After some much needed rest, the Islanders return to Coliseum ice tonight to take on the Ottawa Senators at 7pm. Ottawa comes into town losers of four of their last five games but still boast plenty of talent with the likes of Erik Karlsson, Kyle Turris and Bobby Ryan. Ryan is recovering from a broken finger and he could make his return to the lineup, tonight, against an Isles team that is hoping to build off an amazing month of November.
The Islanders will be without Johnny Boychuk and Lubomir Visnovsky, again tonight, as Brian Strait and Matt Donovan will take their place. You have to commend the play of Matt Donovan. It cannot be easy, mentally, to sit for a quarter of the season and be thrust right into the lineup. His play has been fine and any points the team can grab with their seventh and eighth dmen in the lineup is a win in my book. At some point soon the team will need another dman up if either of Boychuk or Visnovsky are headed to injured reserves. The most likely candidate would be Ryan Pulock. Pulock is off to an impressive start in his rookie season with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, netting eight goals and adding five assists in his first twenty games.
In net tonight the Islanders will ride the hot play of Jaroslav Halak. Halak has won his last nine starts and has only given up more than two goals once. This is the reliability that the Islanders needed between the pipes. For the most part, the Islanders defense has been good but the key to the team’s success has been the ability for Halak to make the timely and important saves. He always seems to make that stop when the game is still in doubt.
The forward lines, tonight, will remain the same. I know I sound like a broken record but I am really looking for a strong game from the top line. I want to see a game that they completely take over. I don’t think they have been dreadful, but Tavares and Okposo just look off when they are playing at even strength. I think Nikolay Kulemin is a safe winger to put alongside them, but I feel that this line just needs some sort of spark when they are playing at even strength.
The nice thing about this Islander team is there is enough depth, up and down the lineup, to pick up players who are slumping. Josh Bailey, Mikhail Grabovski, and Frans Nielsen have not been setting the world on fire but it is overshadowed by the play of Anders Lee, Ryan Strome, and Brock Nelson who are consistently generating scoring chances with their strong play. Islanders' General Manager, Garth Snow, finally added quality depth to this team and it is paying off as the Islanders can survive some injuries and overcoming scoring slumps. As always, for more on all things hockey, please follow me on twitter at @DanDanNoodles078.