Wrap: Flyers Overcome Islanders in OT, 3-2
In a game that was reminiscent of the three they won in the 2020 Eastern Conference Semifinals, the Philadelphia Flyers played one strong regulation period (the first in this case), got dominated for most of the other two periods, built up a lead only to see the New York Islanders erase it and were a bit lucky to get the game to overtime.
Then, in the extra frame, the Flyers suddenly found their mojo and delivered a victory. All three of the Philadelphia wins in that series more or less went that way, and it happened again in the teams' first meeting of the 2020-21 regular season.
On Saturday night, the Flyers came out and played perhaps their best all-around first period of the season to date. The puck support was strong, the pursuit was dogged. Philly was opportunistic on their scoring chances and, despite not generating a lot of shots on goal, had a good forecheck going for the majority of the period.
Nifty give-and-go tallies by Jakub Voracek (2nd goal of the season) off a Claude Giroux pass and by Kevin Hayes (4th) from a James van Riemsdyk pass established a 2-0 lead.
The rest of regulation wasn't pretty. But Carter Hart (26 saves on 28 shots, including 11 saves in the third period) prevented the Islanders from ever taking the lead. Jordan Eberle (3rd goal of the season) and defenseman Scott Mayfield (1st) tied the game in the second period.
In overtime, Shayne Gostisbehere broke up a play at the defensive blueline and sprung Scott Laughton on a counterattack. Moving to his left over the middle, Laughton beat Varlamov to end the game at 3:16 of overtime.
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GAME 10: FLYERS vs. ISLANDERS
In the second half of a weekend back-to-back set. Alain Vigneault's Philadelphia Flyers (6-2-1) host Barry Trotz's New York Islanders (3-4-1) at the Wells Fargo Center on Sunday night. Game time is 7:00 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on NBCSP.
The teams will play each other again on March 18 and 20th in Long Island, April 3 in Long Island, April 8 in Long Island and conclude the season series back in Philadelphia with games on April 18 and 25.
The Flyers have won three straight games and have points in five of their last six games (4-1-1) despite not playing anything close to their best hockey -- at least over the balance of 60 minutes -- in any of their nine games played to date.
The Islanders, who have scored just 16 goals through eight games to date, got off to a 3-1-0 start but have lost each of their last four games (0-3-1) heading into Sunday. The team can take away a lot of post first-period positives from their performance in Saturday's game but they are still looking to increase their bottom-line output.
Flyers Outlook
Travis Konecny (5g, 3a), who was one of the players with whom Vigneault has been unhappy with his 200-foot game at five-on-five, was a healthy scratch on Saturday. Konecny was also in a bit of an offensive mini-slump despite his solid overall point totals, as he had a combined one shot on goal and zero scoring chances in the Flyers second game in Boston plus their two wins in New Jersey.
Konecny will return to the Flyers' lineup on Sunday, per Alain Vigneault's postgame comments following Saturday's overtime win.
Samuel Morin made his 2020-21 regular season debut for the Flyers on Saturday, and played his first-ever NHL game at left wing rather than center. He skated 5:31 over nine shifts. On the downside, Morin appeared to struggle at times with his defensive assignments; not knowing where to go on the shift that led to the Mayfield goal. As left wing, his responsibility is to cover the right point man. Instead, Morin roamed around the D zone and then dropped back (ala a defenseman) before finally coming out to Mayfield in the right circle. On the brighter side, Morin recorded three hits and blocked a shot.
Morin is likely to exit the lineup again on Sunday, with Konecny returning.
Phil Myers (rib injury) returned ahead of schedule to the Flyers' lineup on Saturday. He skated 23:17 of ice time and had an active overall game despite a couple of turnovers.
With the Flyers in action for the third time in four nights and on the second game of the b2b, Brian Elliott will make his third start of the regular season to date.
Sean Couturier (ribs) has been skating with Flyers skills coach Angelo Ricci -- and was joined by Myers on Friday, along with taxi squad left winger Samuel Morin -- but is still about two weeks from being ready to play, per Vigneault.
Morgan Frost (dislocated left shoulder) is on injured reserve and has yet to skate since getting injured on Jan. 19.
Islanders Outlook
It seems that the Islanders plan, despite also being in their third game in four nights, is to roll again with Varlamov in goal.
As he did frequently in the playoff series against the Flyers, Anders Lee gave the Flyers' fits on the forecheck, although he was held off the scoresheet. Eberle was buzzing for much of the game and Matthew Barzal had an assist, four shots on goal in six attempts and 22:30 of ice time. Matt Martin was credited with eight hits and linemate Cal Clutterbuck was credited with four.
The Islanders strategy coming into Sunday is no mystery. They will try to duplicate their aggressive offensive zone and neutral zone pressure to make it as tough as possible for the Flyers to get up ice. The only differences: New York will aim to establish it from the get-go rather than when playing from behind, and they need to start burying more of their own scoring chances.
Anthony Beauvillier suffered a leg injury on Jan. 23 and was played on injured reserve.
Projected lineups (Subject to change)
FLYERS
23 Oskar Lindblom - 13 Kevin Hayes - 11 Travis Konecny
28 Claude Giroux - 19 Nolan Patrick - 93 Jakub Voracek
25 James van Riemsdyk - 21 Scott Laughton - 86 Joel Farabee
12 Michael Raffl - 82 Connor Bunnaman - 62 Nicolas Aube-Kubel
9 Ivan Provorov - 53 Shayne Gostisbehere
6 Travis Sanheim - 5 Phil Myers
8 Robert Hägg - 61 Justin Braun
37 Brian Elliott
[79 Carter Hart]
PP1: Giroux, Hayes, Voracek, JVR, Provorov
PP2: Lindblom, Patrick, Farabee, Sanheim, Gostisbehere
Scratches: 14 Sean Couturier (IR, costochondral separation), 55 Samuel Morin (healthy), 48 Morgan Frost (IR, dislocated shoulder), 3 Mark Friedman (healthy), 56 Erik Gustafsson (healthy).
ISLANDERS
27 Anders Lee - 13 Mathew Barzal - 12 Josh Bailey
11 Austin Czarnik - 29 Brock Nelson - 7 Jordan Eberle
41 Dmytro Timashov - 44 Jean-Gabriel Pageau - 28 Michael Dal Colle
17 Matt Martin - 53 Casey Cizikas - 15 Cal Clutterbuck
3 Adam Pelech - 6 Ryan Pulock
2 Nick Leddy - 24 Scott Mayfield
4 Andy Greene - 8 Noah Dobson
30 Ilya Sorokin
[40 Semyon Varlamov]
PP 1: Lee, Barzal, Eberle, Dobson, Pulock
PP 2: Czarnik, Nelson, Pageau, Bailey, Leddy
Scratches: 18 Anthony Beauvillier (leg, IR), 25 Sebastian Aho (healthy), 47 Leo Komarov (healthy), 2 Ross Johnston (healthy).
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