Game #81 Preview: Flyers @ Islanders 4/11/09

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Last road game of the regular season. Here's hoping the last post-season road game is in another time zone.

Why the Flyers Will Win:

• The Flyers are 5-0-0 in their previous meetings with the Islanders this season. I'm sensing a pattern there.
  
• The Islanders have been really bad lately. REALLY BAD. With nothing to play for (and every loss helping their draft lottery chances in the Tavares Sweepstakes), the Islanders haven't been trying. Believe it or not, just like Michael Scott, there's a big difference between the Islanders trying and the Islanders not trying. The Islanders have lost their last two games by a combined score of 15-1. They're giving up an average of 2.5 goals a period, which is more than some teams have given up per game this year.
  
• Ryan Parent is back from whatever was wrong with him, so the defense (which wasn't even bad without him) will be all the better.
• Daniel Carcillo had his best game as a Flyer on Thursday. Still no scoring, but it's the closest he's come. Hopefully he takes advantage of the Islanders' shitty goaltending to get some momentum.
  

Why the Islanders Will Win:

• This is the definition of a trap game. It's impossible for the Flyers not to be thinking ahead to the playoffs, and even the Rangers tomorrow. Hopefully this team has more focus than that.
  
• If I'm the Flyers, losing this game wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. Dropping to sixth would mean losing home ice, yes, but it would also mean avoiding the hot Hurricanes and Penguins and facing the cold Devils in the first round. Not a terrible idea, maybe?

Prediction: Islanders win 4-1 in a game that unnerves many in Flyerland. Sorry.

Atlantic Cruise Control

For the third consecutive season, the Atlantic Division will send four teams to the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Flyers, Penguins, Devils, and Rangers are the same foursome as last year, with the Islanders making it over the Flyers in 2007. The Atlantic Division made history in 2008 by being the first Eastern Conference division to send four teams in back to back years, and makes even more history this season by being the first team in either conference to do it three seasons in a row.

The Atlantic Division also is the only division never to have sent fewer than three teams to the playoffs in any season. This compares pretty favorably to the Southeast, who has never sent more than two teams to the playoffs in any season.

The Atlantic Division carried their tradition of regular season domination into the playoffs last season, with none of the four Atlantic Division squads losing a series to a non-Atlantic team in the Eastern Conference playoffs. In the playoffs, the Atlantic teams went a combined 12-4, with Pittsburgh sweeping Ottawa and the Flyers ousting the champions of both the Northeast and Southeast in five and seven games, respectively.

Congratulations, Atlantic Division. You're pretty damn good at this sport. And to the Islanders, well...at least you'll get a decent draft pick?

Game #74 Review: Flyers 4 (SO) @ Islanders 3 3/28/09

4 (SO)

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3

(Game summary videos haven't been working on the NHL TV pages lately...)

Epic win over a terrible team? Why not.

• This was a game the Flyers needed to win, because losing two straight to teams out of the playoffs would have been a huge bump in the road. If the Flyers hadn't dug themselves such a hole, this game wouldn't have been nearly as impressive. But two points are two points.
• Arron Asham or Darroll Powe can't replace Daniel Carcillo on the third line soon enough. Carcillo has now played twelve games in the orange and black, and has scored exactly zero goals. The only other forward not to have scored in this stretch? Riley Cote.
• I like Giroux with Gagne and Knuble, but the reuniting of the Hartnell-Carter-Lupul line was way overdue. They never should have been split.

Joffrey Lupul, in a rare performance as an energetic player, gets The Hat, with two goals.

And he was kind enough to the fans to reveal the back of the hat while talking to Coatesy.

Antero Niittymaki (who?) gets the start tonight against Boston, a game the Flyers will barely lose.

Game #74 Preview: Flyers @ Islanders 3/28/09

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Flyers in the friendly confines of Nassau Colliseum tonight, against a team that the Flyers dominate like none other, the 30th place New York Islanders.

Why the Flyers Will Win:

• The Flyers are just much better than the Islanders. They've won ten straight against them, and should have absolutely no problems tonight.

Why the Islanders Will Win:

• The Isles have to be riding high after a big 2-0 shut out of Detroit last night. They will be playing with as much confidence as a team that terrible possibly could.

This could very easily be the Flyers last ever game in Nassau, if the team does pack up and move to Kansas City or wherever else the rumors have them going. Good riddance.

Prediction: Flyers 5-1.