The Philadelphia Flyers host the New York Islanders this afternoon at Wells Fargo Center in what is officially the first game of the post-Claude Giroux era. The longtime Flyers captain and franchise icon was dealt along with Connor Bunnaman, German Rubtsov, and a 2024 5th-round pick to the Florida Panthers in exchange for Owen Tippett, a 2024 1st round pick, and a 2023 3rd round pick. Today is the first home game without Giroux in the lineup and it will certainly have an eerie, somber feeling about itself.
Owen Tippett will make his Flyers debut today, wearing jersey #74. The 10th overall pick in the 2017 NHL Draft by the Panthers has 14 points in 42 games this season and 33 points in 94 career NHL games. He’s a speedy, physical winger who slot in on the third line today.
The Flyers are coming off a sloppy defeat on Thursday night against the Ottawa Senators. Cam Atkinson scored his team-leading 23rd goal of the season, and that would stand as the lone tally for the Flyers in a 3-1 Senators win. With the trade deadline looming on Monday, expect more players from today’s game to be on different teams in the next couple days, mainly any pending unrestricted free agents such as Derick Brassard, Justin Braun, and Martin Jones. Braun is already being held out as part of asset management, so expect him to definitely be traded.
PHI Record: 19-31-11, 49 pts, 7th in Metropolitan
NYI Record: 26-24-9, 61 pts, 6th in Metropolitan
When: 2:00pm ET
Where: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, PA
PHI Goalie: Carter Hart (12-19-7, .910 SV%, 2.99 GAA, 1 SO)
NYI Goalie: Ilya Sorokin (21-12-7, .926 SV%, 2.30 GAA, 6 SO)
PHI Projected Lineup
#25 James van Riemsdyk – #19 Derick Brassard – #89 Cam Atkinson
#86 Joel Farabee – #13 Kevin Hayes – #11 Travis Konecny
#23 Oskar Lindblom – #48 Morgan Frost – #74 Owen Tippett
#71 Max Willman – #38 Patrick Brown – #17 Zack MacEwen
#9 Ivan Provorov – #45 Cam York
#6 Travis Sanheim – #70 Rasmus Ristolainen
#3 Keith Yandle – #24 Nick Seeler
#79 Carter Hart
#35 Martin Jones
NYI Projected Lineup
#27 Anders Lee – #29 Brock Nelson – #18 Anthony Beauvillier
#12 Josh Bailey – #44 Jean-Gabriel Pageau – #21 Kyle Palmieri
#11 Zach Parise – #13 Mathew Barzal – #26 Oliver Wahlstrom
#15 Matt Martin – #53 Casey Cizikas – #20 Kieffer Bellows
#33 Zdeno Chara – #8 Noah Dobson
#3 Adam Pelech – #6 Ryan Pulock
#25 Sebastian Aho – #24 Scott Mayfield
#30 Ilya Sorokin
#40 Semyon Varlamov
Last Game PHI: 3/18/22, 3-1 L at Ottawa
Last Game NYI: 3/19/22, 4-2 W vs. Dallas
News and Notes:
– This is the final matchup of the season between the two teams. New York has won every single game so far, including two consecutive 4-3 wins, but the Flyers will look to change that today.
– Cam Atkinson will don an “A” as he did on Friday and the Flyers will continue to run three alternate captains in place of Claude Giroux’s vacant “C”.
Broadcast Info: TV – TNT, Radio – 97.5 The Fanatic
Injuries:
PHI – Sean Couturier (back), Nate Thompson (shoulder), Ryan Ellis (lower-body), Scott Laughton (concussion)
NYI – none
