The Ottawa Senators make their first trip to the Barclays Center tonight to face the struggling New York Islanders. The Isles could not have been given a more tailor made matchup to snap their four-game losing streak (0-3-1). That's what scares me.
The Islanders are in the first wild card position and are two points ahead of the Philadelphia Flyers and Detroit Red Wings. They trail the surging Pittsburgh Penguins by three points. They do not control their own destiny against the Penguins.
The Senators lost last night to the Washington Capitals. The Islanders have scored just 11 goals in their last seven games (1-4-2). The Senators have allowed 221 goals this season, 2nd-most in the league. The lack of scoring has also been felt on their power play, going 1-10 in the last seven games. The Sens have the worst penalty kill in the league (75.2).
Jean-Francois Berube will start tonight. It's Berube first start since stealing a point in Pittsburgh over a week ago. Thomas Greiss has played well since Jaroslav Halak went down for the rest of the regular season. I guess the only knock on Greiss is that he hasn't scored.
Ryan Pulock is back in the lineup tonight. This is probably the one game he will get this week. Pulock hasn't been seen since scoring his first NHL goal last Thursday in Nashville. Jack Capuano must give Pulock a play on the power play. Cappy also fails to give Johnny Boychuk enough playing time with the man advantage.
Kyle Okposo, who scored the only goal in Monday's debacle against the Flyers has scored three goals in his last five games. John Tavares is goalless in his last five games. Tavares should have fun tonight playing alongside Ryan Strome, one goal in his last 16 games and Josh Bailey, two goals in his last 13 games.
Andrew Hammond will start for the Senators. Defenseman Dion Phaneuf will not play tonight due to a lower-body injury suffered last night.
Check out our latest Isles Buzz podcast as we try to make sense of their recent play
The team has announced that they have signed goaltender Eamon McAdam to a three-year entry level contract. McAdam was selected in the third round of the 2010 NHL draft. He will report to Bridgeport of the American Hockey League on an amateur tryout contract for the remainder of the season.
McAdam just finished his junior year at Penn State, where he went 13-8-1 with a 2.98 GAA and a .913 save pct. He was named to the All Big Ten second team.
Dan and I had the chance to have Eamon on the podcast in January.
Newsday's Arthur Staple reports that defenseman Parker Wotherspoon may be joining the Sound Tigers on an ATO. Wotherspoon was selected in the fourth round of e 2015 draft. In 71 games for the Tri-City Americans of the WHL, he scored 11 goals and 45 assists. His brother Tyler played ten games for the Calgary Flames this season.