A banged up, slumping Islander team is in Chicago tonight to take on the Blackhawks. The Isles are running out of games and simply need to get back into the win column. The team is banged up as Jaroslav Halak and Lubomir Visnovsky did not make the trip. Matt Donovan will play in place of Visnovsky and Michael Neuvirth will get the start in net. Ryan Strome will be back in the lineup tonight in place of Michael Grabner.
New York’s offense has gone cold as they scored only three goals in their last three games. Too frequently the team has been kept outside of the faceoff dots and that needs to change. The Islanders have to drive the net as a team collectively. They need to get more traffic in front of the opposing goalie and they also need to stop in front of the net and can’t have half the team doing a courtesy fly-by the crease. The roster needs to refocus and score some ugly, grinding goals.
As for the lineup tonight, the first and fourth lines remain the same with John Tavares centering Kyle Okposo and Josh Bailey. Casey Cizikas will center Matt Martin and Cal Clutterbuck. The kid line will be reunited tonight as Ryan Strome will join Brock Nelson and Anders Lee. Finally, Frans Nielsen will center the third line and he will be joined by Nikolay Kulemin and Tyler Kennedy. I think as the roster is currently constructed these lines should give the team a good chance at scoring some much needed goals.
The Islanders are trying to avoid their first four game losing streak of the season. Despite the team’s recent struggles, the penalty kill has improved and the defense has been solid for the most part. There have been some breakdowns but the team is in every game. They just need to start hitting the back of the net once again and I feel this squad can turn this around.
The division standings are starting to get very congested so this is a very important game tonight against a Blackhawks team that has won four of its last five games. The ship isn’t sinking but it has taken on water. Scoring pretty goals comes and goes but hard work and playing with some grit and desire will produce chances. This team simply needs to realize that it can’t get by playing cute hockey all the time. It is time for the Islanders to roll up their sleeves and get to work. As always for more on all things hockey please follow me on twitter at @DanDanNoodles78.