East Division Update - March 22nd

There were only two games in the division tonight. One had the Rangers hosting a struggling Buffalo Sabers team, and the other had the Flyers hosting the New York Islanders in Philidelphia. My analysis of these two games below.

(Image Credits: 1 - Broad Street Hockey, 2 - New York Times)

ISLANDERS @ FLYERS

The Flyers came into this one struggling in the goal-scoring department, as well as the goaltending department. They weren't getting the saves they were last year from Carter Hart and weren't scoring goals at an effective rate lately. The defense has also been a problem for Philidelphia, giving up at least three goals in their last ten games. This one was close, as the Flyers put up a good fight, but couldn't finish in overtime. The Islanders prevailed in this game and retook the lead atop the East division. The Flyers are still in fifth place and are struggling to gain any ground on Boston or Pittsburgh, the two teams that separate them from the postseason. Goaltender Brian Elliot only made 18 saves on 20 shots for Philadelphia, getting beat on a wraparound for the overtime winner. Philidelphia put a lot of shots on Illy Sorokin, but he made 36 saves on 37 shots to propel the Isles to the 2-1 win.

Scoring:

Flyers: Oskar Lindblom (5).

Islanders: Oliver Wahlstrom (8), Anthony Beauvillier (4 - OT Winner).

SABERS @ RANGERS

This game showed that the Buffalo Sabers have some more fight in them, but still have a TON of work to do to get to where they need to be. The Rangers and Sabers battled out a pretty tight game at MSG tonight, with New York winning 5 - 3. The Sabers losing this one marks their 14th consecutive loss, which is awfully close to the NHL record set by Pittsburgh at 18 straight L's in the '03-'04 season. Buffalo is getting a little bit more production offensively from Jeff Skinner returning to the lineup, but the rest of their team is pretty bad quite honestly. The Rangers are scoring now, and just need to tighten up their defense before they could make a bit of a push toward a playoff spot in this tight-knit division. Buffalo got yet another blow though, as Carter Hutton went down with an injury early in this one and did not return.

Scoring:

Sabers: Rasmus Asplund (2), Dylan Cozens (4), Jeff Skinner (3).

Rangers: Kappo Kakko (3, 4 - Empty Net), Chris Krieder (15,16 - PPG's), Adam Fox (3).

Standings Update After Tonight:

1. Islanders

2. Capitals

3. Penguins

4. Bruins

5. Flyers

6. Rangers

7. Devils

8. Sabers