Sharks at Flyers: Lines, gamethread, and where to watch

The Sharks (12-8-2) head to the East coast for the second time this season to start a four game road trip in the Broad Street Barn of the backpedaling Philadelphia Flyers (8-9-7). Things have changed since these two teams met in San Jose on opening night and the Flyers put up a sound 5-3 win over our good good teal boys. Philly is on an eight game losing streak (0-3-5), the team's longest since they put up a record of 0-8-2 in ten games in February 2008.

Coming off of a fresh OT loss last night to the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Flyers come into this game tired and looking for anything to spark some confidence in a team that has dropped to last place in the Metropolitan division and six points out of a playoff spot after 24 games.

Still, the Flyers are a dangerous team. Their top line of Claude Giroux, Jakub Voracek, and Selke-candidate-until-just-recently Sean Couturier account for 45 % of the team's goals, and on the back end, the Flyers lead the league in even strength save percentage, a stat largely cancelled out by their league-worst penalty kill. If they can get some scoring out of their middle six (Wayne Simmonds has four goals in 23 games since his hat trick on opening night in San Jose) they could make some noise going forward.

The Sharks are coming off of a bit of a statement game, after a 4-0 shut out of the previously red hot Winnipeg Jets at home included three killed penalties, a 50% power play success rate, and a short handed goal. The victory came at a cost, however, as Martin Jones will sit tonight's game out with a lower body injury. Aaron Dell will man the net, and recent AHL call up Antoine Bibeau will back him up.

The Flyers are reeling, slipping down a slope without a paddle, and exhausted from 60 plus minutes of hard hockey against their biggest rival just last night. If my memory as a Sharks fan is reliable at all, our boys will bork this up faster than you can say Couture-Couturier.

Sharks Lines

Timo Meier -- Joe Thornton -- Joe Pavelski

Joonas Donskoi -- Logan Couture -- Tomas Hertl

Jannik Hansen -- Chris Tierney -- Mikkel Boedker

Melker Karlsson -- Daniel O'Regan -- Joel Ward

Marc-Edouard Vlasic -- Justin Braun

Brenden Dillon -- Brent Burns

Joakim Ryan -- Dylan DeMelo

Aaron Dell

Antoine Bibeau

Scratched: Ryan Carpenter,Tim Heed, Kevin Labanc

Injured: Martin Jones (undisclosed), Paul Martin (ankle), Barclay Goodrow (upper body)

The Melkman returns, Karlsson draws back into the lineup after missing the last four games in place of Carpenter.

Flyers Lines

Claude Giroux -- Sean Couturier -- Jakub Voracek

Danick Martel -- Nolan Patrick -- Wayne Simmonds

Michael Raffl -- Valtteri Filppula -- Travis Konecny

Jori Lehtera -- Scott Laughton -- Dale Weise

Ivan Provorov -- Andrew MacDonald

Shayne Gostisbehere -- Robert Hagg

Travis Sanheim -- Brandon Manning

Michal Neuvirth

Brian Elliott

Scratched: Jordan Weal, Taylor Leier

Suspended: Radko Gudas

Neuvirth (NOY-vurt) will get his eighth start of the season, after Elliott made a career high 47 saves against the Penguins last night.

Where to watch

Broadcast: NBCSP, NBCSCA

Stream: NHL.tv / NHL App

Radio: 98.5 KFOX / NHL App / Sharks App