Wanna blog? Start your own hockey blog with My HockeyBuzz. Register for free today!
 

Flyers Gameday: 4/8/21 @ NYI

April 8, 2021, 8:19 AM ET [570 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
GAME 39:  FLYERS vs. ISLANDERS

Alain Vigneault's Philadelphia Flyers (18-15-5) are in Uniondale on Thursday to take on Barry Trotz's New York Islanders (25-10-4). Game time at the Nassau Coliseum is 7:00 p.m. EDT. The game will be televised on NBCSP.

This is the seventh of eight meetings this season between the teams. The Flyers are 3-1-2 against New York to date this season, with four of the games going to overtime. The remaining game of the season series will be played on April 18 at the Wells Fargo Center.

Flyers Outlook

The Flyers entered the month of March with an 11-4-3 record and the highest points percentage in the East Division. Since that time, the club has gone 7-11-2. The Flyers have plummeted in the standings to sixth place in the Division.

Overall, Philadelphia's play has improved significantly at 5-on-5 since the calendar flipped to April. Nonetheless, the bottom line is that the Flyers have only picked up three of six possible points so far this month. Entering this week, with three games against Boston sandwiched around tonight's game against the Islanders, the Flyers realistically needed at least seven of eight possible points and several regulation wins among them.

Any hopes of a ground-gaining week flew out the window when the Flyers yielded a killer shorthanded goal in the third period of what had been a tied (2-2) game against the Bruins at the Wells Fargo Center on Tuesday. The Bruins went on to win, 4-2.

With the Flyers in the midst of a 3-in-4 stretch of games (which will become a 4-in-6 by Saturday and a 5-in-7 by Sunday), the team will once again have to use open dates on the game schedule as rest opportunities rather than practice days. Wednesday was a complete off-day for the team. The team will hold a morning skate today.

Defenseman Robert Hägg, who suffered a shoulder injury on March 17, is very close to being ready to be activated from the injured reserve list. That could happen as soon as today.

Islanders Outlook

The Islanders made a significant trade yesterday with the New Jersey Devils, receiving veteran impending unrestricted free agent forwards Kyle Palmieri, Travis Zajac and 50 percent salary retention on both players for the rest of the season. In return, the Islanders sent a 2021 first-round pick, a conditional 2022 fourth-round selection, plus minor league forwards A.J. Greer and Mason Jobst.

On Tuesday, the Islanders shut out the visiting Washington Capitals, 1-0. Semyon Varlamov stopped all 29 shots he faced. Brock Nelson broke a scoreless deadlock with 6:55 remaining in the third period, assisted by Josh Bailey and Ryan Pulock.

Entering Thursday, the Islanders are tied for first place with the Capitals in both points and points percentage and regulation wins. The Caps own the ROW secondary tiebreaker (23-22), as the Islanders have one fewer overtime win and one more shootout win than the Capitals. That slimmest of disparities came about in the Islanders' 3-2 shootout win over the Flyers on April 3, which was followed by the Caps beating the Devils, 5-4, this past Sunday. The lsles then proceeded to pull even in points with their 1-0 home regulation win at the Caps' expense on Tuesday.

The projected lineup will be updated later today.


Projected lineups

FLYERS

25 James van Riemsdyk- 14 Sean Couturier - 23 Oskar Lindblom
21 Scott Laughton - 13 Kevin Hayes - 86 Joel Farabee
93 Jakub Voracek - 28 Claude Giroux - 11 Travis Konecny
12 Michael Raffl - 19 Nolan Patrick - 62 Nicolas Aube-Kubel

9 Ivan Provorov - 61 Justin Braun
6 Travis Sanheim - 8 Robert Hägg
55 Sam Morin - 53 Shayne Gostisbehere

79 Carter Hart
[37 Brian Elliott]

PP1: Giroux, Patrick, Farabee, Voracek, Provorov.
PP2: Hayes, Couturier, JVR, Konecny, Gostisbehere.

Scratches: 5 Phil Myers (healthy), 56 Erik Gustafsson (healthy), 58 Tanner Laczynski (healthy).

Injured reserve: 48 Morgan Frost (shoulder surgery).

COVID-19 protocol: None.

ISLANDERS (Tuesday's lineup, before yesterday's trade)

47 Leo Komarov- 13 Mathew Barzal - 7 Jordan Eberle
18 Anthony Beauvillier - 29 Brock Nelson -12 Josh Bailey
20 Kieffer Bellows - 44 Jean-Gabriel Pageau - 26 Oliver Wahlstrom
15 Cal Clutterbuck - 53 Casey Cizikas - 17 Matt Martin ​

3 Adam Pelech - 6 Ryan Pulock
2 Nick Leddy - 4 Andy Greene
24 Scott Mayfield - 8 Noah Dobson​

40 Semyon Varlamov
30 Ilya Sorokin ​

PP 1: Barzal, Martin, Beauvillier, Eberle, Leddy
PP 2: Pageau, Nelson, Wahlstrom, Bailey, Pulock

Acquired April 7, 2021: (21) Kyle Palmieri, (19) Travis Zajac.

Scratches: 25 Sebastian Aho (healthy), 32 Ross Johnston (healthy), 35 Cory Schneider (healthy).

Injured Reserve: 27 Anders Lee (ACL surgery), 28 Michael Dal Colle (resumed skating).
Join the Discussion: » 570 Comments » Post New Comment
More from Bill Meltzer
» Flyers Gameday: 3/28/24 @ MTL
» Wrap: Flyers Lose 6-5 OT Game to Rangers
» Flyers Gameday: 3/26/24 @ NYR
» Quick Hits: Flyers-FLA Wrap, Flyers Daily, Phantoms, Bigger than Hockey
» Flyers Gameday: 3/24/2024 vs. FLA; Phantoms Update