5 THINGS: Flyers vs. Islanders

Opening the post All-Star Break portion of the schedule, John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (21-21-9) are home on Monday evening to take on Lane Lambert's New York Islanders (25-22-5). Game time at the Wells Fargo Center is 7:00 p.m. ET.

GAME NOTES
The game will be televised on NBCSP. The radio broadcast is on 97.5 The Fanatic with an online simulcast on Flyers Radio 24/7.
This is the third of four meetings this season between the teams, and the second and final game in Philadelphia. The Flyers are 1-1-0 thus far against the Islanders in 2022-23. On Nov. 26 at UBS Arena, the Islanders skated to a 5-2 victory. The Flyers returned the favor on home ice three nights later, downing the Islanders by a 3-1 score at the Wells Fargo Center. The season series will conclude back at UBS Arena on April 8.
The Flyers and Islanders are both coming off an extended schedule break that overlapped the NHL All-Star break. On Jan. 28, the Flyers earned a 4-0 road victory against the Winnipeg Jets. The same night, the Islanders prevailed in overtime, 2-1, at home against the Vegas Golden Knights.
Subsequently, both the Flyers and Islanders had an eight-night hiatus on their respective schedules. Here are five things to watch when the teams convene at the Wells Fargo Center on Monday evening.
1. A mental and physical reset
Having a week-long break in the practice schedule and eight nights off from game action is almost too much time off for a hockey team. It's easy for a club to lose sharpness and focus. Various players put in time skating on their own during the break, but that's not the same as staying in the rhythm of preparing to play a game.
At the same time, taking a mental break from the game comes in useful.
"Sometimes it's healthy, when you're with one another for so long, you need to get away from one another. I'm sure the players wanted to get away from me. I wanted to get away from the players. I think that's healthy to get fresh again," Tortorella said on Sunday when the Flyers returned to practice in preparation to play the Islanders.
Added Travis Konecny, "Torts gives us a lot of off days, which is good. But it's also good to take a little mental break, kind of recharge the batteries and come back. We have a lot of big games coming up."
It's quite common, after a team has an extended break in the schedule, for the first period of the first game to be a bit off-kilter in terms of timing and execution. Kevin Hayes said on Sunday that the team is focused on coming out as strong as possible against the Islanders. If the first period is less-than-perfect, however, the team has shown itself to be resilient enough to handle whatever comes and find ways to win.
Hayes, the Flyers' lone representative at the NHL All-Star Weekend in Florida, said that the team had been playing well leading into the break and he would have preferred to keep playing. Since that was not what the schedule dictated, it was up to each player to make the most of the respite and then be ready to get back to work.
"For us to be successful, we have to go game by game. I think a lot of the teams in the league know how hard our team works each and every night," Hayes said.
2. Expect a grind-it-out game
While hockey is a very much an "expect the unexpected" sport, it would be a surprise if Monday's game against the Islanders turns into a track meet with the two teams trading off scoring chances off the rush. That's not really how either the Flyers or Islanders are coached -- or built -- to play.
The Islanders have the NHL's eighth-best goals against average (2.71 team GAA) through the All-Star Break. The Flyers are 18th overall at a 3.16 GAA but rank 7th-best in the NHL since Christmas at a 2.79 GAA over the team's last 16 games.

