Tag: NHL

San Jose Sharks podcast with Mary Lisa: Sharks get great defense against Blues; SJ take on Canucks in Vancouver Monday night

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The San Jose Sharks Mikael Granlund (64) congratulates Sharks goaltender (36) Kaapo Kahkonen on making 44 saves out of 45 shots against at SAP Center on Thu Nov 16, 2023 (AP News photo)

On the SJ Sharks podcast with Mary Lisa:

#1 Mary Lisa the San Jose Sharks (3-13-1) lit up the lamp against St Louis Blues (8-6-1) for four goals in the second period on Thursday night at SAP Center in San Jose.

#2 The Sharks got scoring from Luke Lunin, Givani Smith and William Eklund with a goal each and Mike Hoffman added two goals this is the kind of offense the Sharks have not seen too much of this early season.

#3 The Sharks Ryan Carpenter helped out with two assists and his veteran experience has helped the Sharks with a game like this a three goal win over the decent Blues team.

#4 Between the pipes for San Jose goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen stopped 44 shots and allowed just one St Louis goal.

#5 The Sharks open a brief two game road trip on Monday night against the Vancouver Canucks (12-4-1) a 7:00pm PT face off at the Rogers Centre in Vancouver. The Sharks head to Seattle against the Kraken on Wed Nov 22 at Climate Pledge Arena.

Join Mary Lisa for the Sharks podcasts each Saturday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Sharks Beat Blues In Decisive 5-1 Victory; Three Game Skid Comes To An End

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The San Jose Sharks had lots to be happy about as they’re offense was on as they defeated the visiting St Louis Blues at SAP Center in San Jose on Thu Nov 16, 2023 (photo from Hockey News)

Thursday, November 16th, 2023

By Troy Ewers

San Jose, CA – It’s the San Jose Sharks against the St. Louis Blues in another regular season game and the Sharks are still looking for their third win. The positive for SJ right now in this wild season is that Tomas Hertl leads the Sharks in points and after last game he’s tied with Owen Nolan (206) for fifth on Sharks’ all-time goals list and can take over the spot after tonight. 

The first period was one of the strongest periods for the Sharks this season. Two minutes into the game former St. Louis player Mike Hoffman scored in the slot off a pass from Nico Sturm that put the Sharks up early, 1-0 San Jose.

Last game against the Florida Panthers, Hoffman scored his first goal of the season and now comes back in the building and gets his second. The Sharks had a way stronger attack this period than they did at any point last game plus there’s a sense of chemistry that the Sharks have been looking for from this group.

Another bright spot about this first period was Kaapo Kahkonen who blocked 11 shots this period, but had a couple saves that got big applause from the Sharks crowd. 

San Jose blew the doors open this second period with four goals and it was in outstanding fashion. 17 seconds in Nikita Okhotiuk hits a slapshot and it’s deflected by William Eklund and he gets the second goal. Eklund’s third goal of the season 2-0 SJ.

The rally continued from an “unlikely” source, Givani Smith got his first goal of the season with a wrist shot (assisted by Kunin & Carpenter), 3-0 SJ. A minute after that Luke Kunin scored making it 4-0 and the Blues changed goalies from Joel Hofer to Jordan Binnington, but the game didn’t change even though the goalies did.

The Blues were deflated, but San Jose wasn’t, they were amplified to a level unseen all season. 13:45 into the period and the Sharks scored again. Hoffman got his second goal on a breakaway and the score became 5-0 all the way through the rest of the period.

This second period wasn’t just a showcase of SJ’s best stuff, but it was an improvement on the faults that Coach Quinn wanted them to fix and it seems like they did exactly that.

Kaapo’s continued his great performance stopping everything in his path early in the third period. At this point in the game six Sharks players had multi points (Okhotiuk, Hoffman, Smith, Carpenter, Zadina, and Kunin) and on top of that this was Kunin’s third consecutive game with a goal.

