The orange and black of the Philadelphia Flyers will take on the black and Pittsburgh gold of the Penguins tonight. For the first time since 2002, the Penguins will wear the traditional bright yellow color as part of their uniform. The Penguins alternate uniforms this season are throwbacks to the jerseys that the team wore from 1988 to 1992.
That was the most successful period in franchise history, including some of its defining moments. Mario Lemieux scored a team-record 199 points in the 1988-89 season, the team won their first Patrick Division title in 1990-91, and of course, they won back-to-back Stanley Cups in 1991 and 1992.
The team debuted the “flying Penguin” logo in 1993 and changed to the darker “Vegas gold” in 2002. The black and gold color scheme pre-dates the Penguins in Pittsburgh hockey history. The city’s first NHL team, the Pittsburgh Pirates, wore the colors from 1925 to 1928, which was five years before the Steelers existed, and two decades before the MLB Pirates would sport the color scheme.
TONIGHT’S OPPENENT: The Flyers lost Tuesday night in Chicago, 4-0. Blackhawks forward and Pittsburgh-area native Brandon Saad had the game-winning goal and later added an assist. Steve Mason made 39 saves in the loss.
The Flyers are off to a terrible start, having lost five of their first six games. This is their second consecutive poor start to the season. A year ago, they fired Head Coach Peter Laviolette after starting 0-3, and then proceeded to lose four of their next five under current bench boss Criag Berube.
Leading the Flyers up front is a familiar trio: Claude Giroux, Wayne Simmonds, and Jacob Voracek. They each have seven points on the season. They are expected to be without Vincent Lacavalier, who has a foot injury. Plum native R.J. Umberger returned to Philadelphia this offseason in a trade with Columbus.
The Flyers’ biggest problem has been their woeful defense. The longtime leader of their blue line, Kimmo Timonen, is out indefinitely with blood clots. Braydon Coburn also missed last night’s game in Chicago with a lower-body injury. Defensemen Luke Schenn and Nick Schultz are a combined -11 and have only two points through six games.
Ray Emery will man the pipes for the Flyers. He has 1-0-1 record and a .907 percentage on the year. In 12 career games against the Penguins, he is 6-4-2 with an .892 save percentage.
The Flyers dominated the season series between the two teams in 2013-14, winning four out five games. The Flyers went 6 for 15 on the power play against Pittsburgh last season, with 40% of their offense coming with a man advantage. The Flyers have a 29.2% success rate on the power play this season, which is fourth best in the NHL. The Flyers are 9-1-1 all-time in the regular season and 2-1 in the postseason at Consol Energy Center.
FLOWER POWER: Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury will make his fifth straight start for the Penguins. If General Manager Jim Rutherford has any say in it (he does), Fleury will be a part of the Penguins for the foreseeable future.
“As long as I’m GM here, he’s my goalie,” he said to ESPN.com’s Pierre LeBrun.
Fleury will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season. He is in the final year of a seven-year, $35 million contract.
Backup goaltender Thomas Greiss is expected to get his first start later this week.
WHAT’S AT STAKE: Besides the chance to pile on against a struggling division rival, two points would bring the Penguins to the top of the Metropolitan Division for the first time this season.
This is the first of 16 back-to-back games the Penguins will play this season, as they will travel to Detroit to take on the Red Wings on Thursday. The Penguins went 19-11-2 in back-to-back games last season.
TURNPIKE TRAVELERS: Penguins winger Steve Downie and Assistant Coach Rick Tocchet are recent transplants from Philadelphia. Downie was signed as a free agent from the Flyers in the offseason. Tocchet won a Stanley Cup with Pittsburgh in 1992, but was most recently employed as an analyst for Flyers’ broadcasts on CSN Philadelphia. Tocchet played in parts of 11 seasons with the Flyers during his playing career.
UP AND DOWN: Andrew Ebbett and Scott Harrington were sent down to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL for Tuesday night’s game against Albany and then recalled in advance of Pittsburgh’s game tonight.
Rookie defenseman Derrick Pouliot was activated from the injured reserve and assigned to WBS on Tuesday. Pouliot had been rehabbing from an offseason shoulder surgery and is getting a late start to his rookie season. The 20-year old blueliner was a first-round pick in 2012 and played for Penguins Head Coach Mike Johnston as a junior in Portland. He is projected to be an elite offensive defenseman, and scored 17 goals and an amazing 53 assists for 70 points in his final junior season.
MINOR MATTERS: All three recently demoted players made their season debuts for the AHL Penguins on Tuesday night, but the Albany Devils played spoiler and cruised to a 4-0 win. Even more disheartening was the loss of goaltender Jeff Zatkoff, who left the game with an injury in the second period. Rookie Matt Murray played in relief. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton is now 2-3 on the season.
