Round 2, Game 4 Preview: Flyers-Islanders

Kevin Durso

August 30 2020

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor

The Flyers came out for Game 3 and looked like a team determined to put the series in their favor in the first period. But for the last two periods, they were utterly dominated by the Islanders, who took it to them in the second and played their typical shut-down style in the third.

That puts the Flyers in a must-win position in Game 4, as they get right back at it on Sunday night. A win evens the series and sets the Flyers up for a best-of-three to decide the winner of the series. A loss puts their backs against the wall with three games for the Islanders to finish off the series.

Game 4 is set for 8 p.m.

Team Leaders

Philadelphia Flyers	GP	G	A	P	New York Islanders	GP	G	A	P
Kevin Hayes	12	3	6	9	Josh Bailey	12	2	9	11
Jake Voracek	11	4	4	8	Anthony Beauvillier	12	7	3	10
Sean Couturier	12	1	6	7	Mathew Barzal	12	3	7	10
Scott Laughton	11	3	2	5	Jean-Gabriel Pageau	12	6	2	8
Joel Farabee	10	3	2	5	Jordan Eberle	12	3	5	8

Player to Watch
11 Travis Konecny	27 Anders Lee
Last 5 Games: 0 G, 1 A, 1 P, -1	Last 5 Games: 3 G, 0 A, 3 P, +1

It's time for the Flyers best to step up and throughout the playoffs, the Flyers leading scorer from the regular season has been noticeably silent. Travis Konecny has yet to score a goal and has just two assists in the last 10 games dating back to the Round Robin. He needs to be better, and the Flyers could really use him to jumpstart the rest of the offense.

Anders Lee has scored in all three games in the series and could have more than just the three goals he has tallied. He's been an immovable force from the front of the net. The Flyers need to find a solution to stopping Lee in addition to getting their own offense going, because Lee has been driving the Islanders so far.

Projected Goalie Matchup
79 Carter Hart	40 Semyon Varlamov
11 GP, 7-4-0, 2.08 GAA, .931 SV%	12 GP, 9-2-0, 1.69 GAA, .935 SV%

The last time the Flyers went with Carter Hart in a back-to-back, it was off back-to-back shutouts and in a potential series-clinching game. It didn't go well, but the Flyers had margin for error. In this game, the Flyers don't have much, as a loss will put their backs to the wall. Needing a win, you may have to turn to the young netminder who has carried you through the playoffs to this point and hope he has his best.

The Islanders could certainly look to Thomas Greiss in Game 4 and try to ride the momentum of his solid performance in relief in Game 2 to a commanding series lead. But Semyon Varlamov has been the guy throughout the playoffs and responded with another strong performance in Game 3 that really didn't see him face a lot of tests down the stretch. He could get the call again in Game 4 as a result.

Flyers Projected Lineup

Left Wing	Center	Right Wing
28 Claude Giroux	14 Sean Couturier	93 Jake Voracek
49 Joel Farabee	13 Kevin Hayes	11 Travis Konecny
25 James van Riemsdyk	21 Scott Laughton	62 Nicolas Aube-Kubel
38 Derek Grant	44 Nate Thompson	18 Tyler Pitlick
Defense
9 Ivan Provorov	15 Matt Niskanen
6 Travis Sanheim	5 Phil Myers
8 Robert Hagg	61 Justin Braun
Goalie
79 Carter Hart	37 Brian Elliott

Islanders Projected Lineup

Left Wing	Center	Right Wing
27 Anders Lee	13 Mathew Barzal	7 Jordan Eberle
18 Anthony Beauvillier	29 Brock Nelson	12 Josh Bailey
10 Derick Brassard	44 Jean-Gabriel Pageau	47 Leo Komarov
17 Matt Martin	53 Casey Cizikas	15 Cal Clutterbuck
Defense
3 Adam Pelech	6 Ryan Pulock
25 Devon Toews	24 Scott Mayfield
2 Nick Leddy	4 Andy Greene
Goalie
40 Semyon Varlamov	1 Thomas Greiss

Lineup Notes

Flyers: Alain Vigneault said that the team is still discussing potential changes to the lineup, but it's hard to see how there won't be several changes for this team. Michael Raffl is expected to come back in and there could be a lot of line shuffling going on. Stay tuned.
Islanders: The Islanders got Derick Brassard back into the lineup and had some success there. There may not be many changes to this group, all things considered, after three solid games in a row to earn a 2-1 series lead.

Game Notes

Power Play: Flyers (22nd), Islanders (12th)
Penalty Kill: Flyers (17th), Islanders (T-18th)
Recent History vs. Islanders
- Oct. 27, 2019 – Islanders 5, Flyers 3 (at NYI)
- Nov. 16, 2019 – Islanders 4, Flyers 3 (F/SO) (at PHI)
- Feb. 11, 2020 – Islanders 5, Flyers 3 (at NYI)
- Aug. 24, 2020 (Game 1) – Islanders 4, Flyers 0
- Aug. 26, 2020 (Game 2) – Flyers 4, Islanders 3 (F/OT)
- Aug. 29, 2020 (Game 3) – Islanders 3, Flyers 1
Flyers Leaders vs. Islanders (Career Regular Season Stats)
- Claude Giroux – 52 GP, 18 G, 38 A, 56 P
- Jake Voracek – 42 GP, 6 G, 27 A, 33 P
- James van Riemsdyk – 37 GP, 11 G, 17 A, 28 P
- Sean Couturier – 37 GP, 10 G, 18 A, 28 P
- Matt Niskanen – 38 GP, 4 G, 14 A, 18 P
- Carter Hart – 2 GP, 0-2-0, 6.23 GAA, .833 SV%