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Flyers Gameday: 3/20/21 @ NYI |
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GAME 29: FLYERS @ ISLANDERS
Alain Vigneault's Philadelphia Flyers (15-10-3) are in Long Island on Thursday to take on Barry Trotz's New York Islanders (19-8-4). Game time at Nassau Coliseum is 7:00 p.m. EDT. The game will be televised on NBCSP.
This is the fourth 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. On March 18 in Uniondale, the Flyers built a 3-0 lead through two periods, saw the Islanders come back to the tie the game and then restore a lead with 2:22 left to skate off with a 4-3 regulation win.
With 28 games down and 28 to go, the Flyers are at the statistical midpoint of the regular season. The Flyers are below the playoff cutoff line in the East Division, trailing the fourth-place Boston Bruins by three points and the third-place Pittsburgh Penguins by four points (with two games in hand). Boston is idle tonight following the COVID-19 related postponement of their game against the Buffalo Sabres. The Penguins are on the road to play a matinee against the New Jersey Devils.
The Islanders, who rattled off a nine-game winning streak before losing their last two games, enter play on Saturday two points (with one more game played) behind the East Division leading Washington Capitals. They are five points ahead of the Penguins, six ahead of the Bruins and nine ahead of the Flyers.
Flyers Outlook
An in-depth look at the state of the Flyers halfway through the 2020-21 season will be available later this morning on the team's official website. Saturday's game is the Flyers' third in four nights and fourth in six nights. By next Tuesday, the Flyers will have played six times in nine nights.
For two-plus periods on Thursday, the Flyers did a much better job in puck support, coverages and pressure than they had for most of the season --- an encouraging response to the 9-0 thrashing they received from the New York Rangers one night earlier. Things went south as the Isles scored three straight goals to tie the game but the first and second periods were some of the best hockey Philadelphia has played this season.
Carter Hart carried a shutout for roughly 50 minutes of Thursday's game, but still did not look like he was at maximum sharpness or self-confidence. Of the three goals that New York scored, the first looked stoppable, the second was partially deflected off the stick of Flyers' defenseman Travis Sanheim and the third was a point blank chance for a wide open Oliver Wahlstrom that Hart wasn't quite able to get enough of keep out of the net.
A healthy scratch on Wednesday against the Rangers, Oskar Lindblom rebounded with two goals against the Isles; his first tallies since scoring in the first (a puck than glanced off his helmet) and second (empty net goal) games of the season. His line with Claude Giroux (1g, 1a) and Travis Konecny (3a) accounted for three of the Flyers' four goals. Konecny leads the Flyers offensively in March with 10 points in 10 games.
Moving forward, one of the biggest challenges the Flyers face is not just to get Hart and the recently struggling Brian Elliott back on top of their respective games but also get defensemen Travis Sanheim (minus-12 in 10 games played), Phil Myers (minus-11 in eight games played) and Shayne Gostisbehere (minus-10 in eight games played) to stabilize their own games.
Scoring goals has not been much of a problem for the Flyers this season. However, they'd like to see Lindblom build upon his performance from Thursday and also to get Nolan Patrick (one goal, zero assists in his last 21 games) contributing some offensive production.
Depending on how Michael Raffl (hand injury, non-fracture) is feeling, he could return to the lineup after being rested on Thursday. If he returns, Carsen Twarynski would be the most likely player to exit the lineup.
Islanders Outlook
Coming off a 3-1 loss to the Capitals and Thursday and the 4-3 loss to the Flyers, the Islanders will look to get back on the winning track tonight. They were uncharacteristically sloppy for the first two periods on Thursday.
The Islanders announced earlier 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. His presence was clearly missed in the last game against the Flyers.
Islanders Nick Leddy assisted on all three of his team's goals during their comeback in the third period. In 31 games played this season, he has 20 assists among his 21 points.
Highly regarded young defenseman Noah Dobson remains in COVID-19 protocol as of thus morning.
Projected lineups
FLYERS (Thursday's lineup; 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 Hägg (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
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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