The New York Islanders are in Florida tonight to face the Panthers. Here’s the pre-game report.
HEAD TO HEAD Lately, the Islanders haven’t had a lot of luck against the Panthers. They lost both games earlier this season and dating back to last season, they’ve lost their last four games against Florida, being outscored 14-5 in that time.
The Islanders and Panthers have identical records in their last 10 games, both sitting with 5-5-0 records. In Florida, the Panthers have been good, going 20-13-6, while the Islanders have been just good on the road, with a 22-14-3 record to show for.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
NYI Recovering from a poor stretch, Josh Bailey has five points in his last six games, while Jordan Eberle has finally broken out of his cold streak, with five goals and six points in his last six games. Brock Nelson also has eight points in his last 10 games.
FLA Aleksander Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau and Evgenii Dadonov have been absolutely tearing teams apart recently. The trio have a combined 70 points in their last 14 games. Yes, you read that right. Aaron Ekblad and Keith Yandle have also been good as of late. Ekblad has nine points and is a plus-five in his last 15 games, while Yandle has 15 points in his last 21 games.
GOALIE MATCHUP (Projected) FLA: Sam Montembeault has just an .862 save percentage over his last six games. NYI: Thomas Greiss has a .931 save percentage in his last six games.
PERFORMANCE VS OPPONENT Below, we look at key players who have overperformed or underperformed against the opponent.
NYI Individual Career Stats vs FLA Underperformed: Anders Lee has just six points in 16 games Underperformed: Mathew Barzal has just two points in five games Underperformed: Brock Nelson also only has six points in 17 games Underperformed: Thomas Greiss has just a .901 career save percentage vs FLA
FLA Individual Career Stats vs NYI Overperformed: Aleksander Barkov has 14 points in 13 games Overperformed: Evgenii Dadonov has five goals and seven points in five games Overperformed: Vincent Trocheck has 13 points in 14 games Overperformed: Keith Yandle has 20 points and is a plus-six in 21 games Underperformed: Mike Hoffman has just six points in 13 games
Puck drop is at 7 p.m.