When the Flyers and Lightning meet up tonight on Versus (7:30 p.m. ET) there very well might be a familiar face back in the Flyers lineup with a little extra protection. Chris Pronger is getting over his gruesome eye injury and skated like he meant it in practice yesterday and leading to beliefs he’ll be ready to go against the Lightning only this time he’ll have a visor on for protection whether he likes it or not.
How do we know Pronger is ready to play? He’s dishing it out to the media in his own special way.
The Flyers and Lightning come into this game on similar ground. Both have won three of their last four games and look like they’re getting things figured out. The Flyers’ loss in that stretch was in a shootout to New Jersey while the Lightning dropped a game to the slumping Hurricanes. Needless to say, both teams would like to stay hot.
Tampa Bay will have to do their part to slow down the suddenly awesome Flyers offense led by Claude Giroux. Giroux has points in five straight games with four goals and four assists over that stretch. With Scott Hartnell and Jaromir Jagr riding shotgun with him on that top line, they’ve proven to be a dominant scoring force.
Of course, the Flyers will have their hands full as well with Steve Stamkos. All of a sudden, Stamkos is second in the league in goals scored with ten, just one behind Phil Kessel. After seeing Stamkos’ torrid start last season, Philly might be nervous that he’s catching fire the same way again. Stamkos’ goals are coming in bunches, so if they can keep him under control, they’ll stand a better shot of success.
Go ahead and file that one under “Duh.” At least with the Lightning playing at home, they won’t have to worry about getting that good breakfast on the road to get a good start.
Either way, offense is shaping up to be the story of the game. We’ll be expecting a mutual shutout to happen now that we’ve gone and fired up the hype machine.