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The New York Islanders will face the Nashville Predators for the first time this season tonight and will play each other twice in next eight nights.
The Islanders had a golden opportunity to take sole possession of the second wild card spot Saturday night. Anton Khudobin started in place of Tuukka Rask. The Islanders had six power play opportunities. Instead of capitalizing, they laid an egg in front of a sold-out Barclays Center, losing 2-1 against the Boston Bruins.
New York managed just 19 shots, matching a season-low. In the second period, they had five shots in the second period but none were at even strength (four power play and one shorthanded). In fact, the Isles went a span of 41:36 without a shot on goal at even strength.
After getting points in 11 straight home games (9-0-2), the Islanders haven't won at Barclays in six weeks (0-3-1).
Thomas Greiss will start tonight. Alan Quine will be in the lineup for Shane Prince.
Thomas Hickey will be in the lineup for Scott Mayfield. Johnny Boychuk will miss his 12th straight game. The team sorely misses him.
I'm not going to talk about Ryan Pulock today. OK. yes I am. After watching Saturday's inept power play, general manager Garth Snow should personally drive to Bridgeport to bring Pulock to the Islanders. If he doesn't want to drive, Metro North stops right in front of Webster Bank Arena. Doug Weight can only do so much with the personnel given to him.
Finally, we say goodbye to the black alternate jersey tonight. Adidas will replace Reebok as the league's provider of jerseys and has already stated that they will eliminate the third jersey for the 2017-18 season.
Brett Yormark and the folks at Barclays love black and white. They redesigned the Nets logo and jersey and changed the color scheme to black and white when they moved from New Jersey. Yormark wanted to do the same when the Islanders moved from Nassau. The feedback was completely negative and the home and away jerseys were unaltered. The third jersey was changed to black and white to, as Yormark said "“The colors of black and white infuse the spirit of Brooklyn into the borough’s new home team, while the four stripes seen throughout the uniform pay homage to the Islanders famed Stanley Cup dynasty.”
The official colors of Brooklyn are blue and gold.
The Islanders signed forward John Stevens to a two-year, entry-level contract Monday. The 22-year-old was the captain for Northeastern University this season, notching five goals and 23 assists in 25 games.
He had 26 goals and 80 assists in 138 games during his four-year career with Northeastern.
He is the son of former Philadelphia Flyers head coach and current Los Angeles Kings associate head coach John Stevens.
New York Islanders Blogger • 
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