Smith’s goal was the 300th goal scored in franchise history and all these positives resulted in probably the best game of this Sharks season so far. The Sharks couldn’t end their night in a shutout that’s a fairy tale, the Blues get a goal with about six minutes left in the game, but Kaapo still had 39 saves by the time of the goal. 5-1. The clock ran down and the game ended with this 5-1 score and a happy San Jose fan base.

The Sharks get a deserved break before their next game which is November 20th against the Vancouver Canucks Rogers Centre in Vancouver.

NHL podcast with Len Shapiro: Thompson week to week for Sabres; Canucks Soucy out 6-8 weeks with lower body injury; plus more news

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The Buffalo Sabres center Tage Thompson is week to week due to a upper body injury he got playing against the Boston Bruins on Tue Nov 14, 2023 (AP News file photo)

On the NHL podcast with Len Shapiro:

#1 Buffalo Sabres center Tage Thompson is listed as week to week with an upper body injury that he sustained against the Boston Bruins. Thompson stopped a shot from the Bruins Charlie McAvoy in the second period. The Sabres were on the penalty kill. Thompson was came up injured in the Buffalo zone Thompson did tough it out through the play and left the game at 11:05.

#2 Vancouver Canucks defenseman Carson Soucy who blocked a shot from the Montreal Canadiens with his left foot. Soucy is listed out for the next six to eight weeks with a lower body injury. Soucy missed the first two games this season and now will miss almost two months of play.

#3 Len, anytime you lose your goaltender the head coach, the goalie coach, and the rest fall in line of worry what will they do next. The Washington Capitals goalie Darcy Kuemper was injured in practice when he was hit by a puck in an unprotected are of his leg from a shot in practice. Caps head coach Spencer Harbery said it’s not an ideal situation and it was a shot from behind Kuemper that hit him said Harbery.

#4 Len, the Philadelphia Flyers goalie Carter Hart had an impressive return. Hart was out with an injury for the last two weeks came back and stopped 31 shots against the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena in Carolina. Hart was crucial between the pipes on his return who was out due to a back injury and missed five games since Nov 1st against the Buffalo Sabres in a 5-2 loss.

#5 The Pittsburgh Penguins Kris Letang is one point short of reaching his 700th career point. Letang would become the 29th NHL player to join the 700 career points club. Letang is the third active NHL player that would have 700 point joining Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Brent Burns (844 points, 248 goals and 596 assists) and the Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Erik Karlsson (776 points, 183 goals and 593 assists). Ironically Len the two players with well over 700 career points are both defenseman in Burns and Karlsson two former San Jose Sharks.

Join Len Shapiro does the NHL podcasts each Thursdays at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Sharks Lose 5-3 to Panthers In Their Return Home

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The San Jose Sharks center Luke Kunin (left) celebrates scoring against Florida Panthers goaltender Anthony Stolarz (41) in the third period at SAP Center in San Jose on Tue Nov 14, 2023 (AP News photo)

Tuesday, November 14th, 2023

By Troy Ewers

San Jose, CA – At the SAP Center it’s the San Jose Sharks who are looking for a third win on the season against the Florida Panthers who are 9-4-1 and second in the Atlantic division. The Sharks lost their last game against the Ducks 4-1, but San Jose had their eyes set on last year’s Eastern Conference champions but couldn’t seal the deal in a two goal 5-3 loss.

Tomas Hertl leads the Sharks with 10 points (2 goals, 8 assists) entering tonight’s game alongside William Eklund, the offense looks to shake things up against a defense who isn’t afraid to get physical. Goalie Mackenzie Blackwood was pivotal in the Sharks only wins this season, but if the Sharks want any traction, Blackwood can’t be the only defensive presence out there on the ice. 

 The first period was a tale of two parts. The first part was a combination of sloppy play and bad rotation on defense where Ryan Lomberg scored the first goal of the game unassisted. 1-0 Panthers. The Sharks this season are notoriously bad when the opponent scores first (0-9).

The Sharks got the tying goal three minutes after the Florida goal and it was from the Sharks Mike Hoffman, his first of the season (assisted by Jan Rutta and Ryan Carpenter) making it 1-1. The Sharks strengthened up the defense to keep it tied at the end of the period and a sense of optimism was held over the SAP Center. 

