FLYERS-ISLANDERS GAME PREVIEW (1:30 AM EST)
Looking to complete a sweep of their three-game homestand and capture their sixth win in their last seven games, the Philadelphia Flyers (9-10-2) will take on the New York Islanders (8-12-3) at the Wells Fargo Center. Game time is 7:00 p.m. EST. The match will be televised locally on The Comcast Network.
This is the second of four meetings between the teams this season, and the first of two in Philadelphia. The teams will play each other again on Jan. 18 at the Wells Fargo Center and on Jan. 20 in Uniondale, NY.
On Oct. 26, the Flyers captured a 5-2 road win over the Isles to improve their season record to 3-7-0. Vincent Lecavalier notched a hat trick on a power play goal and a pair of even strength tallies. Jakub Voracek lit the lamp for the first time in the 2013-14 season, and Matt Read added an empty net goal. Victorious goaltender Steve Mason made 26 saves.
Te Flyers bring into tonight's game a record of 28-3-2 in their last 33 games against the Islanders. That includes a 15-2-0 mark in the last 17 games in Long Island and 8-1-0 in the most recent nine games.
After tonight's game, the Flyers will take a two-game road trip to Florida to play the Panthers on Mon. and Lightning on Wed. night. The team will play its annual Black Friday matinee at home the day after U.S. Thanksgiving, with an 11:30 a.m. start against the Winnipeg Jets. Thereafter, the Flyers will spend considerable time on the road, as is typical of December. After the Black Friday game, Philly has just four home games until Jan. 8.
FLYERS OUTLOOK
Two nights after opening their homestand with a 5-2 win over the Ottawa Senators, the Flyers shook a 1-0 deficit at the first intermission to rebound with a 4-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres.
Read notched a pair of goals, assisted by linemates Steve Downie and Sean Couturier. Lecavalier added a third period insurance goal on the power play. Scott Hartnell added an empty net goal to put an exclamation point on a game where the Flyers generated 46 shots on net. Ray Emery was strong in goal at the other end, authoring 29 saves on 30 shots.
Entering tonight's game, the Flyers have not yielded a single even strength goal to the opposition in the last five games. They've given up just one in the last six, and have posted a 5-0-1 record during that span.
Philly has also been a power play surge of late. The club has tallied at least once on the man advantage in five straight games, to pull its season ranking up from the bottom of the NHL to 24th (14.5 percent, 12-for-83). The team is still just five-for-52 (9.6 percent at home) and the Flyers were unable to convert a pair of 5-on-3 opportunities against Buffalo.
The only negative for the Flyers of late has been a bit of a recent stumble on the penalty kill. The club has yielded opposition power play goals in five of the last six games, including a pair of games with two PPGs. As such, the team's penalty killing ranking has dropped from 7th in the NHL (85.9 percent through the first 15 teams) to 18th overall at 81.8 percent. The Flyers are the 5th most-penalized team in the NHL. While Los Angeles and Edmonton have also had to play shorthanded 88 times, Philly has played fewer games than either club.
Through the first 15 games of the NHL regular season, the Flyers averaged an anemic 1.47 goals per game and scored two or fewer in 14 matches (with the lone exception coming against the Islanders). Over the last six games, the team has scored 22 goals for an average of 3.67 per game. They have scored four or more goals in four of the tilts.
Of late, the Flyers have been getting balanced scoring. They've gotten regular contributions at both even strength and the power play from members of the Claude Giroux, Lecavalier and Couturier lines with a couple goals chipped in by the defense (Kimmo Timonen) and the fourth line (Jay Rosehill against Edmonton, empty netter by Adam Hall against the Senators on Tuesday).
ISLANDERS OUTLOOK
The Islanders have been in a bit of swoon lately, dropping seven of the last 10 games in regulation (3-7-0), including each of their last two. The Isles have lost each of their last six games on the road. In the process, New York has dropped into last place in the Metropolitan Division.
Tonight's game marks the second half of games in back-to-back nights in Pennsylvania. On Friday night in Pittsburgh, the Islanders dropped a 4-3 decision. The Penguins led by scores of 2-0 and 3-1 only for New York to battle back to the tie the match at 3-3 on a pair of goals by Thomas Vanek, sandwiched around Colin McDonald's second goal of the season. Sidney Crosby spoiled the night for the Islanders in the third period, scoring the 250th goal of his NHL regular season career with 1:16 remaining in regulation.
