GAME 28: FLYERS @ ISLANDERS
Coming off one of the worst losses in franchise history, Alain Vigneault's Philadelphia Flyers (14-10-3) are in Long Island on Thursday to take on Barry Trotz's New York Islanders (19-7-4). Game time is 7:00 p.m. EDT. The game will be televised on NBCSP.
This is the third of eight meetings this season between the teams. Back on January 30 and 31, the Flyers (without the services of Sean Couturier) claimed 3-2 and 4-3 overtime home wins over the Islanders.
Over the last month, however, the Islanders have surged and the Flyers have struggled mightily.
Flyers Outlook
In the ugliest road shutout loss in franchise history, the Flyers got brutalized, 9-0 by the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night.
There was virtually nothing positive the Flyers could take from the last game. They failed to compete for long stretches, were so bad defensively that goaltending was a complete non-factor in the outcome. No one played well on the Philadelphia side.
The toughest night belonged to the defense pairing of Travis Sanheim (minus-six in 32 shifts, 22:01 TOI) and Phil Myers (minus-six in 33 shifts, 21:41 TOI, two minor penalties in the first period). But they had plenty of company. The Flyers gave up at least one goal in every manpower situations, yielded multiple goals off off-man rushes, didn't even get a shot on goal out of a 3-on-0 of their own when there was still a chance to establish a semblance of order to the game and made horrific decisions with and without the puck.
On Wednesday, Brian Elliott lasted 27:30, giving up five goals on 13 shots. Carter Hart went the rest of the way. He stopped 12 of 16 shots.
Lineup changes are likely for this game. At bare minimum, Oskar Lindblom and Shayne Gostisbehere -- both of whom were healthy scratches on Wednesday -- figure to re-enter the Flyers' lineup. Robert Hà¤gg did not skate any shifts after the 3:28 mark of the second period (6:12 over 10 shifts overall) and it was a 2-0 deficit at time of his last shift, so his absence was more likely an in-game injury than a benching.
The team's issues right now, however, are beyond reshuffling the deck in the starting lineup. There's not a single defensive pairing right now that is providing stabilizing shifts on the back end. Back checking support is spotty. Puck management and reads are a tire fire. Forechecking pressure and puck possession wavers wildly from period to period. Both goalies are struggling. On a virtual night-to-night basis, the Flyers need to score five or six goals to win.
For all of these reasons, the Flyers are 3-6-0 in their last nine. Thursday's game is the Flyers' 28th game of the regular season; the statistical midpoint. The club is three points out of the final playoff spot in the East Division, which is hardly insurmountable but the current Flyers team is not very hard to play against on a night-to-night basis.
Islanders Outlook
The East Division leading Islanders rattled off a nine-game winning streak before sustaining a 3-1 road loss to the Washington Capitals on Tuesday.
The Islanders announced this week that team captain and leading goal-scorer Anders Lee -- a player who tortures the Flyers in particular by dominating down low on the offensive zone, both at netfront and in puck battles behind the net -- will be out the rest of the season after undergoing ACL repair surgery.
Highly regarded young defenseman Noah Dobson may or may not be available for this game. He remains in COVID-19 protocol as of this writing, but there has been a recent spate of NHL players who spend less than 48 hours in the protocol (including Flyers' winger Joel Farabee earlier this month and Rangers' players Adam Fox and Pavel Buchnevich this week).
Mathew Barzal leads the Islanders with 24 points (9g, 15a) in 30 games played. As has been typical of Trotz's Islanders teams since his arrival, the club doesn't necessarily light up the scoreboard but they give themselves a chance to win every night because they severely limit opposing scoring chances (league-best 2.20 team GAA) and get the saves they need.
Semyon Varlamov brings a 13-5-3 record, 2.08 GAA, .926 SV% and three shutouts into the back-to-back set against the Flyers. Backup Ilya Sorokin is 6-2-1 with a 2.20 GAA, .910 save percentage and two shutouts.
At five-on-five, the Islanders have outscored opponents by a 64-47 (+17) ratio. By comparison, the Flyers have given up 70 goals at 5-on-5 (29th in the NHL) against the 57 they've scored.
Projected lineups
FLYERS (Wednesday's lineup below; will be updated)
25 James van Riemsdyk - 14 Sean Couturier - 86 Joel Farabee 21 Scott Laughton - 13 Kevin Hayes - 93 Jake Voracek 23 Oskar Lindblom - 28 Claude Giroux - 11 Travis Konecny 81 Carsen Twarynski - 19 Nolan Patrick - 62 Nicolas Aube-Kubel
9 Ivan Provorov - 61 Justin Braun 6 Travis Sanheim - 5 Phil Myers 56 Erik Gustafsson - 39 Nate Prosser
79 Carter Hart [37 Brian Elliott]
PP1: Giroux, Patrick, Farabee, Voracek, Provorov. PP2: Hayes, Couturier, Konecny, JVR, Gostisbehere.
Scratches: 53 Shayne Gostisbehere (healthy), 21 Michael Raffl (sore hand, maintenance day).
Injured reserve: 8 Robert Hà¤gg (shoulder, 2-4 weeks from 3/17/21), 48 Morgan Frost (shoulder surgery).
COVID-19 protocol: None.
ISLANDERS
7 Jordan Eberle - 13 Mathew Barzal - 20 Kieffer Bellows 18 Anthony Beauvillier - 29 Brock Nelson -12 Josh Bailey 28 Michael Dal Colle - 44 Jean-Gabriel Pageau - 26 Oliver Wahlstrom 17 Matt Martin - 53 Casey Cizikas - 15 Cal Clutterbuck…‹
2 Nick Leddy - 24 Scott Mayfield 3 Adam Pelech - 6 Ryan Pulock 4 Andy Greene - 25 Sebastian Aho…‹
40 Semyon Varlamov [30 Ilya Sorokin]
PP 1: Barzal, Nelson, Wahlstrom, Bailey, Leddy. PP 2: Pageau, Eberle, Bellows, Beauvillier, Pulock. …‹
Scratches:11 Austin Czarnik (healthy), 32 Ross Johnston (healthy). 47 Leo Komarov (healthy).
Injured Reserve: 27 Anders Lee (ACL surgery).
COVID-19 protocol: 8 Noah Dobson
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Another Phantoms Postponement
For the third time in the course of a week, a game between the Lehigh Valley Phantoms and the Binghamton Devils has been postponed by the American Hockey League for COVID-19 related reason. On Wednesday, the Phantoms' home game against the Devils was postponed several hours before the scheduled opening faceoff.
The suspended (1-1 after the first period) and postponed road games in Newark came about due to a COVID-related situation on the Devils' roster. Wednesday's postponement, apparently, came about because of a situation on the Phantoms.
The Phantoms' next scheduled game is on Friday; a road game against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (5:00 p.m. EDT start time). This past Sunday, the Phantoms skated to a 4-1 win over the Hershey Bears in a game highlighted by the first career AHL goals of Tyson Foerster and Wade Allison.