Flyers at Sharks
The San Jose Sharks will be seeking to post consecutive wins for the first time in five weeks when they host the reeling Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday. San Jose snapped a four-game overall winless drought (0-2-2) as well as a four-game skid at home with Saturday's 6-4 victory over Pacific Division rival Anaheim. "There haven't been too many moments of our games so far this season where we can be happy and say, 'Let's build on this,'" Sharks forward Tommy Wingels said. "We haven't given ourselves that opportunity."
San Jose last won back-to-back games on Oct. 26-28 but history is on its side against the Flyers - the Sharks have lost only once in 15 meetings with Philadelphia dating to December 2000. The Flyers arrives in town in a deep rut, having lost eight of nine overall (1-7-1) and seven straight away from home (0-6-1) as it opens a four-game road trip that includes stops against Pacific Division powers Anaheim and Los Angeles. The Flyers did manage to post a 5-2 victory over the Sharks last season in San Jose.
TV: 10 p.m. ET, CSN Philadelphia, NBC Sports
ABOUT THE FLYERS (8-12-3): Despite the fact that Jakub Voracek is second to Sidney Crosby in the league scoring race with 32 points and captain Claude Giroux is five points behind his teammate, the Flyers have been blanked three times in their last seven games. During the nine-game slump, Voracek and Giroux provided all but two goals from Philadelphia's forwards, prompting team chairman Ed Snider to tell the Philadelphia Inquirer he's never seen anything like it. "It's not going to be an easy fix if we can't get more production out of our players," Snider said. "You can't be a one-line team and win in this league."
ABOUT THE SHARKS (11-10-4): Logan Couture spent part of his day Saturday at the hospital receiving antibiotics for a swollen eye that left him a question mark for that night's tilt, but he was back in the lineup and produced his second two-goal game of the season to spark the 6-4 win over the Ducks. "Probably his best game of the season in my opinion," Sharks coach Todd McLellan said of Couture. "He was all over the puck, he played well defensively, looked really good.” Wingels had a career-high four points in Saturday's six-goal eruption, which following a nine-game stretch in which the Sharks scored only 14 times.
OVERTIME
1. Sharks C Joe Thornton is one point behind Jeremy Roenick and Larry Murphy (1,216) for 40th place on the all-time list and has a 17-game point string versus the Flyers.
2. Philadelphia has allowed the opposition to score first in all 11 road games.
3. Sharks G Antti Niemi has split two career starts with a 2.32 goals-against average versus the Flyers.