Christian Arnold
There has been plenty of twists and turns along the way to the New York Islanders taking a 3-1 series lead over the Philadelphia Flyers. A win on Tuesday and the Islanders will be in the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 1993.
What has been impressive to watch through the Isles series with Philly has been the ways they’ve been winning. Come from behind wins, slow starts made up with strong play the rest of the way and a lot of resiliency.
Here are three takeaways from this series thus far:
Islanders Shutting Down Flyers Best Players
The New York Islanders have done a masterful job of shutting down some of the best offensive players their opponents have had throughout the playoffs. This series has been no different.
New York has once again limited the Flyers to just a few select players and their top offensive weapons have been held off the scoresheet. For instance, Jakub Voracek Has been limited to seven shots on net through the first four games of the series and has not found the back of the net once.
Voracek leads the Flyers in postseason scoring with four goals and is second on the team in points with eight. Yet he’s been held scoreless through the series. He’s had eight scoring chances in all situations, according to Natural Stat Trick, but only one has been a high danger chance.
Travis Konecny, Philadelphia’s regular-season goal-scoring leader, remains without a single goal this series or in the playoffs as a whole and only five Flyers have found the back of the net. The Islanders have had seven different skaters score in the series to date.
The third Period is the Islanders Period
The Islanders have outscored the Flyers 8-1 in the third period through four games this series and it wasn’t until the 18:55 mark of the third on Sunday night that Philadelphia finally scored in the final 20 minutes. Through the entirety
Despite some slow starts from the Islanders, they have managed to wear down and then dominate the opposing team. In Game 4, the Islanders Flyers had an equal number of shot attempts in the third period, but
