Gameday: Flyers look to rebound against Isles

by Travis Hughes on Feb 14, 2009 9:21 AM EST in 08-09 Game Threads

New York Islanders at Philadelphia Flyers, Feb 14, 2009 1:00 PM EST

#15 New York Islanders (16-32-6, 38 pts) at #6 Philadelphia Flyers (28-16-9, 65 pts)
Wachovia Center - 1:00 PM EST - Philadelphia, PA
TV: CSN HD, MSG Plus HD
Radio: 610 WIP, XM 206
This is the open game thread.
Live Internet Stream
Behind Enemy Lines: Lighthouse Hockey

It's not a must win today when the Flyers host the Isles in a Valentine's Day matinee, but it's damn close. Back-to-back losses against last place teams are unacceptable and Philadelphia cannot fall into that trap this afternoon.

The Islanders are clearly rebuilding, and their youth movement is led by rookie Kyle Okposo, who has 11 goals in 41 games this season.

The Isles have yet to win in February. It's a long uphill battle for them, and the Flyers need to just take care of business today. It's easy to look past one New York team to the other (better) one looming tomorrow, but the Flyers must resist the urge.

For a deeper dive into the Islanders, click over to Lighthouse Hockey.

Former Flyer Watch: Richard Park, who played with the Phantoms and Flyers in the 1998/99 season, has 10 goals on the season for the Isles. Hilary Duff's boyfriend, I mean Mike Comrie, who had a cup of tea with the Flyers in 2004, also plays for the Isles these days. Jon Sim won a Calder Cup with the Phantoms in 2004. Don't expect him to win anything with the Isles anytime soon. Mike Sillinger is on the Islander roster too. Check out the two-degrees of Mike Sillinger over at HFBoards if you haven't seen it. Coolest thing ever.

Between The Pipes: Martin Biron looks for his first win in over a month today. He's been scheduled to go in this game all week, but he's the guaranteed guy for both games this weekend now since Antero Niittymaki has the flu.

The workload has largely been given to Joey MacDonald this season since Rick Dipietro has been injured. In two games against the Flyers, MacDonald is 0-1-1 with a 2.40 GAA.

New York Islanders Injuries

Questionable

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Mark Streit	shoulder	02/14/2009
Trent Hunter	other-excused	02/14/2009
Wade Dubielewicz	other-excused	02/13/2009

Out (IR / Out / Suspended / Physically unvailable)

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Thomas Pock	hand	02/04/2009
Mike Sillinger	hip	12/30/2008
Andy Sutton	foot	12/20/2008
Rick DiPietro	knee	01/20/2009
Freddy Meyer	groin	01/06/2009
Nate Thompson	shoulder	02/06/2009

This is the game open thread. I'll be around for this one, so join me. Go Flyers.

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Giroux goal

Very pretty – beautiful move and vision from Upshall. Get the puck, move to the middle, and slide the puck back to the open guy at the side of the net. And Grioux slammed it home.

by IcersGuy on Feb 14, 2009 1:20 PM EST reply actions

And nothing says let's celebrate a goal

like a nice fight (and win) by Arron Ahsam.

by IcersGuy on Feb 14, 2009 1:21 PM EST reply actions

And Carter gets his 35th

lots of action for the good guys to start this one.

by IcersGuy on Feb 14, 2009 1:22 PM EST reply actions

I just noticed Dubielewicz shows up as an “other-excused” on the injury list. “Excused,” because he’s playing for Columbus!

We’ve got to get that widget’s data feed figured out :-)

Lighthouse Hockey: SBN's New York Islanders blog with hip issues.

by Dominik on Feb 14, 2009 2:29 PM EST reply actions

To be fair...

it is a valid excuse. The rest of the details are minor… ;)

by IcersGuy on Feb 14, 2009 2:48 PM EST up reply actions

Heh, indeed. And I bet he wishes he were back on LI, considering his first two games in Columbus were awful and he hasn’t been back in the net since.

Lighthouse Hockey: SBN's New York Islanders blog with hip issues.

by Dominik on Feb 14, 2009 4:18 PM EST up reply actions

Steve Downie was on ours earlier in the week, still might be.

So, yeah… it’s got a few problems. Haha.

Broad Street Hockey - SB Nation's Philadelphia Flyers Blog
Because the Broad Street Subway is orange for a reason.

by Travis Hughes on Feb 14, 2009 8:59 PM EST up reply actions

Carter line out for the goal again. Is this a trend? They don’t seem to be backchecking, but is it a coincidence that they’re getting scored on?

by Geoff Detweiler on Feb 14, 2009 3:09 PM EST reply actions

Hard to say in this case

None of the lines were actually playing well in this period – it was more that everything finally fell together for the Isles and they caught Biron out of position with a cluster-group in front of him. So it goes.

Regular trend? Well, that’s something else to be looked into…

by IcersGuy on Feb 14, 2009 3:16 PM EST up reply actions

Yeah, I only mentioned it because of their combined -10 on Thursday. Plus, since that goal, Powe and Carter have been swapped. I don’t see Powe between Hartnell and Lupul tomorrow though, so it’s probably just for a few shifts.

by Geoff Detweiler on Feb 14, 2009 3:22 PM EST up reply actions