The goalies were the highlight for the majority of the second period, both goalies showing out as they controlled the momentum. That changed when a roughing call to Givani Smith led to a power play goal by Panthers points leader Sam Reinhart, who scored his 12th goal of the season so far, assisted by Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Matthew Tkachuk 2-1 Panthers.

Smith even with the penalty still upheld his role as an enforcer, because his style of play started to frustrate the Panthers. Smith wasn’t the only guy throwing his body around, the Sharks physicality was clearly something to highlight in this period. As the period came to a close a tripping call with 18 seconds left on Panthers center Nick Cousins gave San Jose an advantage going into the third. 

Sharks third period had high hopes. Tomas Hertl scored on a powerplay goal from a beautiful pass by Zetterlund to make it 2-2. Right after that Luke Kunin scored on a rebound with a backhand shot and now it was 3-2 San Jose and the SAP Center was electric. “We Want Tacos!” chants started to circulate as the fans didn’t just want the win, they wanted free tacos, but that would come with a price.

Carter Verhaeghe on a power play hit a diving goal that tied things up and special teams was something that Coach Quinn stressed for his Sharks players, “a focus before the game” he said, but it would end up being a thing that kept them away from victory.

Kevin Stenlund put the Panthers back on top with a redirect on Balinskis shot that went five hole on Blackwood and now it was 4-3. 38 seconds later Sam Bennett appeared to close the game out for Florida, but Coach Quinn successfully challenged the play for offside and it was no goal, still 4-3. With 2:30 left in the game Quinn emptied his net, but the strategy would fail as Barkov scored into an empty net and it was a 5-3 to end the game. 

The Sharks lose another game, but the beauty of the NHL is there’s always a game around the corner and for the Sharks that game comes after one day’s rest. San Jose will be back in the Shark Tank to face the St. Louis Blues, a team that Coach Quinn credits for “having good forwards”. Last time the Sharks were in the Tank they had a two game win streak, but now it’s back to fighting from underneath and trying to find out what works and what doesn’t for this team. 

Sharks Fall 4-1 to Ducks; SJ has now dropped two straight

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The San Jose Sharks Mike Ferraro (38) skates with the puck in front of the Anaheim Ducks Troy Terry (19) during the first period at the Honda Center in Anaheim on Nov 12, 2023 (AP News photo)

By Mary Walsh

The San Jose Sharks lost to the Anaheim Ducks 4-1 on Sunday. Frank Vatrano scored twice for Anaheim, and Mason McTavish and Radko Gudas added two more. John Gibson made 25 saves for the win. Luke Kunin scored for San Jose and Mackenzie Blackwood made 40 saves in the loss.

The Sharks had two power plays in the game, and three shots with the man advantage. After the game, Sharks Head Coach David Quinn talked about the Sharks’ struggling power play:

“They get the power play goal late in the first, make it 2-1, and then we get our power plays and it just really deflated us. I mean really, you know, not a lot of pace, not a lot of urgency to our power play right now. You know, you may not score but you need to gain some momentum off your power play and that’s not happening right now.”

Tomas Hertl also talked about what the Sharks need to do to fix their power play: “We have to just try to shoot through and get some rebounds, some greasy goals more than fancy and we have to keep working on it.”

Anaheim scored first 4:49 into the game. Frank Vatrano tipped a shot from Ilya Lyubushkin. Ryan Strome got the secondary assist. It was Vatrano’s tenth goal of the season.

Luke Kunin tied the game at 13:05. After Tomas Hertl shot the puck in, it bounced up in a high rebound and Kunin batted it down and into the net. Assists went to Hertl and William Eklund. It was Kunin’s second goal of the season.

Vatrano scored his second of the game with a slap shot off a Cam Fowler pass. The power play goal came at 18:22, giving Ahamein at 2-1 lead. Assists went to Fowler and Jakob Silfverberg.

A scoreless second period saw the Sharks have their best shot count of the game, with 12 to the Ducks’ 18. the period saw a number of penalties, including a fight between Luke Kunin and Max Jones.

