Following a slow start to the season, the New York Islanders are riding a four-game winning streak into Saturday afternoon’s road game against the Philadelphia Flyers.
New York began the campaign with three straight losses, including a 5-2 defeat to the Winnipeg Jets that dropped the team to 0-3-0. However, the team’s recent hot stretch has featured an offensive resurgence, as the Islanders have outscored their past four opponents 20-11.
Their game on Thursday was the Islanders’ most impressive of the young season, as they trounced the Detroit Red Wings 7-2. Emil Heineman notched the first multi-goal game of his career, while Anders Lee recorded three assists in the decisive triumph.
“I’m just going out there and trying to play as good as I can,” Heineman said. “Bo (Horvat) is serving me really good passes out there, so I just have my stick on the ice and I’m trying to grip and rip it.”
Horvat had two assists, giving him a team-high nine points (five goals, four assists) on the season. Mathew Barzal, Tony DeAngelo and Simon Holmstrom each contributed a goal and an assist, helping New York score multiple goals in every period.
“I’m very pleased. We got a lot of guys that played really well,” New York coach Patrick Roy said.
David Rittich earned the win between the pipes, turning aside 31 shots in his second start of the season.
“Rittich was outstanding,” Roy said. “He was outstanding, made things look really easy at times. It was a great performance by him.”
The Flyers also received a solid goaltending performance in their most recent game. Dan Vladar, who has emerged as the team’s No. 1 option in net, made 31 saves in Thursday’s 2-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators.
“We wasted a good night from Vlady,” said Philadelphia coach Rick Tocchet, whose team had won three of its previous four games. “I thought he did a nice job in net for us.”
Tyson Foerster scored the only goal for Philadelphia — just 29 seconds into the game — as Philadelphia finished with fewer than two goals for the first time since its season opener.
“We didn’t have an interior game tonight. That was a major factor,” Tocchet said. “A lot of guys didn’t want to commit to going to the net.”
Trevor Zegras is still looking for his first goal of the season, while Matvei Michkov only has one tally in the first seven games. Owen Tippett leads the team with five goals, although he has yet to notch an assist on the season.
Foerster concurred that the team needs to put more of an emphasis on taking more shots while getting big bodies in front of the goaltender.
“I think we’ve got to get more shots to the net, more traffic in front of their goalie. We’ve got to be better,” he said.
The Islanders have won their season series with the Flyers in each of the last six seasons. They went 2-1-1 against Philadelphia in 2024-25.
