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Flyers Gameday: 3/3/19 @ NYI

March 3, 2019, 10:12 AM ET [190 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Game 66 Preview: FLYERS @ ISLANDERS

Interim head coach Scott Gordon's Philadelphia Flyers (31-26-8) are in Uniondale on Sunday to take on Barry Trotz's New York Islanders (37-20-7). Game time at the Nassau Coliseum is 3:00 p.m. ET.

The game will be televised on NBCSNP. The radio broadcast can be found on 97.5 FM The Fanatic with an online simulcast at FlyersRadio247.com.

This is the second of four meetings between the Metro Division teams this season, and the first of two in New York. They will rematch at Nassau Coliseum on March 9. The season series concludes at the Wells Fargo Center on March 23.

In Philadelphia on Oct. 27, the Flyers suffered an ugly 6-2 blowout loss to the Islanders. Brock Nelson scored twice for the Islanders, while Leo Komarov, Anthony Beauvillier, Adam Pelec and Anders Lee (power play) tallied one apiece. Michal Neuvirth stopped 16 shots off 22 shots. Robin Lehner made 22 saves on 23 shots. The Flyers went 0-for-3 on the power play, and 2-for-3 on the penalty kill.

Flyers Outlook

The Flyers are 16-4-2 over their last 22 games. However, the team is eight points (seven standings points plus a ROW tiebreaker disadvantage) below the playoff cutoff line with only 16 games remaining. The Flyers have earned points from seven of their last 10 games (6-3-1).

On Friday in Newark, the Flyers skated to a 6-3 win over the New Jersey Devils. The Flyers received power play and even strength goals (18th and 19th) in the first period plus a late-game assist (16th) from James van Riemsdyk. The Flyers built a 2-0 lead by the first intermission despite a sluggish start, only for the Devils to come back to erase the deficit in the second period.

Travis Konecny scored a lucky goal off his skate to restore a 3-2 lead late in the second period and an empty netter in the third period (19th and 20th). Ivan Provorov scored a deflection goal (7th) that gave the Flyers a 5-2 lead in the third period after Sean Couturier (26th) restored a two-goal margin.

Jakub Voracek racked up three more assists (39th, 40th, 41st) while Claude Giroux (48th and 49th) had two helpers. The Flyers got one assist apiece from Ryan Hartman (11th overall, 1st as a Flyer), Travis Sanheim (20th) and Scott Laughton (15th).

Cam Talbot earned the win in his first game as a Flyer, stopping 30 of 33 shots. The Flyers set an NHL record by using their eighth different goaltender of the season; all of whom started at least one game.

Although his scoring pace has slowed in the second half of the season, Giroux still leads the team overall with 68 points (19 goals, 49 assists) in 65 games played. With 233 career goals, he is two behind tying Rod Brind'Amour for 10th on the Flyers' all-time list. This season, he's already vaulted to second on the all-time assist list (505 at present), third in games played (803) and fourth in points (745).

The Flyers had an off-day on Saturday, as did the Islanders. The projected lineups below will be updated prior to game time.


Islanders Outlook

Trotz, who has 799 career wins as an NHL head coach, is a shoo-in for the Jack Adams Award as the NHL's coach of the year in 2018-19. Last year, the Islanders finished with 80 points and had a league-worst team 3.57 goals against average. Over the summer, they lost franchise player John Tavares to the Toronto Maple Leafs as an unrestricted free agent.

Trotz has come in, implemented structure and team-wide pride in 200-foot play. In so doing, the Islanders have become more than the sum of their parts with a roster than looks ordinary on paper. Entering Sunday, the team is in first place in the Metro with 81 points. The biggest turnaround: The Isles bring in the NHL's best team goals against average (2.32 GAA) along with the league's top five-on-five goal differential ratio (1.39). The Isles and Washington Capitals are tied in points, but the Islanders hold first place by virtue of having played one fewer game.

Both the Islanders and Flyers are playing for the third time in less than four nights, and for the fourth time in less than six nights. Thus, there is no on-paper fatigue factor advantage or disadvantage for either club. The only logistical difference is that all of the Isles games this past week have been at home, while the Flyers played relatively short-distance travel games to Columbus on Thursday and Newark on Friday.

On Thursday, the host Islanders stomped Toronto, 6-1, in Tavares' (less-than-warmly-welcomed) first game back in New York after his departure last summer. The Islanders had to turn right around the next night and play Washington in a four-point swing divisional game. The Islanders suffered a 3-1 setback.

Tom Kuhnhackl's early first period breakaway goal stood up until the third period before the Capitals rallied for three unanswered goals (Jakub Vrana at even strength, Alex Ovechkin on the power play and an empty net own goal by Josh Bailey that was credited to Washington's T.J. Oshie). The Isles mustered only 21 shots for the game. Thomas Greiss stopped 26 of 28 shots in a losing cause.

Projected Lines (Subject to change)

FLYERS

28 Claude Giroux - 19 Nolan Patrick - 11 Travis Konecny
23 Oskar Lindblom - 14 Sean Couturier - 12 Michael Raffl
25 James van Riemsdyk - 21 Scott Laughton - 38 Ryan Hartman
44 Phil Varone - 10 Corban Knight

9 Ivan Provorov - 6 Travis Sanheim
53 Shayne Gostisbehere - 61 Phillipe Myers
8 Robert Hägg - 3 Radko Gudas
47 Andrew MacDonald

37 Brian Elliott
[33 Cam Talbot]

Scratches: 93 Jakub Voracek (lower body), 5 Sam Morin (healthy), 72 Carter Hart (lower body), 30 Michal Neuvirth (IR, lower body).

ISLANDERS

27 Anders Lee - 29 Brock Nelson - 7 Jordan Eberle
18 Anthony Beauvillier - 13 Mathew Barzal - 12 Josh Bailey
14 Tom Kuhnkackl -51 Valtteri Filppula - 47 Leo Komarov
32 Ross Johnston - 53 Casey Cizikas - 15 Cal Clutterbuck​

2 Nick Leddy - 55 Johnny Boychuk
3 Adam Pelech - 6 Ryan Pulock
24 Scott Mayfield - 25 Devon Toews​

30 Robin Lehner
[1 Thomas Greiss]

Scratches: 4 Thomas Hickey (healthy), 16 Andrew Ladd (healthy), 21 Luca Sbisa (healthy), 44 Dennis Seidenberg (healthy), 17 Matt Martin (day-to-day, upper body).
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