The Philadelphia Flyers, fresh off their seventh consecutive loss on Saturday at home against the New York Rangers, will play at UBS Arena for the first time as they take on the New York Islanders tonight at the Islanders’ new home rink.
This is the first meeting of the regular season meeting between the two rivals and both will be hungry for a win as they’re each coming off Saturday home losses to divisional rivals, as New York lost 2-0 to the Washington Capitals.
Philadelphia will be getting defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen back from COVID protocols, and he will replace Nick Seeler in the lineup for tonight’s contest. Connor Bunnaman will also enter at forward tonight in place of Max Willman.
The Islanders, who have played the least amount of games in the league at 30 due to games being postponed, are currently last in the Metropolitan Division, but they have won three of their last four games and have become relatively very healthy again as the season has worn on, only missing defenseman Ryan Pulock and forward Kyle Palmieri due to COVID protocols and injuries at the moment.
The Islanders may also be missing head coach Barry Trotz, who entered COVID protocols last week. Islanders associate coach Lane Lambert had no updates on Trotz at morning skate earlier today and Trotz was not present either.
PHI Record: 13-17-7, 33 pts, 6th in Metropolitan
NYI Record: 11-13-6, 28 pts, 8th in Metropolitan
When: 7:30pm ET
Where: UBS Arena, Elmont, NY
PHI Goalie: Martin Jones (6-5-2, .909 SV%, 3.33 GAA, 0 SO)
NYI Goalie: Ilya Sorokin (9-7-5, .925 SV%, 2.43 GAA, 3 SO)
PHI Projected Lineup
#86 Joel Farabee – #28 Claude Giroux – #89 Cam Atkinson
#23 Oskar Lindblom – #21 Scott Laughton – #11 Travis Konecny
#25 James van Riemsdyk – #13 Kevin Hayes – #20 Gerry Mayhew
#48 Morgan Frost – #82 Connor Bunnaman – #17 Zack MacEwen
#9 Ivan Provorov – #6 Travis Sanheim
#45 Cam York – #61 Justin Braun
#3 Keith Yandle – #70 Rasmus Ristolainen
#35 Martin Jones
#79 Carter Hart
NYI Projected Lineup
#27 Anders Lee – #13 Mathew Barzal – #12 Josh Bailey
#18 Anthony Beauvillier – #29 Brock Nelson – #28 Oliver Wahlstrom
#20 Kieffer Bellows – #44 Jean-Gabriel Pageau – #11 Zach Parise
#17 Matt Martin – #53 Casey Cizikas – #15 Cal Clutterbuck
#3 Adam Pelech – #24 Scott Mayfield
#33 Zdeno Chara – #8 Noah Dobson
#2 Robin Salo – #4 Andy Greene
#30 Ilya Sorokin
#40 Semyon Varlamov
Last Game PHI: 1/15/22, 3-2 L vs NY Rangers
Last Game NYI: 1/15/22, 2-0 L vs Washington
News and Notes:
– As mentioned before, this is the first meeting of the year between the two teams. It is the first game of a home-and-home as both teams will travel to Philadelphia and play tomorrow at Wells Fargo Center.
– In eight meetings last season, the Flyers went 3-1-4 against the Islanders. Philadelphia has not defeated the Islanders in their last five meetings and hasn’t won a road matchup at New York since March 18th, 2021.
– This is the 282nd regular-season matchup between the two teams since the Islanders entered the league in 1972. The Flyers own a 142-96-26-17 edge in the all-time series against the Islanders.
– Cam Atkinson has eight points in his last six games, and Oskar Lindblom has three points in his last four games. Both players have heated up and will be guys to watch for tonight.
– Cam York scored his first NHL goal last game and has two points in his last three games. He’ll play top-four minutes again tonight alongside Justin Braun and will be a force along the Philadelphia blueline.
Broadcast Info: TV – NBC Sports Philadelphia, ESPN+, Radio – 97.5 The Fanatic
Injuries:
PHI – Patrick Brown (MCL), Sean Couturier (upper-body), Nate Thompson (shoulder), Ryan Ellis (lower-body), Derick Brassard (hip)
NYI – Ryan Pulock (lower-body, COVID protocols), Kyle Palmieri (lower-body)
