#13 Philadelphia Flyers (17-18-2, 36 pts) at #12 New York Islanders (15-17-7, 37 pts)
Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum – 5:00 PM EST – Uniondale, NY
TV: CSN Philly HD, MSG Plus 2, Yahoo! Online
Radio: 1210 WPHT, XM 204
This is the open game thread.
Behind Enemy Lines: Lighthouse Hockey
The Flyers have won two straight games against the Islanders and two straight games overall. They’ll go for threes all around as they take on the Isles tonight on Long Island. New York is on a two game win streak of their own, though, most recently defeating the Rangers last night across the East River in Manhattan. Still, current trends never seem to matter when these teams meet up, as Philadelphia is 12-1-3 over the last three years against the ugly stepchild of the New York hockey scene.
It’s all about gaining momentum for the Flyers tonight. Yeah, they’ve won two straight, but we can all agree that those wins were less than impressive. Carolina came back toward the end of the third period last night and Tampa made a run in the second two games ago. The orange and black were able to squeeze two wins out of those contests and those are the things that can build confidence. Another win goes a long way toward finally breaking this funk and getting the stock to rise.
After the jump, starting goaltenders, line combos, questions to answer, and for those of you not watching the Eagles (they’re already in, anyway), our in-game open thread.
Flyers Line Combinations – Parent out, Syvret in
Scott Hartnell – Jeff Carter – Danny Briere
Simon Gagne – Mike Richards – Claude Giroux
JVR – Darroll Powe – Arron Asham
Dan Carcillo – Blair Betts – Ian Laperriere
Braydon Coburn – Chris Pronger
Matt Carle – Kimmo Timonen
Oskars Bartulis – Danny Syvret
Starting Goaltenders
Questions To Answer
- Michael Leighton has, generally speaking, looked darn good as a Flyer. Can he keep it up?
- The Flyers have made Martin Biron look pretty porous in the two games against him so far. Can that continue?
- Can Mike Richards and Jeff Carter leave where they left off last night? Can the best players be the best players again?
- Are there any lasting effects to the Pronger/Tavares incident that happened last time these two met?
- How many minutes of ice time does Syvret see? The Flyers rotated five defensemen pretty successfully last night.
Sixty minutes, for the love of god. Sixty minutes?
