Game Preview: NY Islanders vs Philadelphia Flyers

The NY Islanders head to Philadelphia for the first time this season as they get set to play the second half of a back to back against the Flyers at Wells Fargo Center. 

Last Game

These two teams will enter Wells Fargo Center fresh off their meeting on Saturday night at UBS Arena. In that game, the Islanders jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead less than five minutes in, thanks to Adam Pelech’s third goal of the season. Late in the first, Lukas Sedlak would tie the game at one. In period two, each team scored once again, although, this time it was Joel Farabee for Philly and Zach Parise for the Isles. Entering the final frame tied at two, New York took off, scoring three times to take a 5-2 lead, the eventual final score of the game. The goals in the third were scored by Brock Nelson, Anthony Beauvillier, and Zach Parise. Ryan Pulock also tallied four assists while goaltender, Semyon Varlamov, stopped 26 of Philadelphia’s 28 shot attempts. 

Historical Matchup

The Islanders and Flyers met four times last year, with three of them coming in an eight day span in the middle of January. The season series was won by New York as they won all three meetings in January before the Flyers finally got a win when the two teams faced off on March 20th. 

All-time in the regular season, the Isles are 117-134-26-9 against the Flyers. 

The two franchises have also met in the Stanley Cup Playoffs five times. Philly has won three out of the five series, but New York won the only Stanley Cup Finals meeting in 1979-80. 

Players to Watch

Last year, Casey Cizikas scored three goals in four games against the Philadelphia Flyers. It has been a very quiet start to the season offensively for Zeeker, as the fourth line center has just four points (0 goals, 4 assists) in 23 games, but this seems like a big opportunity for him to break out against a team he thrived against just a season ago. 

Former Islander, Kieffer Bellows, has played 10 games for the Flyers since they claimed him off waivers back on October 27th. I'm sure the 24 year old winger and former first round draft choice would love nothing more than to get his first as a Flyer against his old squad.

Projected Lines

Islanders

Josh Bailey-Mathew Barzal-Oliver Wahlstrom
Anders Lee-Brock Nelson-Anthony Beauvillier
Zach Parise-JG Pageau-Simon Holmstrom
Matt Martin-Casey Cizikas-Cal Clutterbuck

Adam Pelech-Ryan Pulock
Alexander Romanov-Scott Mayfield
Sebastian Aho-Noah Dobson

Ilya Sorokin
Semyon Varlamov

Flyers

Noah Cates-Kevin Hayes-Owen Tippett
Kieffer Bellows-Morgan Frost-Zack MacEwen
Nicolas Deslauriers-Tanner Laczynski-Joel Farabee
Jackson Cates-Lukas Sedlak-Patrick Brown

Ivan Provorov-Tony DeAngelo
Travis Sanheim-Justin Braun
Nick Seeler-Rasmus Ristolainen

Carter Hart
Felix Sandstrom

Lineups via DailyFaceoff