Game 39 Preview: Flyers vs. Islanders
In the back half of a home-and-home set, interim head coach Mike Yeo's Philadelphia Flyers (13-18-7) will rematch with Barry Trotz's New York Islanders (12-13-6). The venue shifts to the Wells Fargo Center. Game time is 7:00 p.m. ET (NBCSP, 97.5 The Fanatic).
On Monday night, the Islanders defeated the Flyers by a 4-1 score. The game was scoreless in the first period and remained 0-0 past the midpoint of regulation. The Islanders soon for tallies by Brock Nelson (team-high 11th of the season) and Casey Cizikas (1st) spaced 2:44 apart. Later, a puck-luck goal on an attempted pass by Travis Konecny (6th) of the season cut the deficit to 2-1. In the third period, Anthony Beauvillier (6th) extended the New York lead to 3-1. Matt Martin (1st) tacked on an empty net goal.
For the Flyers, Martin Jones stopped 27 of 30 shots in a losing cause. Ilya Sorokin was beaten only on the fluky Konecny goal and won the game with 26 saves on 27 shots.
The Flyers drag an eight-game winless streak (0-6-2) into this game. The Islanders have won two of their three games since a 12-day schedule hiatus earlier this month due to the pandemic-related postponement of a four-game road trip.
Carter Hart will get the start in goal for the Flyers in the return game. Neither team will hold a morning skate. Yeo will announce his lineup around 4:30 p.m. today.
In today's 5 Things feature on the Flyers official website, we look in depth at the Flyers' performance since Yeo took over as head coach, issues plauging the team in its winless month of January, the Islanders strengths (defensive structure and goaltending) and weaknesses (goal scoring woes, lessened blueline speed ) and the Flyers' goalie rotation.
PROJECTED LINEUPS
FLYERS
86 Joel Farabee - 28 Claude Giroux - 89 Cam Atkinson 23 Oskar Lindblom - 21 Scott Laughton - 11 Travis Konecny 25 James van Riemsdyk - 48 Morgan Frost - 20 Gerry Mayhew 71 Max Willman - 82 Connor Bunnaman - 17 Zack MacEwen
9 Ivan Provorov -61 Justin Braun 45 Cam York - 6 Travis Sanheim 3 Keith Yandle - 70 Rasmus Ristolainen
79 Carter Hart [35 Martin Jones]
ISLANDERS
27 Anders Lee — 13 Mathew Barzal — 12 Josh Bailey 18 Anthony Beauvillier — 29 Brock Nelson— 26 Oliver Wahlstrom 20 Kieffer Bellows— 44 Jean-Gabriel Pageau — 11 Zach Parise 17 Matt Martin — 53 Casey Cizikas — 15 Cal Clutterbuck
3 Adam Pelech — 24 Scott Mayfield 33 Zdeno Chara— 8 Noah Dobson 2 Robin Salo — 4 Andy Greene
40 Semyon Varlamov [30 Ilya Sorokin]