The Islanders, coming off their most complete win of their current 10-game points streak Sunday vs the Devils, host the Florida Panthers tonight at the Barclays Center. The Isles have won five straight home games and are 11-4-2 at their new home.
New York has won four straight games and are 8-0-2 in their past ten games. In that stretch, five games went to overtime. They haven't played like a team who won eight of ten games until Sunday. Marek Zidlicky's first goal of the game in the first period set the tone early. John Tavares scored off a nifty pass from Kyle Okposo to make it 2-0. It was the captain's first goal in five games. Zidlicky's second goal early in the third made it a 4-0 game. The 38-year-old became the oldest player in Islander history to score two goals. He also became the first defenseman since our good friend Andrew MacDonald to score two goals. A-Mac score twice vs St Louis on March 5th, 2011.
Zidlicky's two goals gave the Isles ten goals from their d-men through 31 games. Their d-men scored ten goals through fifteen games a season ago. Nick Leddy's zero goals has something to do with that.
Thomas Greiss record his first shutout of the season. In 14 games this season, the 29-year-old is 9-3-2, 2.03 GAA and .933 save pct. Jaroslav Halak will start tonight.
Ryan Strome will be back in the lineup after missing Sunday with an upper-body injury. Strome has three goals and seven assists in twenty games. The Isles catch a break as Jaromir Jagr will miss the game with the flu. The 200-year-old, I mean 43-year-old Jagr leads the Panthers with 21 points (9 goals, 12 assists) this season. Jagr owns the Isles. His 61 goals and 154 points in 108 career games vs the Islanders are the most vs any team.