Dave Isaac

@davegisaac

Tonight: Flyers at Toronto Maple Leafs

Site: Air Canada Center / Toronto, Ontario

Time: 7:30 p.m.

TV/Radio: CSN/93.3 FM

Records: Flyers 31-26-8; Maple Leafs 29-22-14

FLYERS PROJECTED LINEUP

Forwards

40-Jordan Weal, 28-Claude Giroux, 17-Wayne Simmonds

10-Brayden Schenn, 51-Valtteri Filppula, 93-Jake Voracek

25-Nick Cousins, 14-Sean Couturier, 24-Matt Read

76-Chris VandeVelde, 78-Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, 11-Travis Konecny

Defensemen

9-Ivan Provorov & 47-Andrew MacDonald

23-Brandon Manning & 53-Shayne Gostisbehere

15-Michael Del Zotto & 3-Radko Gudas

Goalie

30-Michal Neuvirth

Injuries/Suspensions

LW Michael Raffl — out five to seven weeks, "lower-body injury"

MAPLE LEAFS PROJECTED LINEUP

Forwards

47-Leo Komarov, 43-Nazem Kadri, 29-William Nylander

25-James van Riemsdyk, 42-Tyler Bozak, 16-Mitch Marner

11-Zach Hyman, 34-Auston Matthews, 12-Connor Brown

15-Matt Martin, 24-Brian Boyle, 26-Nikita Soshnikov

Defensemen

44-Morgan Rielly & 22-Nikita Zaitsev

51-Jake Gardiner & 3-Alexey Marchenko

2-Matt Hunwick & 46-Roman Polak

Goalie

31-Frederik Andersen

Injuries/Suspensions

RW Ben Smith — day-to-day, hand injury

D Connor Carrick — out indefinitely, upper-body injury

D Stephane Robidas — out for season, knee

LW Joffrey Lupul — long-term injured reserve, unfit to play

RW Nathan Horton — out for season, degenerative spine issue

THREE THINGS TO WATCH

1. Filppula's line

No one in management or even the coaching staff had to make any kind of grand speech after the trade deadline. When Brayden Schenn, Valtteri Filppula and Jake Voracek were all put on a line together, it was clear that there was an expectation for scoring. The trio has come together rather quickly in terms of on-ice chemistry.

“I think so far we’ve been playing pretty well,” said Filppula, who has seen his average ice time per game go up by 30 seconds since the trade. “We can still play better and it’s going to happen as we get a few more games in. Definitely get to play a lot of minutes. You expect you get something done with those minutes. Hopefully I can do that.”

2. Offense from the back end

Radko Gudas notched three points, one off a career high, in Tuesday's 6-3 win over the Buffalo Sabres. The Flyers traded Mark Streit a week ago and he was one of the most offensive defensemen they have. Gudas said there has been no extra emphasis to keep producing in Streit's absence.

"No, we haven’t (talked about it). We know what our roles are," Gudas said. "We know that we need to help our forwards get more scoring opportunities and get the pucks through. If you get the pucks through there’s a good chance you’re going to get the apple on it. Getting the puck to our forwards is really important at this time of the season."

3. Goalie matchup

Michal Neuvirth will likely get the start for the Flyers after Steve Mason was the man for the last four games. Neuvirth has a 9-4-1 record in 16 career games against Toronto with a 2.83 goals-against average and .901 save percentage. He is expected to face Frederik Andersen, who has a sterling 5-0-0 record in five career games against the Flyers with a 2.71 goals-against average and .917 save percentage.