Conversely, in terms of scoring, both the Islanders (2.85 GPG, ranked 25th) and the Flyers (2.78 GPG, ranked 27th) are in the bottom-one third the NHL for the season as a whole. The Flyers had a scoring uptick over the latter half of December and January (3.27 GPG since Dec. 12) but goals leaguewide tend to become harder to come by as the stretch drive approaches.
The Flyers and Islanders are both teams whose coaches heavily preach the importance of shot-blocking and playing a physical brand of hockey. The Flyers rank 2nd in the NHL with an average 17.22 blocks per 60 minutes played, while the Islanders are 4th at 16.34 blocks. Philly ranks 4th in credited hits (28.16 per 60 minutes) while the Islanders rank 5th (27.02).
3. Hart vs. Varlamov
The Flyers could hardly have asked for a better way for Carter Hart to close out the pre-All-Star Break portion of the season than for him to outduel Winnipeg's All-Star netminder Connor Hellebuyck head-to-head. Hart recorded a 40-save shutout in the Flyers' 4-0 win. It was Hart's first shutout of the 2022-23 season.
Hart had a 60-minute road shutout of the New York Rangers back on Nov. 1 but the team in front of him was unable to scratch out a single goal, either. The Flyers lost that one in overtime, 1-0. More recently, on Jan. 21, Hart carried a shutout bid for 59-plus minutes in what was ultimately a 2-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings. He finally got the elusive shutout in Winnipeg seven nights later.
For the season, Hart is 15-14-8 with a 2.88 goals against average and .911 save percentage.
Hart's Islanders counterpart, Ilya Sorokin was one of two (later three) New York players to participate in the All-Star Game in Florida. All-Star Games are never much fun for goaltenders. Sorokin played the 10-minute second half of Team Metro's 10-6 loss to Team Atlantic in the "semifinal" game of the 3-on-3 mini-game tourney among the All-Star teams representing each of the NHL's four divisions. Left to fend for himself against waves of outnumbered attacks, Sorokin stopped eight shots and allowed five goals on 13 shots.
All-Star Game hockey, of course, bears little resemblance to how games are played during the season. Sorokin has been having a stellar season to date (2.38 GAA, .923 save percentage in 38 games played). Modest goal support has been the primary reason why he exits the All-Star break with a 16-16-4 record.
It appears that Sorokin will get the night off against the Flyers after participating in the All-Star Skills Competition on Friday evening and the All-Star Game on Saturday afternoon. Backup Islanders goalie Semyon Varlamov practiced in the starter's net during the Islanders' morning skate at the Wells Fargo Center on Monday. Varlamov has appeared in16 games this season (9-6-1, 2.67 GAA, .918 SV%) and played quite well in his own right.
Flyers backup Felix Sandström has made 10 appearances (1-7-1, 3.45 GAA, .886 SV%). Sandström was in net for the Flyers in their 5-2 road loss to the Islanders on Nov. 26, stopping 18 of 23 shots. He is mostly likely to see his next game action when the Flyers have a 3-in-4 from this coming Thursday through Sunday.
4. Flyers line play
For a five-plus week period from late December to late January, the Flyers dressed the exact same lineup -- the same four forward line combinations and the same three defense pairings -- in each and every game.
However, in a 3-2 overtime road loss to the Minnesota Wild on Jan.26, the Flyers lost two forwards -- wingers Zack MacEwen (broken jaw sustained in a first-period fight) and Wade Allison (lower-body injury sustained while blocking a shot early in the second period) -- and had to finish the game with 10 forwards,
Two nights later in Winnipeg, winger Kieffer Bellows saw his first game action in nearly a full month. The Flyers dressed 11 forwards and seven defensemen, with veteran Justin Braun re-entering the lineup after a lengthy absence.
Tortorella juggled line combinations around all night, mostly rotating centers around with pairs of wingers (although this was not exclusive, either). Surprisingly, the trio of James van Riemsdyk, Morgan Frost and Owen Tippett was broken up onto three separate lines for the duration of the game.
When the Flyers returned to practice this past Sunday, Allison was back on the ice giving Philly 12 available forwards and seven defensemen. During line rushes, the Flyers went with the same combinations of forwards that started the game together in Winnipeg, with the exception of Allison (a career-long winger) skating at center on the fourth line. Defense pairings rotated around to get all seven D-men on the ice a roughly equal number of reps.
On Monday, the Flyers held a mandatory morning skate; just the second of the season and the first since opening night of the regular season. Tortorella said he was still "feeling out" which combinations would start the game together but did confirm that Brown would start at fourth line center and Allison (who was testing out how he felt on Sunday and Monday) was a go for the game and would play right wing, not play out of place at center.
Potential starting lineup (subject to change)
25 James van Riemsdyk - 49 Noah Cates - 11 Travis Konecny
13 Kevin Hayes - 21 Scott Laughton - 74 Owen Tippett
86 Joel Farabee - 48 Morgan Frost - 57 Wade Allison
44 Nicolas Deslauriers - 38 Patrick Brown - 20 Kieffer Bellows
9 Ivan Provorov - 45 Cam York
6 Travis Sanheim - 77 Tony DeAngelo
24 Nick Seeler - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
79 Carter Hart
[32 Felix Sandström]
Extra skater: 61 Justin Braun
PP1: JVR, Laughton, Konecny, Hayes, DeAngelo.
PP2: Cates, Frost, Tippett, Farabee, York
5. Behind enemy lines: New York Islanders
The Islanders became the talk of the NHL during the All-Star break when they acquired Bo Horvat (31 goals, 54 points) from the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for Anthony Beauvillier (nine goals, 20 points), 19-year-old prospect Aatu Räty (12 NHL games played this season, two goals) and the Islanders' 2023 first-round Draft choice. Subsequently, the Islander preempted Horvat's impending unrestricted free agency by signing him to an eight-season contract extension at a reported $8.5 million average annual value (AAV).
The addition of Horvat adds skill, grit and leadership to the Islanders' lineup and makes the club deeper and more potent up front. He should almost immediately become part of the Islanders' leadership group once he gets settled in with his new team. Horvat is a cousin of Flyers' leading scorer Travis Konecny.
Per Newsday's Andrew Gross, this is how the Islanders arranged their combinations at Monday's morning skate and are likely to start the game: