Flyers-Penguins Game 1 Essentials

Here's everything you need to know Wednesday night for Game 1 of the Flyers-Penguins best-of-seven first-round playoff series.

Flyers at Penguins (series tied 0-0)
7 p.m. on NBC Sports Philadelphia; Pregame Live at 6 p.m.

Live stream
Live stats
Social media
Series schedule

Projected lineups

Flyers
Forwards
Claude Giroux-Sean Couturier-Michael Raffl
Oskar Lindblom-Nolan Patrick-Jakub Voracek
Travis Konecny-Valtteri Filppula-Wayne Simmonds
Scott Laughton-Jori Lehtera-Matt Read

Defensemen
Ivan Provorov-Shayne Gostisbehere
Travis Sanheim-Andrew MacDonald
Brandon Manning-Radko Gudas

Goalies
Brian Elliott
Petr Mrazek

Scratches: Forwards Jordan Weal, Taylor Leier and Dale Weise; defensemen Robert Hagg and Johnny Oduya; goalie Michal Neuvirth.

Penguins
Forwards
Jake Guentzel-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust
Carl Hagelin-Evgeni Malkin-Patric Hornqvist
Conor Sheary-Derick Brassard-Phil Kessel
Zach Aston-Reese-Riley Sheahan-Tom Kuhnhackl

Defensemen
Brian Dumoulin-Kris Letang
Olli Maatta-Justin Schultz
Jamie Oleksiak-Chad Ruhwedel

Goalies
Matt Murray
Casey DeSmith

Scratches: Forwards Dominik Simon, Josh Jooris and Carter Rowney; defenseman Matt Hunwick

What to watch for …

Dougherty
Keep an eye on: The Flyers' third pair
Brandon Manning and Radko Gudas might not be in the level of horrible Lukas Krajicek, Oskars Bartulis and Ryan Parent were in 2010, but they don't exactly inspire confidence. The Penguins are deep and loaded with skill. Will the Flyers' third pair be in over its head?

Bold prediction: Manning's glue wears down and Dave Hakstol finally goes back to Robert Hagg in Game 2. And that's the end of the Manning era in Philadelphia.

Hall
Keep an eye one: The Flyers' second line
It'll be interesting to see what matchup Oskar Lindblom, Nolan Patrick and Jakub Voracek face in the early going. Voracek owns 35 career points (18 goals, 17 assists) against the Penguins - his most against any opponent - while Patrick, 19, and Lindblom, 21, have a combined 96 games of NHL experience. Should be fun to watch.

Bold prediction: Shayne Gostisbehere puts up a three-point game and scores the Flyers' first goal of the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Recommended reading
• Players to watch, predictions and more for Flyers-Penguins

• Brian Elliott ready for playoff opportunity with Flyers

• Playoff success foreign to most Flyers

• 5 keys for Flyers to beat Penguins in playoffs

• Ivan Provorov's quiet stardom about to grow louder

• Why this playoff berth is different for Ron Hextall's Flyers