The Islanders move to the gulf coast of Florida tonight as they take on the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Islanders will be without defenseman Travis Hamonic as they have sent him back to Long Island for further examination on a possible concussion. Returning to the lineup tonight will be Radek Martinek and up front Peter Regin will be back in the lineup as well. As a result of Martinek being in the lineup, Matt Carkner will be a healthy scratch.
Kevin Poulin makes yet another start between the pipes as he faces off against red hot Ben Bishop. This should be a solid matchup tonight as the Islanders have experienced a successful stretch of games on the road and Tampa is very formable at home.
As for the lines tonight Brock Nelson will center the third line and play between Cal Clutterbuck and Michael Grabner. Peter Regin will join Josh Bailey and Frans Nielsen on the second line. The last time this line was together was at home against Dallas and they had good chemistry as Regin was able to pot a goal. Josh Bailey clearly needs to score in the worst way as his goalless streak has reached the point of madness.
On the blue line the most interesting pairing will be the two rookies; Calvin deHaan and Matt Donovan. This was a common pairing in Bridgeport and these two have always had good chemistry together on an AHL level. It will be worth seeing if they can translate that into NHL success. Also this pairing ran the powerplay in Bridgeport and with the struggles of Andrew Macdonald, I would love to see deHaan and Donovan paired up when the team is a man up.
After laying an egg against the Panthers the Islanders will have to raise their level of play if they hope to beat this Lightning team. We all know the talent that Tampa possesses even without their sniper Steven Stamkos. The Isles must play better in their own zone, not turn the puck over in neutral ice and cannot continue to fall behind and expect to win. New York needs to have a great first period for once and score the opening goal of the game. As always for more on all things hockey please give me a follow on Twitter and Instagram at @DanDanNoodles78.