Kevin Poulin got the start in Pittsburgh, taking the loss as he stopped 30 of 34 Pittsburgh shots to the three goals on 35 shots that eluded Penguins' backup Jeff Zatkoff. With usual Islanders starter Evgeni Nabokov on injured reserve with a groin strain, Swedish netminder Anders Nilsson could get the start in net against the Flyers.
Friday night's loss was typical of the Islanders' problems this season. While the offense has produced a solid 66 goals in 23 games (good for 10th in the NHL), the club has been having a miserable time keeping the puck out of its own net. The Islanders enter this game having yielded 77 goals overall, which ranks 27th in the League.
Crosby's game-winning tally against the Islanders was typical of many of the goals the club has been giving up of late. On the play, both John Tavares and Thomas Hickey lunged at a puck behind their net, with no one covering Crosby in front of the net. From point blank range, Crosby received a pass from linemate Pascal Dupius and buried it past Poulin.
The Islanders took an 0-for-6 collar on the power play in Pittsburgh. The team comes into Philadelphia with the NHL's 21st-ranked power play at 17.1 percent (14 for 82). The New York penalty kill ranks at the bottom of the 30-team NHL, surviving just 70.4 percent (50 of 71) of their man disadvantages. The Penguins went 2-for-4 on the power play in Friday's game against the Isles.
New York's leading scorer, John Tavares, has tallied 26 points (nine goals, 17 assists) in 23 games this season to rank sixth in the NHL scoring race. He has two goals and six points in his last five games. Frans Nielsen (10 goals) and Kyle Okposo (six goals) each have 22 points to date. In the meantime, with his two goals on Friday, Thomas Vanek has three goals and five points in seven matches since joining the Islanders in a blockbuster trade with Buffalo.
Nielsen's status for tonight's game is uncertain as of this writing. He suffered a potential back injury in Pittsburgh as a result of a cross-check by the Penguins' Craig Adams late in the game. Apart from Nabokov, the Islanders are also missing an important player in concussed offensive defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky. Top-pairing Andrew MacDonald sustained an upper-body injury in the first period of Friday's game but later returned to the match.
When all the components are added up, the Flyers have an on-paper advantage heading into Saturday's game. However, the Islanders could potentially be the hungrier team despite the back-to-back games and their offensive prowess needs to be respected. Philly has been a bit sloppy in segments of the last two games but has pulled through thanks to strong goaltending from Mason and Emery and a bit of puck luck as well.
PROJECTED LINE COMBINATIONS (Subject to change)
FLYERS
19 Scott Hartnell - 28 Claude Giroux - 93 Jakub Voracek
10 Brayden Schenn - 40 Vincent Lecavalier - 17 Wayne Simmonds
9 Steve Downie - 14 Sean Couturier - 24 Matt Read
37 Jay Rosehill - 18 Adam Hall - 36 Zac Rinaldo
44 Kimmo Timonen - 5 Braydon Coburn
8 Nicklas Grossmann - 32 Mark Streit
26 Erik Gustafsson - 22 Luke Schenn
35 Steve Mason
[29 Ray Emery]
Potential Scratches: Michael Raffl (healthy), Andrej Meszaros (healthy), Hal Gill (healthy), Chris Pronger (LTIR, post-concussion syndrome).
ISLANDERS
26 Thomas Vanek - 91 John Tavares - 21 Kyle Okposo
40 Michael Grabner - 51 Frans Nielsen (?) - 12 Josh Bailey
96 Pierre-Marc Bouchard - 16 Peter Regin - 15 Cal Clutterbuck
17 Matt Martin - 53 Casey Cizikas - 13 Colin McDonald
3 Travis Hamonic - 47 Andrew MacDonald
4 Radek Martinek - 14 Thomas Hickey
46 Matt Donovan - 7 Matt Carkner
45 Anders Nilsson
[60 Kevin Poulin]
Potential Scratches: Eric Boulton (healthy), Aaron Ness (healthy), Brock Nelson (healthy), Evgeni Nabokov (IR, groin), Lubomir Visnovsky (IR, concussion), Brian Strait (IR, upper body), Frans Nielsen (questionable to play, potential back injury).
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