What to watch as bad Flyers play good Islanders
Photo by Heather Barry/Broad Street Hockey
The 18-15-5 Philadelphia Flyers head to New York to play the 25-10-4 Islanders.
Here’s what to watch Thursday night:
7th of 8
Thursday night’s Flyers-Islanders match will be the seventh-of-eight meetings between the two teams.
The Flyers are 3-1-2 against the Islanders so far this season, with four of the games going into overtime. The remaining game of the season series will be played on April 18 in the City of Brotherly Love.
April & playoffs
The Flyers went into March with a record of 11-4-3 including the highest points percentage in the East Division. Since that time, the club has gone 7-11-2. The Flyers have dropped in the standings to sixth place in the Division.
Overall, Philadelphia’s play has improved at five-on-five 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 through April. 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 point-gaining week is gone when the Flyers lost 4-2 against the Bruins at the Wells Fargo Center on Tuesday.
Projected lineups
Flyers:
25 James van Riemsdyk- 14 Sean Couturier – 86 Joel Farabee
21 Scott Laughton – 13 Kevin Hayes – 19 Nolan Patrick
93 Jakub Voracek – 28 Claude Giroux – 11 Travis Konecny
23 Oskar Lindblom – 12 Michael Raffl – 62 Nicolas Aube-Kubel
9 Ivan Provorov – 61 Justin Braun
6 Travis Sanheim – 5 Phil Myers
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: 56 Erik Gustafsson (healthy), 58 Tanner Laczynski (healthy).
Injured reserve: 8 Robert Hägg (shoulder, 2-4 weeks from 3/17/21), 48 Morgan Frost (shoulder surgery).
COVID-19 protocol: None.
Islanders:
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).
Essentials
When: 7:00 P.M. E.S.T.
Where: Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum
Broadcast: NBC Sports Philadelphia
Radio: 97.5 The Fanatic
Social media coverage: Philly Sports Reports’ Twitter & Instagram.