Mason McTavish made it 3-1 1:52 into the third period. Skating right down the slot, he caught a pass from Leo Carlsson right in front of the blue paint. Assists went to Carlsson and Pavel Mintyukov.

Radko Gudas made it 4-1 just under a minute later. A crazy high-flying puck went up well out of reach of any defenseman and dropped behind Blackwood, who did not realize it was in the air. Assists went to Strome and Vatrano.

The Sharks’ penalty kill gave up two goals on five Ducks power plays. They also had two short-handed shots in the game.

The Sharks next play on Tuesday back in San Jose at 7:30 PM PT against the Florida Panthers.

NHL podcast with Matt Harrington: Sabres Skinner and Peterka score to help edge Wild 3-2; Panthers get three goal win defeat Canes 5-2; plus more NHL news

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The Buffalo Sabres left wing Jeff Greenway (12) takes a high stick to the face from the Minnesota Wild’s defenseman Zach Bogosian (24) in front of the Minnesota net at the XCel Energy Arena in Minneapolis on Fri Nov 10, 2023 (AP News photo)

On the NHL podcast with Matt:

#1 Matt taking a look at Friday night’s NHL action the Buffalo Sabres got scoring help from Jeff Skinner and JJ Peterka who both scored goals and got an assist to help defeat the Minnesota Wild 3-2 at KeyBank Center in Minneapolis. Sabers defenseman Henri Jokiharju scored the other Sabres goal with goaltender Devin Levi stopping 33 for Buffalo.

#2 The Florida Panthers Matthew Tkachuk and Carter Verhaeghe each scored a goal and an assist helping the Panthers to extend their win streak to three with a 5-2 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday. The Panthers Alexander Barkov scored a goal and an assist and Uvis Balinskis scored his first goal as a Panther at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise.

#3 The Washington Capitals center Evgeny Kuznetsov scored two goals to help beat the New Jersey Devils 4-2 at the Prudential Center in Newark on Friday night. In his season debut for the Capitals right winger Nicolas Aube-Kubel picked up a goal and an assist, Tom Wilson had two assists and goaltender Charlie Lindgren stopped 24 shots in the win for Washington.

#4 The Toronto Maple Leafs William Nylander scored two times and got an assist and picked up his 14th consecutive game point in the Leafs shootout win over the Calgary Flames 5-4 at Scottiabank Arena in Calgary. Leafs goaltender Joseph Woll stopped 24 shots in the one goal win.

#5 Matt what could you say about the Vegas Golden Knights who picked up a huge win over the San Jose Sharks on Friday night at T Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The Knights scored twice in the first period and picked up another three goals in the third period in the 5-0 final. Sharks goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen was just overmatched as the Knights attacked the zone and the net for multiple red lights behind Kahkonen in the San Jose loss.

Join Matt Harrington is an NHL analyst for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Sharks win nail-biter against the Oilers 3-2

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Photo courtesy of San Jose Sharks. The Sharks celebrate a victory (taken on 7/11/23).

By Titus Wilkinson (@TitusWisme)

SAN JOSE- The Sharks took on Edmonton at home and were able to extend their winning streak to two with a win by a final of 3-2.

In goal for San Jose was Mackenzie Blackwood while Stuart Skinner was between the pipes for Edmonton.

Tonight also saw the debut of Calen Addison in a Sharks jersey as he was acquired from the Minnesota Wild the day before.

The first period saw Edmonton’s power play get to work early as just a couple minutes in Nikita Okhotiuk took a penalty for slashing. Instead of creating chances they were giving up them up as William Eklund got a breakaway but was stifled by Skinner.

Things remained pretty even until Fabian Zetterlund broke things open with a one time goal from the slot on a nice pass from Tomas Hertl. The goal was Zetterlund’s fourth of the season as Eklund was also given an assist on the goal.

At the end of the first the shots favored Edmonton 14-6.

The second period did not get off to a good start for the home team as Darnell Nurse sniped one home on a 2-on-1 tying the game up at one.

