The Philadelphia Flyers enter tonight’s game on the heels of a 9-game losing streak and have lost 12 of the last 14 games after starting the year 7-3-2.
Injuries continue to mount, goaltending has returned to normal, the defense has not improved all that much, and the offense is just pitiful at best. Trying to avoid another 10-game losing streak, they go head to head with the New York Islanders, who currently sit second in the division with a 14-8-0 record.
The Flyers game last night went exactly how you would have expected it to have gone against a completely healthy Pittsburgh Penguins side. The Flyers came out of the gates firing, took the first 5 shots of the game within 3 minutes and then got obliterated 15-2 the rest of the period as the Penguins mounted a 2-0 lead. They doubled their lead in the second period and then sat back and allowed Philadelphia to break their shutout in the third period.
The line juggling has been a constant theme this season and especially during the losing streak as John Tortorella is just trying to find anything that works for even just one game. Obviously it doesn’t help that Sean Couturier, Cam Atkinson, James van Riemsdyk, Travis Konecny, Scott Laughton, and Wade Allison are missing from your forward corps.
The Islanders defeated Columbus last night by a score of 3-2 to extend their winning streak to 3 games and have notched a win in 7 of their last 10. Not much was expected out of this group heading into the season as they sat back during the off-season, similarly to the Flyers. However they’ve come out of the gates firing, sit second in the division because of it, and have gotten timely goaltending on top of clutch goals from an offense that doesn’t get enough credit.
Mathew Barzal leads the way with 21 assists and 23 points in 21 games, Brock Nelson has 9 goals and 20 points, Anders Lee has 8 goals and 19 points, and Noah Dobson has 6 goals and 14 points from the back-end. Ilya Sorokin made 24 saves on 26 shots to improve his record to 10-5-0 with a 2.19 GAA and a sparkling .933 SV%. The Islanders sit 13th in the league in goals, 6th in the league in goals allowed, and have the third best penalty killing unit and 16th best power play.
PHI Record: 7-9-5, 19 pts, 7th in Metropolitan
NYI Record: 14-8-0, 28 pts, 2nd in Metropolitan
Last Game PHI: 11/25/22, 4-1 L vs Pittsburgh
Last Game NYI: 11/25/22, 3-2 W at Columbus
When: 7:30pm ET
Where: UBS Arena, Elmont, New York
PHI Goalie: Felix Sandström (1-4-1, .897 SV%, 3.38 GAA, 0 SO)
NYI Goalie: Semyon Varlamov (4-3-0, .914 SV%, 2.97 GAA, 0 SO)
PHI Projected Lineup
#49 Noah Cates – #13 Kevin Hayes – #74 Owen Tippett
#20 Kieffer Bellows – #48 Morgan Frost – #17 Zack MacEwen
#44 Nicolas Deslauriers – #58 Tanner Laczynski – #86 Joel Farabee
#71 Max Willman – #23 Lukáš Sedlák – #38 Patrick Brown
#9 Ivan Provorov – #77 Tony DeAngelo
#6 Travis Sanheim – #61 Justin Braun
#24 Nick Seeler – #55 Rasmus Ristolainen
#32 Felix Sandström
#79 Carter Hart
NYI Projected Lineup
#10 Simon Holmström – #13 Mathew Barzal – #26 Oliver Wahlstrom
#27 Anders Lee – #29 Brock Nelson – #18 Anthony Beauvillier
#11 Zach Parise – #44 Jean-Gabriel Pageau – #12 Josh Bailey
#17 Matt Martin – #53 Casey Cizikas – #15 Cal Clutterbuck
#3 Adam Pelech – #6 Ryan Pulock
#25 Sebastian Aho – #8 Noah Dobson
#28 Alexander Romanov – #24 Scott Mayfield
#40 Semyon Varlamov
#30 Ilya Sorokin
PHI Injuries: Cam Atkinson (upper-body), Sean Couturier (back), Bobby Brink (hip), Ryan Ellis (hip), James van Riemsdyk (finger), Wade Allison (hip), Travis Konecny (upper-body), Scott Laughton (upper-body)
Scratched: Jackson Cates
NYI Injuries: Kyle Palmieri (upper-body)
Scratched: Robin Salo, Ross Johnston
News and Notes
– This is the first of four meetings between the two clubs this season. Philadelphia will host two contests on November 29th, 2022, and February 6th, 2023, while the Islanders will host again on the 8th of April, 2023
– This is the 286th all-time meeting between the Flyers and Islanders. Philadelphia owns a 143-98-26-18 all-time advantage.
– Carter Hart was pulled mid-game last night after allowing 4 goals on 21 shots and made way for Felix Sandström. Sandström made all 8 saves fired his way but John Tortorella made sure to point out that it had nothing to do with Hart and the team’s performance just needed a jolt.
Broadcast Info: TV – NBCSP, Radio – 97.5 The Fanatic
