While the New York Islanders and the NHL thought Tsyplakov's hit was clean, the Philadelphia Flyers certainly disagreed.

On Friday, the NHL’s Department of Player Safety announced it has suspended New York Islanders forward Max Tsyplakov for three games for his illegal check to the head of Flyers forward Ryan Poehling on Thursday night. The third game of his suspension is a rematch between the Flyers and Islanders at UBS Arena.

There was no opportunity on Friday for the Flyers to try and avenge Ryan Poehling — still out with a head injury incurred on Max Tsyplakov’s hit that knocked him out of last Thursday’s match between the Flyers and Islanders — when the teams met in their first rematch since then.

New York Islanders forward Maxim Tsyplakov has been suspended for three games without pay for an illegal check to the head of Philadelphia Flyers forward Ryan Poehling.

A few weeks ago, the Eastern Conference Playoff race seemed as crowded as possible. Only a handful of points separated teams in the last few spots from those at the bottom of the conference.

Coach John Tortorella said recently that Ivan Fedotov’s goalie style is weird. But that wasn’t the only weird occurrence inside the Wells Fargo Center Thursday night. The Flyers’ continuing troubles in the second game of a back-to-back matchup — they are now 1-8-1 in those games — continued following a 3-0 loss to the New York Islanders.

The Philadelphia Flyers were shut out, 3-0, by the New York Islanders at Wells Fargo Center on Thursday evening.

The New York Islanders (23-20-7) marched into the Wells Fargo Center and soundly defeated the Philadelphia Flyers (23-24-6) 3-0 on Thursday night.

But when a stretch of eight Metropolitan Division games out of nine ended on Thursday night, the Flyers’ 3-0 loss to the visiting New York Islanders left Philadelphia’s record at 3-4-1 for that key segment.

The New York Islanders (22-20-7) will travel for the first time since January 11 in Utah, following a largely successful seven-game homestand that revived this season. The Philadelphia Flyers (23-23-6) will await them in the city of Brotherly Love,

Tonight's game between the Philadelphia Flyers and New York Islanders at Wells Fargo Center promises to be a high-energy and potentially heated affair.

One of the hardest things to do is beat a team three times. The Flyers learned that the hard way Wednesday night in a 5-0 loss to the New Jersey Devils. They have now lost three of their past four games.