High-Scoring Teams Clash As Panthers Wrap Brief Road Trip In Philly
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PHILADELPHIA (CBSMiami) – Two teams that have shown a lot of upside so far this season will face off Tuesday night in Philadelphia.
The Florida Panthers (2-2-0) lead the NHL in shots per game by a wide margin, averaging a whopping 42.0 through four games.
Florida will bring its fast-paced, exciting brand of hockey against a Philadelphia Flyers team fresh off an 8-2 beatdown of Metropolitan Division juggernaut Washington on Saturday.
A high-scoring affair could be in the cards as both teams are amongst the NHL leaders in goals per game, with Philly averaging 4.20, good for second in the league, and the Panthers are scoring 4.00 a night, which ranks fifth.
The Flyers (3-2-0) are getting strong play from their top line, which now features responsible two-way center Sean Couturier between Jakub Voracek and Claude Giroux.
The unit has combined for six goals, 16 assists and a plus-10 rating, though that's mostly due to Couturier's plus-8.
On Monday new Panthers head coach Bob Boughner shook up the team's forward lines, adding veteran Radim Vrbata to the top unit with Aleksander Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau.
The highly skilled pair of Barkov and Huberdeau had been skating with KHL transplant Evgenii Dadonov but the line was struggling in the defensive zone and Boughner, who tinkered with the new combo during games last week, made the change official.
"I think it's a good thing, keep these guys fresh" Boughner said Monday. "Obviously losing [on Saturday in Pittsburgh], we can't have that. We don't want to lose two in a row so we have to change some things up. We want to make sure we're keeping things fresh and you can always go back to what we had but I liked the look of the lines today."
Another big change Boughner made was adding rookie Owen Tippett to Florida's third line with Jared McCann and Jamie McGinn.
Tippett was selected tenth overall in this June's entry draft but has yet to make his NHL Debut despite making the Panthers' Opening Night roster.
"We talked about in the last little while that I wanted to get [Tippett] into a game," Boughner said. "Obviously that changes everything, once he gets in."
When asked previously about inserting Tippett into the lineup, Boughner had simply said he like the way the team was playing and wasn't ready to shake things up yet.
Clearly Saturday's loss in Pittsburgh was the push he needed to make a few changes.
Still, Boughner isn't putting a lot of emphasis on who is skating on what line any given day.
"We should have interchangeable parts and we shouldn't have a problem with doing that," he said. "I think a lot of the good teams have that ability.
"It's not like I disliked our lineup, I was just looking for a change."
GOING 5-HOLE
- Panthers goalie Roberto Luongo needs one win to move into sole possession of fourth place on the NHL's all-time list. He's currently tied with Curtis Joseph at 454 wins.
- The Flyers are near the bottom of the league in penalty kill but their power play is ranked seventh.
- Last season Philadelphia went 3-0-0 against the Panthers.
- Forward Nick Bjugstad (2 goals, 2 assists, plus-4) has been one of Florida's best players this season and was moved from the third line to the second line on Monday.
- Flyers defensemen Shane Gostisbehere has five assists over his last two games.
