Flyers vs. Red Wings preview: 19 years later, Detroit still looking for win in Philly

It’s Hockey Fights Cancer night at the Wells Fargo Center tonight, and in addition to the lavender stick tape and jerseys that’ll be worn during warmups, that means a lot off the ice as well. The Flyers will give away the t-shirts you see above, and plenty of charity opportunities throughout the game.

Notably, via the Flyers:

The evening’s festivities will be highlighted by an expanded partnership with local charity Alex’s Lemonade Stand, a childhood cancer foundation dedicated to raising funds for research into new treatments and cures for all children battling cancer.

Cancer survivor and friend of Alex’s Lemonade Stand, 11-year-old Andrew Vantresca from South Philadelphia, will be joined at center ice by captains from both teams for a ceremonial puck drop. At nine months old, Vantresca was diagnosed with a neuroblastoma. After several rounds of aggressive treatment, including chemotherapy and surgeries, he became cancer-free.

Twenty children hosted by Alex’s Lemonade Stand will also be treated to special VIP Flyers experiences throughout the game, including sitting on the bench during warm-ups, escorting Anthemist Lauren Hart on to the ice, high-fiving the players from the ice, sitting in Claude Giroux’s “Giroux’s Crew” suite, riding the Zamboni, and experiencing the game from the broadcast booths.

Fans can support Alex’s Lemonade Stand at the game by purchasing lemonade from an Alex’s Lemonade ‘Stand’ on the Wells Fargo Center concourse, as a portion of proceeds will benefit the foundation.

If you are going to the game tonight and are able, consider donating.

As for the events on the ice, the Flyers are hosting the Detroit Red Wings for the first time this season. Of course, the Red Wings haven’t beaten the Flyers in Philadelphia since 1997 ... a year in which nothing of note happened between these hockey clubs, we promise.

Detroit has been all over the place this season, sitting at 6-4-0 so far. They won those six games right in a row, sandwiching that streak between two pairs of losses. Good news for the Flyers tonight: backup goalie Petr Mrazek will get the start. Jimmy Howard, their usual starter, has been red hot so far this season with a .978 save percentage, so we are dodging a bullet there.

Claude Giroux — a bad captain who we should trade, I heard it on WIP so it’s true — will look to extend his point streak to 10 games tonight. We are in Game 11 of the season, for the record. Michal Neuvirth will get the start for the Flyers.

Steve Ott, a human being* on Detroit’s fourth line, is 6th in the league in faceoff percentage. I looked it up on NHL.com.

Tonight’s game is on NBC Sports Network across the country. NBC Live Extra is live streaming. Locally, the game can be heard on 93.3 WMMR — not 97.5 The Fanatic.

Philadelphia lineup

Forwards

1. Brayden Schenn - Claude Giroux - Wayne Simmonds
2. Travis Konecny - Sean Couturier - Jakub Voracek
3. Meat Read - Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - Roman Lyubimov
4. Chris VandeVelde - Nick Cousins - Dale Weise

Defense

1. Andrew MacDonald - Shayne Gostisbehere
2. Ivan Provorov - Mark Streit
3. Radko Gudas - Brandon Manning

Goalies

1. Michal Neuvirth
2. Steve Mason

Scratches: Nick Schultz

Injured: Michael Del Zotto, Scott Laughton, Michael Raffl, Boyd Gordon

Detroit lineup

Forwards

1. Gustav Nyquist - Frans Nielsen - Dylan Larkin
2. Tomas Tatar - Henrik Zetterberg - Justin Abdelkader
3. Andreas Athanasiou - Darren Helm - Riley Sheahan
4. Drew Miller - Luke Glendening - Steve Ott

Defense

1. Daniel “Danny” DeKeyser - Mike Green
2. Jonathan Ericsson - Alexey Marchenko
3. Brendan Smith - Xavier Ouellet

Goalies

1. Petr Mrazek
2. James “Jimmy” Howard

*probably