The Islanders return to the ice tonight in south Florida to take on the Panthers. The Isles will look to ride a season best streak that has seen them win eight of their past eleven games. If New York wants to keep this run going they will have to do it tonight without the services of defenseman Travis Hamonic. Hamonic is out with an “upper-body” injury. I would think that this is related to him leaving the game on Sunday due to a cold that caused him to dehydrate.

Taking his spot on the blue line tonight will be Matt Carkner. Pairings have not been set as of yet but in the morning skate Carkner was teamed up with Matt Donovan; Brian Strait was with Andrew MacDonald and Calvin deHaan was alongside Thomas Hickey. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t skeptical of the Carkner/Donovan pairing as they have struggled mightily when teamed up. It will be interesting to see how the defense responds with the loss of Hamonic. Their will be no changes up front with the forwards.

Kevin Poulin will get the start yet again in net and he hopes to keep his hot streak going. With the Islanders playing four times in the next six days we might see Islanders rookie Anders Nilsson get a start at some point just to keep Poulin fresh. However I can see Islanders head coach Jack Capuano riding the hot hand as points are at a premium. Therefore he may lean on Kevin Poulin until his play dictates a day off.

The Islanders will face off against their former “teammate” Tim Thomas tonight and they will also see the familiar faces of Sean Bergenheim and Brad Boyes. This is a Panthers team that has played relatively better over their past ten games so the Islanders need to control the play and not let Florida hang around. Despite the Panthers lack of offense there are some talented young players in that dressing room and the Islanders are in no position to take them lightly.

These are the games where the flat New York team has surfaced in recent times. However the Isles are in no position to come out flat. These are points that have to be had if there is any chance of getting back in the playoff discussion. I have been saying that nobody should be looking at the standings until the Islanders are back to the .500 mark. If they want to get to that point this is the kind of game they need to win. As always for more on all things hockey please follow me on Twitter and Instagram at @DanDanNoodles78.

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