So far this season, the Flyers have played the Rangers four times, the Sabres twice, and the Islanders three times. Not once has the team from New York won. With two more matchups with each of the Rangers and Sabres, and three more against the Islanders, there's still a long way to go before we can celebrate that little meaningless (but fun) victory, but their run to date is impressive nonetheless.
Tonight they'll try to continue that streak with the Islanders in town. The Isles have had a pretty decent February, winning 8 of 12, including shutting out the LA Kings last weekend. Since then, they've slammed the Panthers 5-1 and fallen to the Maple Leafs, 2-1. They're not quite as hot as the Devils, who've now passed them, but all of a sudden, the bottom of the Atlantic is a lot easier to see. The Flyers aren't in any danger of beaching, but they do have quite a few games left against the benthos dwellers.
Sergei Bobrovsky is net for the Flyers, who are hurtling toward the playoffs with no clearcut starting goalie. Fortunately, it's not a "lesser of two evils" decision. Both Bob and Boosh look good enough to get the Flyers all the way, in my opinion.
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Notes:
Nik Zherdev cleared waivers earlier today, and he'll stay in limbo with the big club until after the trade deadline passes. We're assuming another move is on the way... Jody Shelley and Sean O'Donnell appear OK to go tonight. Hopefully Jody gets a few games off from the fisticuffs. Wouldn't want those 60 stitches to open up and cause any permanent tissue damage to his otherwise pristine mug... We'd love to see a big game out of Kris Versteeg tonight. It's not due to a worry over losing Zherdev's press box production, more that we just haven't had much to get wild about for Versteeg in Orange & Black, and we want to get down.