Rick Tocchet's Philadelphia Flyers (37-26-12) are in Elmont on Friday to take on Patrick Roy's New York Islanders (42-29-5). This is the fourth and final game of the season series between the teams. The Flyers are 2-1-0 against the Islanders to date this season. Both wins came via shootout victories.
Game time at UBS Arena is 7:00 p.m. EDT. The game will be televised on NBCSP+ and NHL Network.
All three teams in closest proximity to the third-place spot in the Metropolitan Divison -- the Islanders (89 points, 29 regulation wins), Columbus Blue Jackets (88 points, 27 RW) and Flyers (86 points, 23 RW) -- have lost back-to-back games in regulation.
On Thursday at Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia, the Flyers lost a 4-2 contest with the Detroit Red Wings. Philly never led at any point of the night but controlled puck possession and had more scoring chances throughout the night. However, only results matter (especially by this late stage of the season). The Flyers squandered one of the two games in hand they had on the Islanders coming into the night.
In a losing cause, Tyson Foerster (11th goal of the season) marked his return to the lineup for the first time since suffering an upper body injury on December 1. Rookie right wing Porter Martone made his home debut with nine shots on goal (14 shot attempts) and the primary assist on a third period goal by Travis Konecny (27th).
Idle on Thursday, the Islanders dropped both ends of a back-to-back earlier this week. On Tuesday, Islanders led the Pittsburgh Penguins by scores of 2-0 and 3-1 early in the second period. However, Pittsburgh exploded for seven unanswered goals to defeat the Islanders by an 8-3 count. The next night, the host Buffalo Sabres beat the Islanders, 4-3.
Islanders captain Anders Lee had an unsuccessful penalty shot attempt in the second period with New York trailing 1-0. Lee later scored his 18th goal of the season. Former Flyers center Brayden Schenn had a goal (17th) and an assist in a losing cause. Calum Ritchie (12th) had the other goal. Bo Horvat assisted on all three Islanders goals.
Here are the RAV4 Things to watch on Thursday.
1. Hit the net
After Thursday's loss to Detroit, Tocchet reiterated two recurring themes that have plagued the Flyers in numerous losses where their general process was good but the result was negative. The first issue: missing the net on shot attempts (or passing up open shot lanes looking for a "perfect" play). Against the Red Wings, the Flyers missed the net on a whopping 21 shot attempts. Philly would win puck battles, get traffic to the net and then fire wide or high.
There were also a handful of initial shots that made it on the net and produced a rebound but the second attempt missed. Philly also had 17 shot attempts get blocked. In total, the Flyers had a combined 38 shot attempts that did not get to the opposing goaltender against 34 that did.
2. Pucks in dangerous areas
The other area Tocchet pointed toward after the Red Wings game: puck management in dangerous areas of the ice. This encompasses the areas above the circles in both the attacking and defending zones as well as coming through the neutral zone. On Thursday, a couple of bad plays high in the offensive zone and near the red line resulted in Detroit goals.
This topic further relates to recognizing the dangerous man -- a trailer, a target driving to the slot or the net -- and not getting caught puck watching.
Over the last two games, look at some of the players who've scored against the Flyers: Alex Ovechkin, Tom Wilson, Jakub Chychrun, Patrick Kane, Alex Debrincat. These are the players team specifically game plan to contain as much as possible. On Thursday, Debrincat scored twice and Kane had a three-point game (1g, 2a).
3. Between the pipes
Dan Vladar will get the start on Friday. The prospective Bobby Clarke Trophy winner has had an excellent overall season but has recently shown signs of potential fatigue. The New York prescout videos likely detected that Vladar had been beaten cleanly to the glove side a few times in his three most recent starts. Look for the Islanders to try to test the Czech Olympian up high.
The Flyers have rarely had much success in solving New York's Ilya Sorokin. Including a shutout against Philly the last time the two teams met, Sorokin is 12-3-3 against the Flyers. He's posted a 1.53 goals against average, .946 save percentage and five shutouts in 18 career outings. Sorokin, however, was strafed by Pittsburgh on Tuesday and took another loss in Buffalo the next night. Overall this season, Sorokin is 28-20-2 with a 2.59 GAA, .910 save percentage and seven shutouts.
4. Special teams
Special teams proved costly in each of Philadelphia's last two games, as well as multiple other winnable games this season where Philly came away with zero points or one point. The Flyers went 0-for-4 on the power play in Washington and 0-for-1 against the Red Wings. Moreover, they were just 1-for-3 on the PK against the Capitals and 1-for-2 against the Red Wings.
For the Flyers to beat the Islanders, it's imperative to get back to what Philly did successfully on their California road trip sweep as well as their recent hope victory over the powerhouse Dallas Stars. Scratch out a power play goal, hang tough when down a man and at least do no worse than breaking even on special teams
