First things first, Devan Dubnyk will start in goal 7 p.m. Tuesday against Philadelphia. Also, Charlie Coyle skated for the first time with the team since breaking his leg Oct.12 at the Blackhawks. More on him in a notebook later.
But for now, here's a little pregame fodder on Philly.
"No. It doesn't really matter," Dubnyk said of facing the team back-to-back. "That's a difficult team. They're very creative, highly skilled, and it's going to be a challenge against them regardless of how you play them. I think it's a fun scenario. They're an eastern conference team where you probably get a little bit of spillover, I guess, some intensity from the last game. They're obviously going to be upset about the result, so we need to expect that. We've talked a lot about getting real good on home ice here, so here's an opportunity to start that."
Coach Bruce Boudreau said he finds these home-and-home series easier for his team to prepare.
"You don't see Philly for a long time. It was a year almost since we've seen them, and now we've seen them, and unless they come up with surprises and change things drastically, we'll pretty well have an idea, as they have an idea of us on how they play," Boudreau said. "I like it, myself. I think it creates great rivalries. It makes great rivalries better. If we had a home and home with Chicago, for example, that means there's only three games in the rest of the season to play those guys. I think they want to spread them out a little bit to get the full effect all the time."
Now, would Boudreau change his mind if this series was against the Broad Street Bullies?
"Be prepared, because they would've been coming, and I'm not meaning just with playing the game," Boudreau said. "They were a tough team back then to play home and home. I haven't played a lot in the NHL. In two games, there were bench-clearing brawls against those guys."
