EAST MEADOW, N.Y. — The Islanders will look to take advantage of a Philadelphia Flyers team playing its second game in as many nights tonight in Brooklyn.The Islanders have been off since Wednesday, when they fell 4-2 to Carolina, while the Flyers fell 5-2 to Vancouver last night and then traveled to New York after the game.
It is the first meeting between the Metropolitan Division rivals and the first of two over a three-day span.
“I know sometimes on the back-to-backs sometimes you feel a little more engaged when you’re coming right off a game the night before,” John Tavares said. “You just have a little bit more pace. You’re just coming right out of the battle and right back into it. For us we’ve had a couple of days off. We have to get involved early, get our compete level kind of where we expect them to be at.
“You want to get on them early, but also I think it’s important to try to wear them down and by the third period really make it tough on them and hope to take advantage of being well rested.”
The Islanders will change up their lineup a bit from the weekend. Cal Clutterbuck, who had been sidelined due to illness, will return to the lineup and Alan Quine will be scratched. Scott Mayfield and Dennis Seidenberg will also be back in against Philadelphia, while Ryan Pulock and Thomas Hickey will sit out.
Islanders head coach Doug Weight will also give Thomas Greiss his 11th start of the season. The Islanders have maintained their 1A/1B goaltending setup with Greiss and Jaroslav Halak, but Greiss has had the edge in play in recent weeks. The Islanders’ netminder has won his last three starts and has six wins over 10 starts this year.
“I hope we get consistent with these guys,” Weight said referring to his goaltenders.”Taking the ball. I still have tremendous confidence in both goaltenders, but it’s game 20 I’m definitely going to let it play out. If somebody’s going to take the ball then they’re going to take the ball. We’re behind them, we want to support them, we trust them, but it’s big boy hockey.
“It’s 20 games in and whoever takes it is going to go and run a little more than the other one.”
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