Sansided
Eyes On Isles
Home/Editorials

Pregame Report: New York Islanders Vs Pittsburgh Penguins

By Eric Bordin
facebooktwitterreddit

Pregame Report: New York Islanders vs. Pittsburgh Penguins

Tonight , the New York Islanders (3-3-3, 9 Points) visit  the Pittsburgh Penguins  (7-2-0, 10 Points) in

game no. 19 of the 2013-14 NHL season. Here’s what you need to know before puck drop…

Where: CONSOL Energy Center, Pittsburgh, PA

When: Friday, October 25, 2013, 7:00PM

TV: MSG+

Radio: 88.7 FM WRHU, 103.9 FM WRCN

Tonight, the Isles are back in familiar territory, as they visit the CONSOL Energy Center for the first time this season. The Isles took the heavily favored Penguins to Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Quarterfinals last April, before finally succumbing to the high-flying beasts in black and gold.

The main goal for the Islanders will be to shut down Sidney Crosby who, with 17 points in his first 9 games, is on pace for 154 points!

Scoring has not been an issue for the Isles. They have 10 goals in their last 3 games. What has been a problem for the Islanders, has been goaltending consistency. Evgeni Nabokov has been decent, but not great. We have only seen Kevin Poulin once so far this season, in a 3-2 loss to Chicago. He will be in net tomorrow night. Tonight, Evgeni gets the call once again. He will face off against Penguins rookie Jeff Zatkoff, who got blitzed by the Florida Panthers 2 weeks ago. The rookie netminder struggled mightily allowing 6 goals in a 6-3 loss.

Michael Grabner will serve the second game of his 2 game suspension, and Lubomir Visnovsky remains on IR with post-concussion symptoms.

What They’re Saying

“It’s easy to get up against these guys after what happened last year. More importantly, we’re just trying to get back to our game and get back to winning. We know what it takes, and for whatever reason we’ve struggled doing that for a full 60. It’ll be a good test for us.”

-Islanders RW Colin McDonald

Quick Hitters

  • John Tavares is riding an 8 game point scoring streak. He has had a point in every game since opening night
  • Kyle Okposo has multiple points in 3 straight games
  • The Isles have Power Play goals in 4 consecutive games
  • Kris Letang makes his season debut for Pittsburgh this evening
  • Radek Martinek will be in the lineup replacing the injured Brian Strait
facebooktwitterreddit