Edmonton continued to push but Blackwood made some solid saves as he helped keep the score tied.

The Sharks responded with a goal as Hertl benefitted off of a lucky bounce out front that went right to him making it 2-1. It was Hertl’s second of the season with Zetterlund and Okhotiuk getting the assists.

Closing out the second the shots still favored Edmonton at 24-14.

The third ended up being quite the opposite of the second as just a couple minutes in on a 2-on-1 Filip Zadina scored off a feed from Nico Sturm. The goal was Zadina’s third of the season with Ryan Carpenter also getting credited for an assist.

San Jose then got a great opportunity to extend their lead on the power play but took a penalty of their own making it a 4-on-4 for 28 seconds.

It then came down to crunch time as the Sharks tried to hold on to their 3-1 lead. With the goalie pulled Edmonton got within one as Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored on a juicy rebound getting his third of the season.

Granlund then took a tripping penalty putting Edmonton in prime territory to tie the game up. Blackwood and the Sharks defense though stood strong killing off the penalty and holding on for the victory.

At the end of the day this was another game were Blackwood single-handedly kept San Jose in it as he made 39 saves on 41 shots. Ending his night with a 2.00 GAA and 951 SV%.

Both teams power plays were nonexistent tonight as the Oilers went 0/4 while San Jose went 0/2.

With this loss the Oilers fall to 2-9-1 which is their worst start in franchise history and ties them for last in the league with the Sharks.

The three stars of the game were: 1st: Mackenzie Blackwood 2nd: Tomas Hertl 3rd: Fabian Zetterlund

The Sharks will not get much time to rest as they will play Vegas tomorrow at 7 p.m. on the road.

NHL podcast with Len Shapiro: Sens Stutzle opens up on offense against Leafs; Wild get Bogosian from Lightning; plus more news

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Detroit Red Wings defenseman Filip Hronek goes after Ottawa Senators left wing Tim Stutzle who puts the puck on net against the Detroit Red Wings goaltender Ville Husso at Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa on Tue Feb 28, 2023 (AP file photo)

On the NHL podcast with Len Shapiro:

#1 Len talk about the Ottawa Senators Tim Stutzle scored a goal and picked up three assists. The Senators scored three unanswered goals in 3:11 defeating the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-3 at Scotiabank in Toronto.

#2 In a trade on Wednesday the Minnesota Wild got Zach Bogosian from the Tampa Bay Lightning for a seven round draft pick in 2025, and Calen Addison to the San Jose Sharks for Adam Raska and a 2026 fifth round draft pick.

#3 The Colorado Avalanche Ross Colton forward was fined $5000 which is the maximum under the Collective Bargaining Agreement for cross checking New Jersey Devils forward Timo Meier on Tuesday night. The penalty came at 10:44 in the second period and Colton was hit with a major penalty and a game misconduct.

#4 The Chicago Blackhawks Connor Bedard is finding his way around goal creases, Bedard has three goals and five assists and has been a force with Nick Foligno and Philipp Kurashev on the same line. How crucial is Bedard for the Blackhawks.

#5 The San Jose Sharks picked up their first win of the season after losing 11 straight games. The Sharks goaltender MacKenzie Blackwood stopped 39 Flyers shots to save the night. The Sharks defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 2-1 after getting blasted by the Vancouver Canucks 10-1 and Pittsburgh Penguins 10-2. The Sharks defense looked far more improved against the Flyers can you talk about the improvements?

Join Len Shapiro for the NHL podcasts each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Sharks Win, Finally, 2-1 Against Flyers; 11 game skid comes to an end at SAP Center

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Mike Ferraro defenseman (left), Anthony DuClair left wing (center), and Mikael Granlund (64) celebrate Duclair’s third goal of the season in the first period against the Philadelphia Flyers at SAP Center in San Jose on Tue Nov 7, 2023 (AP News photo)

By Mary Walsh

SAN JOSE- The San Jose Sharks ended their miserable losing streak Tuesday. The Sharks won 2-1 over the Philadelphia Flyers at SAP Center. Anthony Duclair and William Eklund scored for the Sharks and Mackenzie Blackwood made 38 saves for the win. Joel Farabee scored for the Flyers and Samuel Ersson made 17 saves in the loss.

