Playoff Gameday: Let the Back-to-Backs begin for Islanders and Flyers

The New York Islanders and Philadelphia Flyers begin their first of two potential back-to-back sets of games today during their Second Round series. Game 2 will take place this afternoon at 3 p.m. and Game 3 is scheduled for Thursday at 7 p.m.

This will be the second time in the playoffs that the Islanders have had to play to back-to-back games in a series. It occurred in the Qualifying Round against the Florida Panthers, but the Islanders had full days off in between games against the Washington Capitals in the First Round.

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For what it’s worth, during the regular season the Islanders were 5-3-0 in the front end of back-to-backs and 6-1-1 in the back end.

“If anything, a lot of times you feel better on the back-to-back,” Jordan Eberle said. “The biggest thing is just that we get a day to recover. Obviously, we know we have two games, but you’ve got to worry about one at a time. We’ll worry about the third game once it comes.”

As for this afternoon, the New York Islanders have another thing going for them. They have found their stride in afternoon games inside the bubble. The Islanders are 6-1 this postseason in games that start before 5 p.m., according to Eric Hornick.

That is good because Barry Trotz will be looking for an even better effort out his guys in Game 2. The Islanders bench boss took some issue with how the Islanders played in Game 1 outside of the first period.

“I didn’t care for our game,” Trotz said of Monday’s game. “I liked our first period. After that, we were average. So, we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Islanders Projected Lines

Anders Lee — Mathew Barzal — Jordan Eberle

Anthony Beauvillier — Brock Nelson — Josh Bailey

Ross Johnston — Jean-Gabriel Pageau — Leo Komarov

Matt Martin — Casey Cizikas — Cal Clutterbuck

Defense

Adam Pelech — Ryan Pulock

Devon Toews — Scott Mayfield

Nick Leddy — Andy Greene

Goalies

Semyon Varlamov

Thomas Greiss

Philadelphia Flyers Projected Lines

Claude Giroux — Sean Couturier — Jakub Voracek

Joel Farabee — Kevin Hayes — Travis Konecny

Scott Laughton — Derek Grant — Nicolas Aube-Kubel

Michael Raffl — Nate Thompson — Tyler Pitlick

Defense

Ivan Provorov — Matt Niskanen

Travis Sanheim — Philippe Myers

Shayne Gostisbehere — Justin Braun

Goalies

Carter Hart

Brian Elliott

Game Notes

The Flyers are 39-33 all-time in playoff Game 2’s and 21-18 after losing the opening game of. series. … Philadelphia has not dropped consecutive games since Jan. 4-7. … The Flyers are 3-15 all-time when trailing a series 2-0. … The Islanders set a new franchise record by limiting an opponent to fewer than 30 shots for the 10th consecutive game. … Semyon Varlamov is roughly 40 seconds shy of surpassing Billy Smith for the longest shutout streak in the playoffs in franchise history.