Flyers at Blues
The Philadelphia Flyers are looking to prevent a repeat of last season's post-Christmas break swoon when they open a three-game road trip against the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday. Philadelphia, which is 11-2-1 in its last 14 contests, headed into last season's break on an 8-2-2 run before mustering just five goals during a fruitless three-game trek through California.
St. Louis skidded into the break with a 2-4-1 stretch but looks to turn its fortunes around when it opens a six-game homestand. The Blues boast a 13-2-4 mark at Scottrade Center this season and held a near-10-year run of dominance over the Flyers at home before captain Claude Giroux collected a goal and two assists in Philadelphia's 4-2 triumph on Dec. 10, 2015. Wayne Simmonds tallied twice in a 4-3 win over St. Louis 11 days later, with Blues forward Robby Fabbri scoring in both contests. The 20-year-old Fabbri has heated up after a slow start, recording four goals and seven assists in his last 13 games after posting four and five, respectively, over his previous 21.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, NBCSN
ABOUT THE FLYERS (20-12-4): While his team enjoyed the Christmas break, coach Dave Hakstol was busy shuffling bodies around with the team's best defensive forward Sean Couturier (knee) expected to draw back into the lineup for the first time since Nov. 22. Promising Taylor Leier was elevated to the top line to replace the injured Michael Raffl (lower body) and veteran defenseman Nick Schultz is likely to end a career-high stretch of 22 consecutive healthy scratches to replace Brandon Manning (undisclosed). Brayden Schenn, however, is expected to stay put as a second-line center as the well-traveled forward appears to have found his niche at that spot (six goals, one assist in last 11 games).
ABOUT THE BLUES (18-12-5): The Christmas break provided Paul Stastny a bit of a breather, with the center returning to practice on Tuesday following a one-game absence due to an upper-body injury. "I think it was just a wear and tear issue and as (last week's game vs. Dallas) went on, it just got worse and worse and it was a tightness," Stastny told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Fellow forward David Perron tallied in back-to-back contests prior to the break and has three points in his last four after being held off the scoresheet in each of his previous eight games.
OVERTIME
1. Philadelphia's potent power play has hit a snag by going 0-for-15 in the last six games.
2. Blues G Carter Hutton will draw just his third start in December when he faces the Flyers, against whom he stopped 27 shots to pick up the win in his lone career meeting.
3. Philadelphia rookie D Ivan Provorov is a plus-8 over his last 14 games.