The Islanders will be looking to start a win streak tonight as the Los Angeles Kings come to the Nassau Veteran’s Memorial Coliseum. The big news is between the nets for both of these teams. Islanders’ goalie Kevin Poulin will make his third straight start for the Isles after solid performances against Montreal and Nashville. The big news for the Kings is who is not in goal as L.A. goalie Jonathan Quick will miss several weeks with a grade two groin strain.
The lineup itself will stay the same and captain John Tavares will play tonight. Tavares crashed hard into the boards late in Tuesday nights’ 3-1 win against the Predators. After a day off yesterday he is healthy enough to give it a go tonight.
It will be interesting to see if the Isles can build off Tuesday’s win as the special teams which struggled through their recent four game road trip appears to be correcting itself. Secondary scoring is always a catchphrase that circles the team and with Tavares, Okposo and Nielsen carrying the way offensively they need more production from the struggling Michael Grabner and Josh Bailey. Hopefully Pierre-Marc Bouchard has turned a corner as he played perhaps his best game in an Islanders uniform against the Predators.
The Kings will pose a threat to an undersized Islanders’ blue line tonight and it will be interesting to see how L.A.’s physicality matches up with the team speed that the Islanders possess. Despite a high profile group of forwards the Kings do not blow anyone out of the water when it comes to scoring goals and this should be a good matchup.
After tonight the Isles will have a day off tomorrow and host the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday. As always for more on all things hockey please follow me on twitter at @DanDanNoodles78.