The Islanders look for their fourth straight win when they host the Pittsburgh Penguins this afternoon. The Isles trail the Penguins by three points with a game in hand. They trail the Rangers by a point with a game in hand for third place. The Isles, believe it or not, control their own destiny for clinching second place in the Metropolitan Division. The last time New York had home ice for a playoff series was back in 1988. Naturally it's easier said than done.
They will play the rest of the regular season without defenseman Travis Hamonic, who suffered a knee injury against Columbus on Thursday. Jack Capuano will have to find a way to fill the almost 24 minutes a game that Hamonic was playing.
Thomas Hickey and Calvin de Haan stepped up and played more than usual on Thursday. Can they keep it up though? Hickey has struggled down the stretch. Before Hamonic's injury, I thought that Hickey was a candidate to be scratched instead of Ryan Pulock. Now that Hamonic's out, both Hickey and Brian Strait are not going anywhere. When Strait is in the lineup, he is one of Capuano's penalty killers. It looks like Marek Zidlicky will get the first crack at replacing Hamonic. Zidlicky has been out since March 6th. Capuano says that he prefers experience. I guess he also prefers experience over talent. They cannot play Strait and Zidlicky together. It's a recipe for disaster.
Pulock needs to play, plain and simple. Cappy has said in the past that Pulock will get his chance. When will that come? He hasn't play since March 25th. Zidlicky, besides experience, brings little to the table. If Pulock is not playing in regular-games, how is he going to play in the playoffs?
The Islanders need to overcome their sluggish starts in their past few afternoon games. Those games were on the road though. This game, like the rest of the regular season games, are playoff-type ones. The players have to come out flying. That falls on the players, not the coach.
The Penguins are ridiculously hot right now, going 10-1 in their last 11 games. Since Evgeni Malkin went down they are 9-1.