Flyers at Blues
Ken Hitchcock attempts to become the fourth coach in NHL history to record 700 career wins when his St. Louis Blues host the skidding Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday. Hitchcock is on the cusp of joining Scotty Bowman (1,244), Al Arbour (782) and Joel Quenneville (745) as the only coaches to reach the 700-win plateau after seeing St. Louis improve to 4-1-1 in the last six with a 5-4 victory over Winnipeg on Tuesday. The Blues' lone regulation setback in that stretch came at the hands of one of Hitchcock's former clubs in the Flyers, who followed up their 3-1 triumph last Thursday by dropping three in a row to nearly extinguish their already flickering postseason aspirations.
Jaden Schwartz scored the lone goal in that contest for the Blues and has three tallies and as many assists during his four-game point streak. Vladimir Tarasenko also has six points (two goals, four assists) during that run for St. Louis, which resides two points behind Central Division-leading Nashville and also remains in the conversation for the Presidents' Trophy. Potential playoff talk has been curbed in favor of the 2015 draft for Philadelphia, which followed up a late collapse against Boston on Saturday with lackluster losses to New Jersey and Dallas.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, CSP (Philadelphia), Fox Sports Midwest (St. Louis)
ABOUT THE FLYERS (28-27-13): Steve Mason was up to the task by making 37 saves on Tuesday, but lashed out at his own team following a 2-1 setback to the Stars. "There was no desperation. It's tough to come in the room after games like that," Mason told the Philadelphia Inquirer. "I'm embarrassed and I hope everyone else is embarrassed, too, because to play like that at home in a situation where we have to come up big ... and we come up like that." With 14 games remaining on their schedule, the Flyers reside nine points behind Boston for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
ABOUT THE BLUES (42-19-5): Defenseman Barret Jackman offered no apologies after his seemingly harmless wrist shot from near center ice eluded Jets netminder Ondrej Pavelec with 63 seconds remaining on Tuesday. "I just tried to get the puck in and give our forwards an opportunity," Jackman said after snapping his 36-game goalless drought. "It so happened their (goalie) lost track of it. We'll take it any way we can." Hitchcock told reporters that Brian Elliott will start versus Philadelphia while defenseman Jay Bouwmeester (illness) and veteran Olli Jokinen (upper body) are likely to play after taking part in Wednesday's optional practice.
OVERTIME
1. Philadelphia RW Wayne Simmonds scored the go-ahead goal versus St. Louis last week, but has been held without a point in three straight contests.
2. The Blues thwarted both short-handed situations versus the Flyers last week and have killed off 17-of-18 power plays in the last six games.
3. Philadelphia LW Michael Raffl also scored versus St. Louis in the first meeting and has three goals and two assists in his last five contests.