National Hockey League preview roundup for Tuesday, February 7, 2012 (Part II)
Continued from part I...
New York Islanders at Philadelphia (7.00 p.m. ET)
The regressing Philadelphia Flyers have a good opportunity to recover from the recent slump as they prepare to host the lowly New York Islanders on Tuesday, February 7, 2012, at the Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Philadelphia has lost three of its last four games and is currently on a two-game losing streak.
The recent defeats were more humiliating in which the defence was badly exposed.
Against New Jersey Devils, Philadelphia conceded six goals while New York Rangers scored five goals against them.
Flyers’ coach, Peter Laviolette, thinks that everyone is accountable for the failure. He said:
"We have to be better with the attention to detail of trying to prevent goals from getting into our net and the desperation of blocking a shot, making sure we stop and protect."
The coach added that:
"I think we're all accountable. It's my responsibility to make sure we're better defensively from a team point of view right down to our goaltender. It's not good enough."
After playing 52 games, Philadelphia is ranked at fourth spot in the National Hockey League (NHL) Eastern Conference with 66 points.
On the other hand, the Islanders are ranked at 12th spot after 51 games with 50 points.
New York lost its last game against Buffalo Sabres, 4-3, in shootout.
Florida at Washington (7.00 p.m. ET)
The National Hockey League (NHL) Southeast division leaders, Florida Panthers, are going to play a road game against Washington Capitals, at the Verizon Center, Washington, District of Columbia.
If Washington manages a victory, it can push Florida behind to lead the Southeast division.
However, to do that Washington should improve its game-play.
The team has lost five of the last seven games.
The last defeat was against Boston Bruins (4-1) in which the first scoring move from Capitals came when Boston had already scored three goals.
On the other hand, Florida has won three of its last five games before which it had lost four straight games.
The Panthers were defeated by Tampa Bay Lightning in the last game, 6-3.
Florida’s coach, Kevin Dineen, thinks that his team should beat Washington and start a new winning run.
He said:
"We were disappointed with the outcome and our overall consistent effort in Tampa, so we're looking at this as a very important game to really get us going for the stretch run."
To be continued...
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