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Flyers Gameday: 1/4/17 vs. NYI |
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GAME 40 PREVIEW: FLYERS VS. ISLANDERS
Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers (16-15-8) host Doug Weight's New York Islanders (20-16-4) on Thursday night. Game time is 7:00 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on NBCSNP.
This is the third of four meetings this season between the Metro Division teams, and the second of two in Philadelphia. The season series will conclude in Brooklyn on April 3.
On Nov. 22 in Brooklyn and Nov. 24 in Philadelphia, the Flyers dropped back-to-back overtime decisions to the Islanders by 4-3 and 5-4 scores.
FLYERS OUTLOOK
Thursday's game is the second of a four-game homestand and the start of a three-games-in-four-days stretch. The Flyers are a disappointing 8-8-4 at home to date.
On Tuesday, the Flyers dropped an ugly 5-1 decision to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Although sloppy at times in their own right and unable to turn numerous first-period odd-man rushes even into shots on goal, the Flyers were the better team for the first 30 minutes. Then the wheels fell off in just about every facet of the game.
Jordan Weal (4th goal of the season) got a deflection goal that briefly made it 1-1 in the second period. Radko Gudas (4th assist of the season) and Brandon Manning (4th assist) collected an assist apiece.
Making his 14th consecutive start, Brian Elliott turned in a clunker, stopping just 10 of 14 shots. He was replaced by Michal Neuvirth to start the third period. Neuvirth stopped 10 of 11 shots in mop-up duty.
The Flyers will not hold a morning skate on Thursday. On Wednesday evening, the team recalled Lehigh Valley Phantoms sparkplug forward Tyrell Goulbourne. He will wear No. 56. The team has no apparent injuries among their forwards, so Goulbourne could make his NHL debut against the Islanders with both Jori Lehterä and Taylor Leier sittout as healthy scratches.
Based on Wednesday's practice, it appears that rookie defenseman Travis Sanheim will be a healthy scratch for the third straight game on defense. Ivan Provorov, who hobbled off the ice in the third period of Tuesday's game, practiced per normal and seems to be OK.
There is a chance that Neuvirth, an ex-Islander, gets his first start since Nov. 28.
Philly is four points (with a 16-15 ROW tiebreaker advantage) behind the Carolina Hurricanes and four points points (with an 18-16 ROW disadvantage) behind the Islanders in the race for the final wildcard seed in the Eastern Conference. The Flyers' regulation loss to the Penguins on Tuesday also left them three points behind Pittsburgh (18-16 ROW disadvantage) beneath the playoff cutoff line.
Entering Tuesday's game, the Flyers have scored 107 goals (tied for 21st in the NHL) and also yielded 111 (tied for 10th fewest in the NHL). At five-on-five, Philly has scored 66 goals (23rd in the NHL) and yielded 59 (dropping to fourth fewest in the NHL after being in the top two most of the season).
Hakstol indicated after Wednesday's practice that he felt the team had room to improve in terms of working pucks into higher percentage shooting areas with more consistency. There are times where a low-to-high play is all that is available without forcing a low-percentage play but there is a need to be more assertive in generating shots from inside and below the dots.
On the power play, the Flyers rank tied for 15th at 19.0 percent (26-for-137) with six shorthanded goals yielded. On the penalty kill, the Flyers rank 29th (93-for-123, 75.6 percent). Scott Laughton's shorthanded goal in the home opener against Washington still stands as the lone shorthander for the Flyers to date this season.
After Wednesday's practice, Hakstol said it has been internally discussed whether to continue to use six forwards (three sets of two) on the penalty kill or reduce the number. The coach added that no decision had been made yet.
ISLANDERS OUTLOOK
The Islanders have had recent struggles of their own, losing each of the last three games in regulation and seven of the last 10 (3-6-1). The club brings an 8-12-1 road record into Thursday's game.
On Tuesday, the Isles sustained a 5-1 home loss to the Boston Bruins. The deficit was a manageable 2-1 after two periods despite the Bruins outshooting New York, 17-8, in the middle frame. Boston then pulled away in the third period with three unanswered goals.
Jaroslav Halak made 33 saves in a losing cause and Jordan Eberle scored an unassisted goal midway through the first period that tied the score at 1-1 after the Bruins turned the puck over directly in front of their net off an initially won faceoff. Tanner Fritz made his NHL debut after being recalled by the Islanders from the AHL's Bridgeport Sound Tigers.
The high-octane but defensively poor Islanders have sorely missed defenseman Johnny Boychuk, who is on IR with an upper-body injury. He practiced on Wednesday but according to Weight, it did not go as well as hoped. He will stay on injured reserve for the time being.
To date, the Islanders have scored 135 goals (2nd best in the NHL) but yielded 143 (2nd worst). At five-on-five, New York has scored 89 goals (2nd best) and yielded 88 (3rd worst).
On the power play, the Islanders clock in at 20.6 percent efficiency (28-for-136, tied for 9th best) but are among just three NHL teams that have already yielded eight opposing shorthanded goals. On the penalty kill, the Islanders (ranked 30th overall) are one of just two teams with a lower success rate than the Flyers. New York comes in at 74.6 percent (91-for-122) but they've scored four shorthanders (John Tavares, Andrew Ladd, Casey Cizikas and Cal Clutterbuck).
PROJECTED LINEUPS
FLYERS
28 Claude Giroux - 14 Sean Couturier - 11 Travis Konecny
12 Michael Raffl - 51 Valtteri Filppula - 93 Jakub Voracek
40 Jordan Weal - 19 Nolan Patrick - 17 Wayne Simmonds
20 Taylor Leier - 21 Scott Laughton - 22 Dale Weise
9 Ivan Provorov - 53 Shayne Gostisbehere
47 Andrew MacDonald - 8 Robert Hägg
23 Brandon Manning - 3 Radko Gudas
37 Brian Elliott
[30 Michal Neuvirth]
Scratches: 6 Travis Sanheim (healthy), 15 Jori Lehterä (healthy), 56 Tyrell Goulbourne (travel issues).
Islanders
27 Anders Lee - 91 John Tavares - 12 Josh Bailey
16 Andrew Ladd - 13 Mathew Barzal - 7 Jordan Eberle
11 Shane Prince - 29 Brock Nelson - 56 Tanner Fritz
25 Jason Chimera - 53 Casey Cizikas - 15 Cal Clutterbuck
2 Nick Leddy - 4 Dennis Seidenberg
14 Thomas Hickey - 42 Scott Mayfield
50 Adam Pelach - 6 Ryan Pulock
1 Thomas Greiss
[41 Jaroslav Halak]
Scratches: 55 Johnny Boychuk (IR, upper body), 28 Sebastian Aho (healthy), 10 Alan Quine (healthy), 44 Calvin de Haan (IR, shoulder), 86 Nikolay Kulemin (IR, upper body).
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WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS: SEMIS AND RELEGATION
The following is the game schedule for the two single-elimination semifinal games and the second game of the best-of-three relegation round (all times ET).
Noon: Belarus (Maksim Sushko) vs. Denmark; Denmark leads one game to zero.
4 p.m.: Sweden (Linus Högberg) vs USA
8 p.m.: Canada (Carter Hart) vs. Czech Republic
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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