The hockey gods must be punishing us. A meaningless Flyers-Islanders game? This late in the season? What a cruel joke. At least there’s the lingering satisfaction of Wednesday’s game, where Tyson Foerster netted his first career hat trick and the Flyers effectively eliminated the New York Rangers from the playoffs. We’ll take the wins (mostly moral victories) where we can get them.
There are four games remaining in the Flyers’ season, and less than a week overall. We’re truly ending with a whimper considering the slate, and it kicks off with the Isles. To be fair to the most boring team in the league, they’ve had an uncharacteristically crazy week. It kicked off on Sunday when they hosted the Washington Capitals and beat them 4-1. That lone Caps goal, though? None other than Alex Ovechkin, breaking Wayne Gretzky’s record. Then on Tuesday, they lost a wild 7-6 game in overtime to the Nashville Predators, and on Thursday they got blown out by that same Rangers team the Flyers spanked, to the tune of nine goals against.
It’s difficult to tell where the Islanders go from here. They traded Brock Nelson for a haul, and hopefully Mat Barzal is healthy for next season, and maybe Noah Dobson signs a fair contract after a down year and rebounds, but this is a capped out, aging lineup with very few bright spots and a low ceiling. It should prove a fascinating off season for Lou Lamoriello, but the shortcomings on Long Island are very much in the “we’re all looking for the guy who did this” mold. This is a winnable game for the Flyers if they bring the same offence they did on Wednesday, even if winning may not be best for them long term.
Storylines to watch
Can Karsen Dorwart bounce back?
Dorwart looked okay in his first game with the Flyers, but his second was not all that good. He ended up -2 on the night, and took a sloppy penalty that led to a Rangers power play goal. The Flyers have loaned Rodrigo Abols and Olle Lycksell back to the Phatnoms, so they’ve no choice but to play Dorwart through these final games. That’s fine by us, though–what are these games for if not to let young guys get their feet wet at the professional level?
Matvei Michkov: 60-point player?
He may’ve only scored one point in a game with eight goals, but Michkov is one point away from cracking 60 points with four games to go. If he does it today, he’s certainly got a shot at 65. It’s been a heck of a rookie season for the kid, and breaking the 60 point threshold as a first year NHLer is certainly something for Michkov to hang his hat on. Unfortunately, Michkov missed practice yesterday, though Brad Shaw said it was more precautionary than anything and we should expect to see Michkov in the lineup.
Tyson Foerster’s goal scoring
We all expected more from Foerster’s sophomore year after a promising 2023-24 rookie season. The reality, however, was a bit disappointing–until Wednesday, where he scored a hat trick and set a new career high of 22 goals in a season. Six of those goals have been in the past five games. Funny how nothing happened five games ago…except that John Tortorella was fired as head coach. Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but Tortorella’s ouster seems to have lit a fire under Foerster and allowed him to show off the goal scoring ability that was so highly touted when he was drafted. If he carries this over into next season and is given an opportunity to be the finisher from the circle on the power play, he could very well take a leap as a player.
Projected Lineups
Philadelphia Flyers
Tyson Foerster – Noah Cates – Bobby Brink
Travis Konecny – Sean Couturier – Matvei Michkov
Jakob Pelletier – Ryan Poehling – Owen Tippett
Nic Deslauriers – Karsen Dorwart – Garnet Hathaway
Nick Seeler – Travis Sanheim
Cam York – Jamie Drysdale
Emil Andrae – Egor Zamula
Sam Ersson
(Aleksei Kolosov)
New York Islanders
Anders Lee – Bo Horvat – Kyle Palmieri
Maxim Tysplakov – JG Pageau – Simon Holmstrom
Pierre Engvall – Casey Cizikas – Hudson Fasching
Matt Martin – Kyle Maclean – Marc Gatacomb
Adam Pelech – Ryan Pulock
Alexander Romanov – Tony DeAngelo
Noah Dobson – Scott Mayfield
Ilya Sorokin
(Marcus Hogberg)
Gameday Tunes
It’s hard to say whether this album holds up, but a Chromeo track popped up on the daylist not too long ago and presented an opportunity to revisit it. Still a fun listen, and such a product of its time before the 80s revival went into overdrive. Let’s see that footwork, skaters.
Stats courtesy Hockey Reference
