The Philadelphia Flyers will look to inch closer to a playoff spot when they visit the New York Islanders on Friday in Elmont, N.Y.<\/p>\n
The Flyers (37-26-12, 86 points) fell 4-2 to the visiting Detroit Red Wings on Thursday, keeping them two points back of the second wild card in the Eastern Conference \u2014 a spot now held by the Ottawa Senators.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery game\u2019s a must-win at this point,\u201d said forward Travis Konecny, who leads the Flyers in goals (27), assists (39) and points (66). \u201cWe\u2019re looking at (Friday), another good team we\u2019re playing against, but this locker room here, we all believe that we\u2019re better than any opponent we\u2019re playing right now.<\/p>\n
\u201cTough to get the loss, but we have all the confidence in the world that we\u2019re going to keep playing good.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was Philadelphia\u2019s second straight loss after winning eight of its previous 10 games (8-1-1) to pull back into the thick of the playoff race. The team put 34 shots on goal against the Red Wings but also missed the net 21 times.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re missing the net way too much,\u201d Flyers coach Rick Tocchet said. \u201cIt\u2019s become a problem this year. I love the effort tonight. (Detroit) had a couple big moments, they scored and we didn\u2019t, and that\u2019s really what it came down to. We had our chances. We just didn\u2019t put them in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Philadelphia has enjoyed a solid road record this season, going 20-13-4. Four of its final seven games will be on opposing ice.<\/p>\n
The Islanders (42-29-5, 89 points), meanwhile, will aim to snap a two-game skid and pull within a point of second place in the Metropolitan Division. New York hasn\u2019t played since Tuesday, when it dropped a 4-3 decision to the Buffalo Sabres. The Islanders enter Friday three points behind the second-place Pittsburgh Penguins.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did some good things (against Pittsburgh and Buffalo),\u201d forward Brayden Schenn said. \u201cWe just didn\u2019t do enough good things to win hockey games. So being chased is always a thing. I know teams have games in hand on us now, but at the end of the day, we have to worry about controlling what we can, and that\u2019s winning hockey games.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Islanders are only three points ahead of the Flyers, who have played one fewer game. Offense has been an issue for coach Patrick Roy\u2019s squad, which has scored more than three goals only once over its past 11 games \u2013 a 5-2 home triumph against the Florida Panthers on March 28.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s tight out there. There\u2019s not much room,\u201d Schenn said. \u201c\u2026 Points are so crucial and valuable. We all know that. The way to score goals is getting people and pucks to the net.\u201d<\/p>\n
They\u2019ll be hoping a strong home record can help them bounce back as they look to tighten their hold on a playoff spot. The Islanders are 21-13-2 as the hosts and will play five of their final six games on their own ice.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s massive,\u201d forward Jean-Gabriel Pageau said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been on the road so much and the travel part, from what I\u2019ve learned (from) experience, it always catches up towards the end of the year. Just to have that final stretch at home will be massive for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Philadelphia Flyers will look to inch closer to a playoff spot when they visit the New York…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5112],"tags":[1468,5,4,1467,56,5205],"class_list":{"0":"post-538401","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-flyers","8":"tag-flyers","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-philadelphia-flyers","13":"tag-philadelphiaflyers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116340823622253282","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=538401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}