Flyers vs. Sabres: Projected lines, game notes, and three things to watch

The Philadelphia Flyers will host the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday night at the Wells Fargo Center. After a disappointing weekend against the Penguins and Capitals, this Sabres-Flyers game has extra importance for the Orange and Black.

The Sabres (6-14-3, 4-7-1 on the road) are 2-7-1 in their last 10 games and have lost six in a row. They have the fewest points in the league.

The Flyers (12-7-3, 6-3-2 at home) are looking to bounce back from a setback this weekend.

Projected lines and pairs

Michael Raffl remains out with a hand injury.

James van Riemsdyk – Sean Couturier –Joel Farabee
Scott Laughton – Kevin Hayes – Travis Konecny
Oskar Lindblom – Claude Giroux – Jakub Voracek
Connor Bunnaman – Nolan Patrick – Nicolas Aube-Kubel

Philippe Myers appears to be healthy as he will play again tonight. Erik Gustafsson comes out of the lineup for Robert Hagg.

Ivan Provorov – Phil Myers
Travis Sanheim – Justin Braun
Robert Hagg – Shayne Gostisbehere

Carter Hart will be between the pipes for the Flyers.

Carter Hart
Brian Elliott

Follow us on Twitter (@PhillyHockeyNow) and keep an eye out for lineup updates as we get closer to game time.

Game Notes

• The Flyers are 3-1-0 against the Sabres this season, including back-to-back shutout wins last weekend in Buffalo.

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• The Sabres haven’t scored more than two goals in their past six games and have only reached the three-goal mark in 3 of their last 13 games.
• Jack Eichel will miss tonight’s game with an upper-body injury

Three Things To Watch

1. Shutout streak against Sabres

The Flyers have not allowed a goal to the Buffalo Sabres since Victor Olofsson scored late in the third period on January 18th: three games and 1:11 ago. That is a shutout streak of 181:11 against the Sabres.

Carter Hart was only in net for one game of the streak, but he’ll be back between the pipes tonight. He made 28 saves in the shutout win on February 28th.

2. Must-win game in March

It may seem crazy, but this is as close to a must-win game you can get at this point in the season. The Flyers are coming off of two disappointing losses with two more games against the Capitals after this. The Sabres are the worst team in the league and Jack Eichel is out tonight.

The Flyers need to get two points to get back on track before facing Washington again. Ideally, it’d be another easy win against the Sabres with the Flyers finding their game again. They played their best hockey of the season last weekend and that would be good to get back to as this busy month of March rolls along.

3. Get the power play going

The Flyers are getting scoring chances on the power play, but they aren’t converting them into goals. They are just 7 for 54 (12.96%) in their last 15 games and 14 for 78 (17.95%) for the season on the power play. You want to see that number at least above 20% if not higher.

The Sabres may be the worst team in the league, but they can kill penalties well. Their 82.4% penalty-killing rate is ninth-best in the NHL, and they’ve killed off all eight of the Flyers’ power plays against them this season. The Flyers need to find a power-play unit that works and get it going as we get into the thick of the season.

The Flyers and Sabres are set for a 7:00 p.m. puck drop on Tuesday night.

Photo Credit: Heather Barry Images