from Arthur Staple of Newsday,

Must-win on Saturday night? You bet.

It’s come to this for the Islanders, playing their 25th game of the season against the Flyers. They have lost six straight on the road, are 2-7-0 in the last nine and come into play tonight in last in the Metro Division -- they are four points out of third, but still.

Nearly everyone around them is headed upwards, most of all Saturday’s opponent -- the Flyers are 5-0-1 in their last six after a dismal start that included the firing of Peter Laviolette.

And the Isles, as close as they’ve been on several occasions over the last few weeks, are not coming away with loser points when they’re playing poorly and not winning games they need to. They’ve lost two games with goals inside of two minutes to play in the last four, the penalty killing is a 50-50 proposition and now the power play disappeared at key times on Friday in Pittsburgh.

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