The great Rosie Perez in White Men Can't Jump said it best "Sometimes when you win, you really lose, and sometimes when you lose, you really win..." But do the Islanders really want to win against the Rangers tonight?
Both teams could look to avoid the red-hot Pittsburgh Penguins. Despite losing Evgeni Malkin and Marc-Andre Fleury, the Pens are 9-1-0 in their last ten. The Islanders trail the Rangers by two points with a game in hand.
Believe it or not, the Isles still have a chance, albeit a small one, to open up the Stanley Cup Playoffs at home for the first time since the 1987-1988 season. They have to win their final three games and the Penguins lose their final two games on the road against the Washington Capitals and Philadelphia Flyers. If the Isles win tonight it would be the first season-series sweep of the Rangers. That alone is motivation enough for them to win. The Isles have owned MSG of late winning six of the last seven there.
If the Islanders lose in regulation tonight, they will be locked into a wild-card spot. Their magic number to clinch at top wild card spot and avoid playing the Capitals in the first round is one.
Thomas Greiss will start tonight. The rest of the lineup will be announced later. Jack Capuano said that there's a good chance that Calvin de Haan will play tonight. That will be a big boost to the defense. Both Cal Clutterbuck and Scott Mayfield were on the ice for extra work, both presumably will be out tonight.
Thought there couldn't be another bump in the road for the Isles at Barclays Center? The Brooklyn arena has boxing scheduled three of the four night between April 16th and the 17th. You thought the ice is bad now, just you wait.
If the team opens up against the Florida Panthers, the series will start a week from tonight since the arena is booked next Wednesday. We will worry about all of this when it's set in stone. But I doubt that Barclays even knew when the NHL Playoffs began when they scheduled all of these events. Thankfully the Brooklyn Nets stink.
We had a chance yesterday to chat with defenseman Adam Pelech during his conditioning stint in Bridgeport.