Gameday Preview: 2/6/10 – Flyers vs Wild

The Flyers are hoping to bounce back from Wednesday night’s loss to the league’s worst Oilers with a win tonight against the Minnesota Wild. Tonight’s game will conclude another Flyers road trip with, hopefully, a 2-1 record. The Flyers have won 6-of-9 games against the Wild all-time.

Tonight’s big story lies in-between the Minnesota pipes. Both Niklas Bäckström and Josh Harding are out of the line-up tonight. Bäckström has the flu, and Harding is still nursing an injured hip. The 23-year-old rookie, Anton Khudobin will make his NHL debut tonight for the Wild.

Ray Emery is expected to be back in net tonight for the Flyers. He was a scratch from Wednesday’s game with rumored groin soreness, and/or disciplinary issues. I’m willing to go with groin soreness. Emery seems to have cleaned up his act. I hope. He’s been playing well recently, and I think giving him the night off on Wednesday was a good idea.

Three Keys to Victory:

• Break the trend – The Flyers have been getting stonewalled by back-up goalies all season. That needs to end tonight.
• Generate offense – I know this kind of ties in with beating a back-up goalie, but the Flyers weren’t the best at capitalizing on their offensive opportunities on Wednesday against the Oilers. This offense is just too inconsistent.
• Continue the defensive play – The last two games for the Flyers have been awesome defensively. Team defense has been a key as of late, and the team is really buying into that. It’s shown. Keep it up, and the goals will start to come. I hope.

It is still unknown whether or not Ville Leino will play for the Flyers tonight. Paul Holmgren has asked him to join the team, however. If you weren’t aware, the Flyers acquired Leino from the Red Wings this morning in exchange of Ole-Kristian Tollefsen and a 5th round draft pick in the 2011 Entry Draft.

Update 1:17PM - Ray Emery will miss tonight’s game with tightness in his left hip. Michael Leighton will get the start again, per Paul Holmgren.

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