Sharks goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood described the mood post-game: “It’s nice. It’s a lot of relief in here, everyone’s happy, it’s been a long time coming. Now we can take a breath and start to try and put some more together.”

Tomas Hertl described how the team felt during the game: “I know everybody was dialed in, everybody fight, everybody hit, everybody just put everything there.”

“There’s just so many things that went into tonight and at some point you say enough’s enough,” said Sharks Head Coach David Quinn. “I give a ton of credit to our leaders and our older players. I thought they really stepped up tonight.” He continued with a little bit of a reality check:

“And it wasn’t like we played great. I don’t want to think like ‘oh wow, they won a game!’ We played the way we’re capable of playing. We can play much better. But we checked a lot of boxes and showed some characteristics that we’re going to need. I thought there were a lot of good things but I thought we left a lot of offense on the table.”

The first goal of the game came just 1:43 into the game. Mikael Granlund’s pass sent Kevin Labanc into the Flyers’ zone with Anthony Duclair, two-on-one. Labanc made the pass late, drawing the goaltender to him and leaving space for Duclair’s shot from the other side.

The Sharks finished the period with only four shots on goal to the Flyers’13 shots.

William Eklund scored the second goal of the game on a power play late in the second period. After a long time in the zone, Duclair made a quick pass from the blue line to Eklund in the face-off circle. Eklund sent a slap shot into the far side of the net.

The Flyers got on back in the final minute of the second. Joel Farabee caught a cross-ice pass from Travis Sanheim and squeezed the puck past Blackwood. The on-ice official called no goal but a review determined that the puck did cross the line. Assists went to Sanheim and Scott Laughton.

In the final seconds, Duclair and Laughton had a confrontation that resulted in 10 minute misconducts.

Sharks forwards had an excellent night in the face-off circle, winning 69.8% of the draws. The Sharks had seven shots in the second period to the Flyers’ 11. In a scorelss third period, the Sharks had eight shots to the Flyers’ 15. In all, the Sharks had just 19 shots in the game to the Flyers’ 39. The Sharks scored on one of five power plays and killed all four of their penalties.

The Sharks next play on Thursday in San Jose at 7:30 PM PT against the Edmonton Oilers.

Sharks lose back-to-back games by double digits this time against Pittsburgh 10-2

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Photo courtesy of Pittsburgh Penguins. Vinnie Hinostroza celebrates his first goal with Penguins.

By Titus Wilkinson (@TitusWisme)

Still searching for their first win the Sharks took on the Penguins at home with Erik Karlsson making his return to San Jose.

Getting the start for San Jose was Mackenzie Blackwood while the Penguins had Tristan Jarry in goal.

The first period saw Reilly Smith get two goals for the Penguins with one coming on the power play.

Then in the second period the wheels really fell off the bus. Goals by Jake Guentzel and Vinnie Hinostroza blew it open to 4-0.

A goal from Anthony Duclair on the power play cut the Penguins lead to three.

To close out the second period the Penguins scored three straight as Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, and former Shark Matt Nieto lit the lamp making it 7-1.

After the goal from Letang Blackwood’s night would end as Magnus Chrona stepped in to take his place. Chrona actually made his NHL debut when he stepped in goal.

The third period saw the score get run up to double digits once again as the Sharks became the first team in 58 years to give up ten goals in back-to-back games.

The culprits for the Penguins would be Bryan Rust, Malkin, and Jake Guentzel with one goal coming from the Sharks as Jacob MacDonald scored on the power play.

The score ended at 10-2 with the shots favoring the Penguins at 35-26.

If there was any bright spot for the Sharks they did go 2/6 on the power play while Pittsburgh went 2/4.

The three stars of the game were: 1st: Bryan Rust 2nd: Reilly Smith 3rd: Jake Guentzel

The Sharks will look to get their first win on Tuesday against the Flyers at home at 7:30 p.m.