Flyers Need to Bounce Back Against Isles

It's not a must-win situation, but the Flyers need to take care of the last place Islanders if they want to stay in the hunt for the top spot in the Eastern Conference. They need to ignore all of the injuries and Forsberg talk and go out and get a win. This team has the talent, they just have to focus and get the job done.

Here are the latest news and rumors:

*New Lines As posted by Bill Meltzer, who does a great game preview, the Flyers lines will be altered again due to the injuries. Either R.J. Umberger or Sami Kapanen will take Simon Gagne's spot on the top line, with the other filling in on the third line. New call-up Kyle Greentree will make his NHL debut and play on the fourth line. He is a big guy who has shown a scoring touch in the minors.

Umberger/Kapanen - Briere - Lupul
Hartnell - Richards - Downie
Umberger/Kapanen - Carter - Knuble
Cote - Dowd - Greentree

The defense remains the same, with Lasse Kukkonen playing for Braydon Coburn's injured butt.

*The Trade Front We know the Flyers want to add a puck moving defenseman, but with all these injuries, might they be looking for another forward? Makes sense to me, especially with Gagne out indefinitely. Forsberg would be the obvious choice, but we still don't know if that will happen. (By the way, the latest news on Forsberg is there is no news. No new decisions have been made, but every expectation is that something will be decided "in about a week".)

Eklund over at Hockeybuzz.com has a list of the 80 most likely to be traded players, so start your speculating from that list. If the Flyers don't get Foppa, I would love it if they went after a guy like Vaclav Prospal or a tougher guy like Brian Willsie. The trade deadline is two weeks away, so we will soon find out what the Flyers plan to do!