I am in the Flyers' pressroom prior to tonight's meeting with the now struggling NY Islanders. After having the pressbox loaded with a dozen or more scouts for each of the first two games of this three game homestand tonight it will be all but deserted with only Chris Patrick of the Capitals on the list. After a pretty strong start the Isles are really struggling (8-12-3) of late with first string goalie Evgeni Nabakov on the sidelines with a severe groin pull. Isles TV color commentator Butch Goring just told me it looks as if this could be a six week injury for him so they will be going pretty much exclusively with Kevin Poulin who was just expected to be a backup this year playing perhaps twenty games. Poulin has a total of 31 games of NHL experience and is 3-7-0 this year so far (2.92, 896). His backup is rookie Anders Nilsson who is 1-2-0 with just four total NHL games under his belt. (Butch says that the Isle have nobody in Bridgeport that is ready to play gaol at this level.) Also out for the Isles are defensemen Lubimir Visnovsky and Brian Strait.
There are expected to be no changes in lines and D pairs for the Flyers from Thursday's game with Buffalo except in goal with Mason back in.
19 Hartnell - 28 Giroux - 93 Voracek 10 Schenn - 40 Lecavalier - 17 Simmonds 9 Downie - 14 Couturier - 24 Read 37 Rosehill - 18 Hall - 36 Rinaldo
44 Timonen - 5 Coburn 8 Grossmann - 32 Streit 26 Gustafsson - 22 Schenn
29 Emery 35 Mason (start)
Scratches: Raffl, Meszaros, Gill