Philadelphia Flyers

Flyers Gameday: 3/30/17 vs NYI
March 30, 2017, 8:47 AM ET [186 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
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PREVIEW: FLYERS VS. ISLANDERS

In the second game of a three-game homestand, Dave Hakstol's Philadelphia Flyers (36-32-8) play host to Doug Weight's New York Islanders (35-28-12). Game time at the Wells Fargo Center is 7:00 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on CSN Philadelphia.

This is the fourth and final meeting of the season between the Metropolitan Division teams. The Flyers are 2-1-0 thus far but one win was via shootout and the other came in overtime. The Islanders claimed a 3-1 win in Philadelphia on Feb. 19.

Flyers Outlook

Factoring their tiebreaker disadvantage, the Flyers are seven points out of the final Eastern Conference playoff spot with just six games left on the schedule. Continuing a trend that has spanned the last three seasons -- albeit with enough improvement last season to eke out a playoff spot -- the Flyers are just 14-21-4 on the road this season but 22-11-4 at home.

The team has scored 33 even-strength goals over past 14 games (2.36 per game average); a jump up from the modest season average of 1.53 (116 even strength goals in 76 games). Unfortunately, the power play that had been the team's offensive lifeline for the first three months has been on a rollercoaster ride since then and struggling to finish of chances of late. The Flyers' power play snapped an 0-for-16 skid on Tuesday, although scoring chances were abundant.

On Tuesday, the Flyers erased a pair of one-goal deficits and claimed the bonus point from a shootout in a 3-2 win over the visiting Ottawa Senators. Brayden Schenn's 16th power play goal of the season and Jordan Weal's game-tying unassisted goal in the third period off a giveaway by Ottawa goaltender Craig Anderson provided the goal support for Steve Mason (25 saves on 27 shots). Mason then went 3-for-3 in the shootout, making Weal's first-round goal stand up as the lone successful attempt for either side.

Over his last 14 starts, Mason has posted a record of 8-5-1, 2.17 GAA, .924 save percentage, with two shutouts. He will get the start against the Islanders.

After Tuesday's game, Hakstol praised the work of both the Sean Couturier line with Schenn and Dale Weise and the Valtteri Filppula unit with Weal and Wayne Simmonds. The team had an optional practice on Wednesday with only injury-rehabbing players, healthy scratch defenseman Nick Schultz and backup goaltender Michal Neuvirth participating on-ice.

On the injury rehab front, Michael Raffl (lower-body injury) skated on Wednesday but is not close to returning. Forward Nick Cousins is now day-to-day with an upper-body injury (suspected to be a concussion), and has been cleared to rejoin full practice with the team.

Islanders Outlook

The Islanders are 15-16-5 on the road this season, compared with their 20-12-7 record at home. The team enters play on Thursday five points (factoring their tiebreaker disadvantage) out of the lower wildcard spot in the East.

New York's playoff hopes were severely damaged by back-to-back regulation losses in their last two games. A 2-1 home regulation loss to the Bruins on Saturday was followed by a 3-1 home loss to the Nashville Predators on Monday in their fourth game of a four-in-six. Josh Bailey's 13th goal of the season was the Islanders' lone goal. Thomas Greiss stopped 28 of 30 shots in a losing cause before the Preds tacked on an empty netter to seal the outcome.

The Isles have struggled mightily on the power play this season, connecting on just 15.2 percent of their chances (26th in the NHL). With the Flyers penalty kill having tumbled from the middle of the pack about a month ago to 22nd in the league at 79.2 percent for the season, something has to give. New York's penalty kill checks in at 81.3 percent (12th overall).

Johnny Boychuk (lower-body injury) remained out on Monday but may be ready to play against the Flyers. The team is without Ryan Strome (broken wrist, out for the rest of the season), Nikolay Kulemin (out indefinitely, upper body) and Mikhail Grabovski (IR, concussion).

Projected lineups (Subject to change)

FLYERS

24 Matt Read - 28 Claude Giroux - 93 Jakub Voracek
40 Jordan Weal - 51 Valterri Filppula - 17 Wayne Simmonds
22 Dale Weise - 14 Sean Couturier - 10 Brayden Schenn
76 Chris VandeVelde - 78 Pierre-Édouard Bellemare - 11 Travis Konecny

9 Ivan Provorov - 47 Andrew MacDonald
15 Michael Del Zotto - 53 Shayne Gostisbehere
23 Brandon Manning - 3 Radko Gudas

35 Steve Mason
[30 Michal Neuvirth]

Scratches: Nick Schultz (healthy), Roman Lyubimov (healthy), Michael Raffl (IR, lower body), Nick Cousins (upper body).

ISLANDERS

27 Anders Lee - 91 John Tavares - 12 Josh Bailey
16 Andrew Ladd - 72 Anthony Beauviller - 66 Josh Ho-Sang
29 Brock Nelson - 10 Alan Quine - 25 Jason Chimera
24 Stephen Gionta - 15 Cal Clutterbuck - 53 Casey Cizikas

2 Nick Leddy - 50 Adam Pelech
44 Calvin de Haan - 3 Travis Hamonic
14 Thomas Hickey - 4 Dennis Seidenberg

1 Thomas Greiss
41 Jaroslav Halak

Scratches: Johnny Boychuk (questionable, lower body), Shane Prince (healthy), Scott Mayfield (healthy), Jean-Francois Berube (healthy), Ryan Strome (broken wrist, out for the rest of the season), Nikolay Kulemin (out indefinitely, upper body) Mikhail Grabovski (IR, concussion).