Flyers shut out by Islanders in preseason opener

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UNIONDALE, N.Y. — The Flyers dropped their preseason opener Sunday afternoon, 3-0, to the New York Islanders at the Nassau Coliseum.

Kieffer Bellows, Cal Clutterbuck and Sebastian Aho scored for the Islanders.

New York scored two first-period power-play goals on their first two attempts.

The Islanders also outshot the Flyers, 25-17, and no Flyers had more than two shots on net.

Islanders dress more veterans

Like they did in last year's preseason game against the Flyers here, the Islanders suited up a veteran-heavy lineup, which included the team's leading scorer and Calder Trophy winner Mathew Barzal.

In all, the Islanders had 11 regulars on the ice as opposed to the Flyers' eight with NHL experience. The disparity in experience showed on the ice as the Isles applied more pressure to the Flyers defensively and certainly, looked quicker on the ice.

The Flyers manufactured just four even-strength shots on goal through the first 40 minutes.

"Too many soft areas of the game for my standpoint, too many soft performances in hard areas," Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol said. "It's a tough game and for some guys, maybe it's coming off a practice or playing your first NHL game. Those are tough experiences."

Sanheim injured

Flyers defenseman Travis Sanheim left the game after he was driven hard into the boards by Islanders tough guy Matt Martin, who received a two-minute minor for boarding (see story).

Sanheim stumbled as he got to his feet, appeared dazed from the hit and immediately left the ice for the dressing room. He looked as if he suffered a shoulder/arm injury.

As a precaution, Sanheim did not play for the remainder of the game. If Sanheim is out for an extended time, GM Ron Hextall will have to seriously consider outside options.

"It's bad for Sany, but it was good for us," Robert Hagg said. "It felt like you could get into the game quicker. I don't know what happened to him, but I hope he's coming back sooner. It's the first game of the year and you can blame it on a lot of things."

Stolarz's first Flyers action since April 2017

Flyers prospect Carter Hart admitted he needed to work off the rust in his first game action in five months, so you can imagine how Anthony Stolarz felt considering he had played just four games over the past 16 months.

Stolarz appeared to have been flat-footed on Bellows' one-time goal and was slow in reacting at times, especially in his lateral movements. But, as expected, he moved better as he got better acclimated. I don't pin as much responsibility on Stolarz on the Islanders' goals as there were coverage breakdowns.

"Just reading plays," Stolarz said. "On that first goal, I've got my head on a swivel and you don't realize that guy is sitting there in the low slot. That will come with time and in-game reps and getting out there and just getting familiar with how teams move the puck."

P.K. still pukey

Before we crucify the Flyers for an endless beatdown of their penalty kill, Hakstol is in the experimental phase, so at this stage, he's tinkering with his personnel.

However, the Islanders made it look easy, converting two power-play goals on their first four opportunities and both goals came against the same unit — minus one forward.

With the combination of Cole Bardreau, Oskar Lindblom, Hagg and Phillippe Myers on the ice, Jordan Eberle made an easy seam pass to Bellows in the slot. That's the type of pass the Flyers can't allow.

The second power-play goal was a breakdown in coverage, as the PKers appeared to overextend themselves to the right of Stolarz and failed to win a puck battle.

Defenseman Reece Willcox was caught out high in the circle, which left Clutterbuck alone down low for the easy putback goal. However, the breakdown started before that and Travis Konecny blamed himself.

"It's been a long time since I've played (PK), and as you can see, I made a mistake on the second goal," Konecny said. "I wasn't in the right spot. I just have to know where I'm supposed to be. We're going to keep working at it."

Lines and pairings

Oskar Lindblom-Nolan Patrick-Travis Konecny
Danick Martel-Mikhail Vorobyev-Nicolas Aube-Kubel
Taylor Leier-German Rubtsov-Cole Bardeau
Carsen Twarynski-Morgan Frost-Maskim Sushko

Robert Hagg-Christian Folin
Travis Sanheim-Philippe Myers
T.J. Brennan-Reece Willcox

Anthony Stolarz
Alex Lyon

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