The New York Islanders visit the Philadelphia Flyers this afternoon in a matchup of struggling Metro teams. For the 3-4-1 Isles (and fans) it’s not as much of a surprise, as few expected much from this team. But for the 4-6 Flyers (and fans) it’s a bit more frustrating as they were expected to take another step.
Leave your First Islanders Goal picks here by 1 p.m.
Islanders Reading
Trotz changed things up and brought the Beauvillier-Barzal-Eberle line back together for today’s skate. #Isles pic.twitter.com/TfBYLAZwcI
— New York Islanders (@NYIslanders) October 26, 2018
- Sounds like Beauvillier-Barzal-Eberle will be reunited today. [Newsday]
- In the first of a series with Sound Tigers players, Noel spoke with Kieffer Bellows on his adjustment to the pros. [LHH]
- “It’s a complete lifestyle change.” Robin Lehner discusses life on the road with an NHL team now that he’s sober. As an aside — the piece links to ex-Isles Nate Thompson’s own battle — it’s great that more players are talking about this. [Athletic]
- Play-by-play announcer Brendan Burke joins the podcast that Brian Compton is no longer allowed to co-host. [Isles Seat]
- The Isles will welcome 50 alumni back for the Nov. 3 game. [Isles]
- Steve Bernier brings a long history from both the NHL and AHL to the Sound Tigers. [CT Post]
- Meanwhile, Bellows recalled his own lengthy shift memory from juniors. [Soundin’ Off]
- The Sound Tigers are in Hartford tonight. [BST]
- Not Isles, but relevant to today: The Flyers haven’t been good at many things. [BSH]
Elsewhere
Last night’s NHL scores include... Matt Duchene scored twice but his Senators lost in his return to Colorado. [NHL]
- Teams are pulling their goalie earlier when trailing late in a game. Should they also do it more when they’re on a late power play? [Hockey-Graphs]
- Ooooooof course the NHLPA filed another appeal in the Tom Wilson suspension. [TSN]
- John Ziegler, the last permanent president before the NHL created the commissioner position for Gary Bettman, has died at 84. (Psst. The SunBelt strategy long predates Bettman.) [NHL]
- Mitch Marner loves playing with that kid who once got several Hart votes. [TSN] No but really, particularly from that story an admission that #91 loafed because he played too much because he felt he needed to do everything (THIS DOESN’T MEAN YOU HAVE TO TAKE CRAZY LONG SHIFTS WITH NO BACKCHECK, FYI): “Sometimes you can almost be playing too much and especially the last couple years in New York, you know, we were down in a lot of games so there were a lot of times playing (a lot) late trying to tie it up, produce some offence. And when you’re playing a lot of minutes, at times you can catch yourself conserving energy, which you don’t want to be doing.”