Phoenix Coyotes @ Philadelphia Flyers Preview: Flights Grounded

The Coyotes put their seven game winning streak on the line against the Eastern Conference's best team tonight in the Philadelphia Flyers. The Flyers have pretty much run away with the conference lead and are only two points back of the Vancouver Canucks for the NHL lead in points. They've done that with goaltending that has seeming come out of nowhere. They started the season with Michael Leighton and Brian Boucher but quickly ran into injury problems. Sergei Bobrovsky was called in to fill the void and has really wowed his team and the league. At only 22 years old he's put together a magical run in which he's gone 23-9-3 in 37 appearances. His save percentage and GAA aren't the best, but when you're playing behind a lineup that leads the conference in goals you can get away with that. The defense isn't to shabby either as they don't give up many goals either as their 6th in the league in goals against. 

On the Coyotes side they've really figured out how to play their style again. While they've certainly scored plenty of goals this year, it wasn't until they started playing their defensive style again that they started racking up the Ws. And boy do they need to keep stocking those up as the rest of the division and the conference is hot on their heels. Ilya Bryzgalov has continued to shine and seems to have refound the confidence he had last year as a Vezina Trophy nominee. Everyone on the team has had stretches where they were the hot hand as well. There isn't one guy to point to that's carried them, but rather several that just seem to show up on the right night. Last game against Nashville it was Lauri Korpikoski with the game winner, but 8 guys had points. Before that Keith Yandle had 3 assists against Atlanta. The Coyotes currently have 8 players in double digit goal scoring and another couple with 9. Just another example of how the scoring comes from everywhere.

Probable Starting Goalies:

Key Players

Taylor Pyatt

#14 / Left Wing / Phoenix Coyotes

Height: 6-3

Weight: 232

Born: Aug 19, 1981

Tied for second on the team with 15 goals Pyatt has been a nice surprise in the goal scoring department at least. He's been outworking the opposition to win pucks to get chances and planting himself in front to get rebound chances. 

Danny Briere

#48 / Center / Philadelphia Flyers

Height: 5-10

Weight: 179

Born: Oct 06, 1977

Remember when he used to play for the Coyotes? Me neither. He's still got a cruddy contract, but this year the oft-injured center has actually been worth it scoring 28 goals so far for the Broad Street team. 

Injuries