Penguins / Flyers Preview 7/28/2020: Hockey is Back! (Exposure, anyway)

WHO: Pittsburgh Penguins (0-0) “at” Philadelphia Flyers (0-0) [Philly has been tabbed as the home team in this game]

When: 4:00 pm this

How to look: AT&T Sportsnet in the Pittsburgh Observation Area, NBC Sports Philadelphia at the Unfortunate End of the Community, NBCSN Across the United States

Opponent track: After today’s only show, the Flyers head to the round robin area for the top four teams in the conference. Philly will start playing Boston on Sunday, August 2. They then face Washington on Thursday, August 6 and Tampa on Sunday, August 8.

Feathers path ahead: After this, it will be show time for the Pens who enter an elimination series against the Canadiens. The first match of the qualification round against Montreal begins on Saturday at 8 pm

Season series: Pittsburgh went 2-1 vs PHI this year, the Pens beat the Flyers 7-1 in October, Philly won 3-0 on January 21, and Pittsburgh scored an 4-3 overtime victory (on a goal by Sidney Crosby OT hahaha)) on January 31. There was a game canceled as a result of the interruption of the season.

SBN team counterpart: Our friends at Broad Street Hockey will have you covered from Philadelphia’s perspective

Statistics

—After a slight injury scare last week that caused a brief amount of lost time, Carter Hart skated on Sunday and considered himself good to keep going.

—The Flyers were an interesting team in that the stars gave up a bit of personal wagons (Voracek and Giroux most notably) but the team’s balance improved.

Break into a new core

As BSH’s Kelly shows, they will be a first for many Flyer players in August.

When the playoffs begin, the Flyers will have some young men playing great minutes and pivotal roles.

From Carter Hart in goal to Philippe Myers and Travis Sanheim in defense, and in front with boys like Nicolas Aube-Kubel and potentially Farabee; the Flyers certainly have youth and inexperience at key locations for these playoffs.

Hart will play his first professional postseason action the moment he steps on the ice, the same goes for Myers, while Sanheim was part of four games during the 2017-18 playoffs against the Penguins, but nothing like the high situations. leverage where you will play. as part of the Flyers’ second matchup behind Provorov and Matt Niskanen.

Although the Flyers have veteran options to turn to in case some of their prominent youngsters falter, they have been at their best with these young men playing big roles this season thus far, and they wouldn’t be as dynamic without them in key roles. .

Possible lines (based on Sunday practice)

Forward

Claude Giroux – Sean Couturier – Jakub Voracek

Scott Laughton – Kevin Hayes – Travis Konecny

James van Riemsdyk – Derek Grant -Tyler Pitlick

Michael Raffl / Joel Farabee – Nate Thompson- Nic Aube-Kubel

Defending

Ivan Provorov / Matt Niskanen

Travis Sanheim / Philippe Myers

Robert Hagg / Justin Braun

-Shayne Gotisbehere, a healthy scratch? Except for a change of practice lines, it seems like that might be what they’re working for.

And now for the feathers …

Possible lines (based on yesterday’s practice)

Forward

Jake Guentzel – Sidney Crosby – Conor Sheary

Jason Zucker – Evgeni Malkin – Bryan Rust

Patrick Marleau – Jared McCann –Patric Hornqvist

Zach Aston-Reese – Teddy blueger – Brandon Tanev

Defending

Brian Dumoulin / / Kris Letang

Marcus Pettersson / / John Marino

Jack Johnson / Justin Schultz

Expected scratches: Anthony Angello, Kevin CzuczmanAdam JohnsonPierre-Olivier Joseph, Sam Lafferty, Emil Larmi, Juuso Riikola, Evan Rodrigues, Chad Ruhwedel, Casey DeSmith, Phil Varone

—- It is unknown and speculative if Crosby will play, but hockey is back, why stop hoping now? Sid himself said over the weekend that he hoped to practice with the team on Monday and play on Tuesday if all went well … And he completed the first part of that yesterday and did so without “restrictions.” So ideally, you can wrap those plans up by playing in this exhibit to hone on Saturday.

“Hockey is finally back!” After 53 years as a successful franchise, there isn’t much news for the Pittsburgh Penguins, but these are unprecedented times. Therefore, the team plays its first somewhat competitive game in the calendar month of July, ever.

—- And still, who knows what we’ll see exactly. The players themselves probably don’t even know at this point what it will be like to play an NHL level game in a totally empty building. At first it will be strange, and since this is an exhibition, surely the first shift or the first five minutes or the first period will be extremely strange for everyone involved. And it’s fair to include fans in that too. No one knows what will happen, nor the quality of the play, nor the level of intensity. There are still pens and flyers there, so you think he’ll have some bad blood! And yet it remains literally the first dive in unknown waters. Welcome back NHL hockey and let’s see how this works.