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NHL on NBCSN: Islanders are ready for ‘huge game’ against Flyers

Philadelphia Flyers v New York Islanders

NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 03: John Tavares #91 of the New York Islanders misses against Michal Neuvirth #30 of the Philadelphia Flyers in an overtime shootout during their game at the Barclays Center on November 3, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)

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NBCSN will continue its coverage of the 2016-17 campaign tonight when the Philadelphia Flyers host the New York Islanders at 7:00 p.m. ET. If you want to watch the game online, you can do so here.

Heading into tonight’s game, the Flyers sit in the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference. Even though the Islanders are on the outside looking in when it comes to the playoffs, they’re still in a better spot than Philadelphia.

The Flyers are three points ahead of New York, but the Islanders are red-hot and they have three games in hand.

Since moving on from Jack Capuano, interim head coach Doug Weight has led the Isles out of the conference basement and into striking distance of a playoff spot. Under Weight, New York has an impressive 6-1-2 record. Eight of those nine games were played on home ice, but things are about to get a lot trickier for Weight and his club, as 13 of their next 16 games will be played on the road.

The Islanders have a solid 17-8-6 record at Barclays Center in 2016-17, but they’re just 6-10-4 away from home. Obviously, they’ve only played on road game under Weight, so there’s a chance the record could improve, but long stretches away from home aren’t easy on any teams.

Despite the tough schedule coming up, the Isles need to focus on tonight’s game because it’s a big one for them. Closing the gap to one point and still maintaining those three games in hand would be huge.

“We’ve done some good things now, we’re knocking on the door but we have a little more to give to get where we want to be,” Brock Nelson told Newsday. “It’s a huge game. We expect their best and we expect to be ready.”

One of the things they’ll have to clean up is the amount of scoring chances and goals they’ve been giving up lately. They’re 1-1-1 in their last three games and they’ve given up at least five goals in each of those contests.

It’ll be interesting to see how this game shakes out because the Islanders are giving up a ton of goals and the Flyers haven’t been scoring any.

In their last two games, Philadelphia hasn’t found the back of the net. They lost a 1-0 game in OT to the Kings on Saturday and they were shut out by Carter Hutton and the Blues on Monday night.

You’d think that if there was ever a time for the offense to explode, it would be against a division rival that’s giving up goals by the truckload.

“The results haven’t been there,’’ coach Dave Hakstol said, per Philly.com. “But you look at the rebound opportunities and opportunities that we did have in front of the net. There were some pretty good opportunities there.

“Can we be better in that area? Yes we can. Can we try to do a better job opening up the ice and creating a few more rush opportunities? Yes we can. Can we get a few more pucks to the net from our blueline? Absolutely. So there are some areas to do a better job.’’

Shaking this recent slump off will be key because the schedule won’t get any easier for Philadelphia. After tonight’s game, they’ll host the Sharks on Saturday afternoon before heading off on a three-game road trip through Western Canada. After that, they return home to face the red-hot Capitals and then they’ll head to Pittsburgh to take on the defending Stanley Cup champions.