The Philadelphia Flyers are set begin preseason festivities Monday night against the visiting New Jersey Devils, and looking at the announced lineup there are bound to be some fireworks.
Dressed for conflict, the Flyers sat forwards Danny Briere, Simon Gagne, Glen Metropolit, Mike Knuble, Joffrey Lupul and Jim Dowd. But dressed known brawlers Riley Cote, Matt Clackson, Steve Downie and Arron Asham.
The projected lineup is as follows …
Andreas Nodl – Mike Richards – Scott Hartnell
Scottie Upshall – Jeff Carter – Claude Giroux
Jon Kalinski – Steve Downie – Arron Asham
Riley Cote – Darroll Powe – Matt Clackson
Braydon Coburn – Ossi Vaananen
Luca Sbisa – Steve Eminger
Ryan Parent – Sean Curry
Martin Biron
Maxime Ouellet
Darroll Powe is seeing time to tryout for the fourth line center position, while Steve Downie, who has only played wing in his professional career, is working to become a center for likely the same fourth line position as Powe.
Tonight’s game marks the first in a Flyers’ uniform for defensemen Steve Eminger and Ossi Vaananen. It will also be the first professional contest for young blueliner Luca Sbisa, whom the Flyers selected in the first round in the 2008 NHL entry draft.
St. Cloud State standout, Andreas Nodl has been impressive in training camp, earing himself a first line nod for tonight game.
The game is not televised, but will be streaming from the Flyers official website at 7 P.M.
Phila.Bright 