Flyers at Wild preview

FLYERS (17-9-5) at WILD (15-12-5)
7 p.m. ET; FS-N, NBCSP, NHL.TV

The Wild are 8-0-3 in their past 11 games at home, and 8-1-3 in their past 12 games overall.
Philadelphia will play its first game since learning forward Oskar Lindblom was diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma, a form of bone cancer. He is expected to miss the rest of the season while receiving treatment for the disease.
The Flyers have lost two of their past three games but are 7-2-1 in their past 10 games.
Each team is playing the first game of a back to back. The Flyers are at the Winnipeg Jets and the Wild are at the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday.

Players to watch

Flyers forward Jakub Voracek has nine points (two goals, seven assists) in his past nine games.
Wild forward Zach Parise has 12 points (eight goals, four assists) in his past 14 games.

They said it

"(Minnesota is) a good team. After coming out slowly out of the blocks they've been one of the better teams in the NHL. They've got some good veteran players. Their top line right now is playing extremely well. So it's going to be a hard game for us." -- Flyers coach Alain Vigneault
"We lost both games to (Philadelphia) last year. They're playing almost as well as any team in the League. They haven't played since they lost 3-1 to Colorado, which was Wednesday, so they're going to be well rested. I find them to be a very challenging team because they can really skate now. They're not the Broad Street Bullies of old. They're a fast, fast team."-- Wild coach Bruce Boudreau

Flyers projected lineup

Claude Giroux -- Sean Couturier -- Jakub Voracek
Scott Laughton -- Kevin Hayes -- Joel Farabee
James van Riemsdyk -- Morgan Frost -- Tyler Pitlick
David Kase -- Mikhail Vorobyev -- Chris Stewart
Ivan Provorov -- Matt Niskanen
Travis Sanheim -- Justin Braun
Shayne Gostisbehere -- Philippe Myers
Carter Hart
Brian Elliott
Scratched: Robert Hagg
Injured: Travis Konecny (concussion), Oskar Lindblom (Ewing's sarcoma), Nolan Patrick (migraine disorder), Michael Raffl (broken finger)

Wild projected lineup

Jason Zucker -- Eric Staal -- Mats Zuccarello
Zach Parise -- Ryan Donato -- Kevin Fiala
Jordan Greenway -- Joel Eriksson Ek -- Luke Kunin
Marcus Foligno -- Victor Rask -- Ryan Hartman
Ryan Suter -- Matt Dumba
Carson Soucy -- Jonas Brodin
Brennan Menell -- Brad Hunt
Alex Stalock
Kaapo Kahkonen
Scratched:Nick Seeler, Gerald Mayhew, Devan Dubnyk
Injured: Jared Spurgeon (upper body), Mikko Koivu (lower body), Greg Pateryn (lower body)

Status report

The Flyers did not hold a morning skate. … Dubnyk, Spurgeon and Koivu will be on the Wild's three-game road trip which begins Sunday.

Stat pack

Giroux has a two-game point streak and points in four of his past five games (two goals, two assists). …This is Hartman's first game against the Flyers since signing as a free agent with Minnesota on July 1. Hartman had six points (two goals, four assists) in 19 games with the Flyers last season. …Boudreau needs one win to tie Marc Crawford (556) for 22nd place on NHL all-time coaching list.