games, giving up four goals in the first period of each.
Players to watch
Flyers forward Claude Giroux has six points (two goals, four assists) in a five-game point streak and 17 points (seven goals, 10 assists) in 17 games against Arizona.
Coyotes forward Taylor Hall has 23 points (10 goals, 13 points) in 19 games against Philadelphia.
They said it
"We need to work on a few things, iron out a few details. If you have good structure, it comes down to commitment. We'll get that structure fixed and we'll get back to being aggressive and seeing better results." -- Flyers defenseman Matt Niskanen on Philadelphia's penalty-killing unit
"It's tiring working in those pressure situations. But I just feel that [Raanta] deserves to do a workload for us, and it's paid off the last few games." -- Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet on goalie Antti Raanta, who will make his seventh straight start since Darcy Kuemper was injured
Flyers projected lineup
Claude Giroux -- Sean Couturier -- Jakub Voracek
James van Riemsdyk -- Kevin Hayes -- Travis Konecny
Joel Farabee -- Scott Laughton -- Tyler Pitlick
Michael Raffl -- Mikhail Vorobyev -- Nicolas Aube-Kubel
Ivan Provorov -- Matt Niskanen
Shayne Gostisbehere -- Justin Braun
Travis Sanheim -- Philippe Myers
Carter Hart
Brian Elliott
Scratched: Robert Hagg, Andy Andreoff, Chris Stewart
Injured: Oskar Lindblom (Ewing's sarcoma)
Coyotes projected lineup
Taylor Hall -- Christian Dvorak -- Conor Garland
Clayton Keller -- Carl Soderberg -- Nick Schmaltz
Lawson Crouse -- Derek Stepan -- Phil Kessel
Vinnie Hinostroza -- Brad Richardson -- Christian Fischer
Oliver Ekman-Larsson -- Jason Demers
Jakob Chychrun -- Alex Goligoski
Jordan Oesterle -- Ilya Lyubushkin
Antti Raanta
Adin Hill
Scratched: Michael Grabner, Kyle Capobianco
Injured: Niklas Hjalmarsson (leg), Darcy Kuemper (lower body)
Status report
Hjalmarsson, out since Oct. 12, is practicing in a non-contact role and is expected to return soon. … Kuemper is back on the ice but is not yet practicing. … Grabner will be a healthy scratch for the third consecutive game.
Stat pack
Voracek has 11 points (two goals, nine assists) in his past eight games. … Couturier has 10 points (four goals, six assists) in his past nine games. … The Coyotes are 6-2-3 in their past 11 games against the Flyers. … Raanta's .920 save percentage is tied for the fifth best in NHL history among all goalies with at least 100 games played. … Schmaltz has 10 points (one goal, nine assists) in his past eight games.