On the road; Tampa Bay Lightning at Philadelphia Flyers preview

WHERE: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
WHEN: 7:30 PM EST | | TICKETS: Check Availability
MEDIA: NBC Sports Net (cable), 970 WFLA (radio)
OPPONENT COVERAGE: Orange and Black Pack, Broad Street Hockey, The Orange Update

The Tampa Bay Lightning is in Philadelphia today, on a northeast corridor road trip through the week. Philly, New Jersey, Boston, New York… By bus or by Acela Express, the Lightning will bounce around the northeast before heading home.

First thing first though: Wells Fargo Center and NBC Sports Net are the venues where the Lightning will have to overcome a hostile crowd and opponents looking for revenge. I cite NBC Sports Net (who will be airing the game tonight) as an enemy because… well, let’s face it, there is little love (at least among the Raw Charge community) for NBC Sports broadcasts. Between pregame and intermission rhetoric form a biased Keith Jones and Mike Milbury to in-game annoyance of Pierre McGuire, there are a contingent of fans that simply mute the television and turn on the Lightning radio broadcast to hear Dave Mishkin call the game.

That’s just sideshow, though. That’s not the game.

Anders Lindback returns to the pipes for the Lightning tonight. He’s 5-1-0 in his six starts this season, with all wins coming at Times Palace. Seeing this is only the Lightning’s third game on the road this season, don’t read anything into the home-away record. His goal-against average has shrunk to 2.83 and his save percentage stands at .911. And for the Philadelphia Flyers, it’ll by Ilya Bryzgalov getting the nod. It’ll be his first game against the Lightning this season. The Flyers may have a 3-5-0 record with Bryz in net, but his stats are beyond sound: a 2.40 goals-against average and a .920 save percentage.

For the Flyers themselves, they’re going to be looking to put on a better show than the 5-1 drubbing they took in Tampa a week ago. The Flyers were playing for the second night in a row, having victimized the Panthers the previous night in Sunrise with a 7-1 slaughter.

This time around, the Flyers (nor the Lightning) played the previous night. We should see more of a contest, and more animosity towards each club.

Captain Vincent Lecavalier is supposed to play tonight, despite his bone bruise sustained on Saturday night when a Sami Salo slap shot found Vinny and made a boo-boo (to put it lightly). He left the ice early during the morning skate but later returned to take part in drills. Lecavalier’s season so far has been one of the highlights of the Lightning – he’s played like a man on a mission and throwing his big frame around. He’s got 4 goals and 7 assists in eight games played at this point, and is just part of the Lightning’s all-players attack.

The Flyers have another of their own scratched tonight – Wayne Simmonds will not dress and will not play.Simmonds took an elbow to the head from Washington Capitals defenseman John Erskine, leading to Erskine being suspended by the league (though he doesn’t think he deserves it – head shot or not). Wayne joins Chris Pronger, Scott Hartnell, Danny Briere, Andrej Meszaros and Zac Rinaldo on the sidelines due to injury for the Flyers.