Flyers to Start Neuvirth Tonight vs Leafs

TORONTO — Conventional wisdom might suggest the Flyers should have gone with Steve Mason against the Toronto Maple Leafs Thursday night.

He’s the hot hand having played well in four straight starts —the Flyers won three of those games — and coach Dave Hakstol has shown a history of riding one goalie.

Maybe it’s a hunch or maybe he’s learned that he’s done too much of that in the past because instead Michal Neuvirth got the call in an important game in which the Flyers could tie a team between themselves and a playoff spot.

“If you look at the schedule for us right now, one guy’s not going to be able to run the table all the way through,” Hakstol said. “It’s a good night for Neuvy to go in and do a good job for his teammates.”

Here’s the eye-raiser in all that: the Flyers have flip flopped back and forth between wanting a platoon and wanting one definitive starter to rely on. And when they made a financial commitment to Neuvirth, signing him to a two-year extension at last Wednesday’s trade deadline, Mason was one game into his string of four consecutive games.