Islanders vs. Red Wings: Betting odds, lineups, Can we score three goals?

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DETROIT, MICHIGAN – DECEMBER 02: Anders Lee #27 of the New York Islanders celebrates his first period goal with Josh Bailey #12 while playing the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena on December 02, 2019 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) /

If the New York Islanders score three goals they usually win games. Getting three goals has been an issue of late. Maybe against the Detroit Red Wings, it won’t be so hard, maybe.

Since Barry Trotz took over, the New York Islanders are 60-3-4 when they score three or more goals. That’s an incredible record. But there’s only one – very large – issue with that. The Isles just don’t score that many goals.

Since the calendar flipped to 2020, the Islanders have scored three goals once. That was against the New Jersey Devils on January 7. In their six games in 2020, the Islanders have scored an average of 1.67 goals-for per game.

That’s obviously not enough goal-scoring to win any hockey game.

Going into a game against the worst team in the NHL should be the perfect remedy to ail their goal-scoring woes. The Red Wings allow 3.78 goals against per game, the most in the NHL by a considerable margin.

But as we all know, the Islanders have this innate ability to play down to opponents who aren’t in a playoff position. Big losses to the Nashville Predators, Chicago Blackhawks, and most recently against the New York Rangers highlight that point.

The Islanders clearly need help offensively. But until that help comes (if it ever actually does come) they’ll have to generate offense on their own. With Mathew Barzal, Anders Lee, Jordan Eberle, and Brock Nelson in the top-six, they should have enough talent up front to score three and get the ‘W’.

Tale of the Tape

Betting Odds

The Islanders are the heavy favorites tonight. Courtesy of the Action Network, the Moneyline for the Isles opened at -250 while the Red Wings opened at a +210 underdog.

UNIONDALE, NEW YORK – OCTOBER 08: Thomas Greiss #1 of the New York Islanders looks on during the third period of their game against the Edmonton Oilers at the NYCB’s LIVE Nassau Coliseum on October 08, 2019 in Uniondale, New York. (Photo by Emilee Chinn/Getty Images) /

Players to Watch

Thomas Greiss. G. . New York Islanders.

Thomas Greiss gets his first start in a week. His last outing was against the New Jersey Devils on January 7. Giving up three goals on 35 shots, Greiss looked better than he had in his previous three outings.

With Semyon Varlamov having an absolute clunker against the Rangers, hopefully, Greiss is back to his Vezina-like level from earlier this season. With a good performance tonight against a Red Wings team that doesn’t score a lot of goals, maybe Greiss can start a mini-run of his own in the crease.

LW. . Detroit Red Wings. . Tyler Bertuzzi

Tyler Bertuzzi is having a breakout year for the Red Wings. With 16 goals and 34 points, he leads the team in offense. He’s on pace for 61 points, which would smash his previous career-high of 47 points from last year.

The 24-year-old former second-round pick is a physical pesky player very much in the mold of Mathew Tkachuk and Brad Marchand. He’s annoying to play against because he’s constantly in your face and on the scoresheet.

After last night’s embarrassing blowout to the Rangers, he’ll likely find it easy to get under everyone’s skin. Watch for him to try and squeeze a few power play’s out of the frustrated Islanders and just generally be a menace all over the ice tonight.

Lineups

New York Islanders

Trotz says Cizikas out tonight but not a long term concern. It's just a bad case of exactly what it looked like.
— Andrew Gross (@AGrossNewsday) January 14, 2020

After last night’s loss to the Rangers, you’d expect a shake-up to the roster. Maybe not to the extent of bringing someone up or even trading for a player (God forbid). But at least moving some players around. But that still remains to be seen.

Sebastian Aho and Otto Koivula have been called up from Bridgeport due to injury issues with Adam Pelech out indefinitely and Casey Cizikas out for a while.

Koivula could step in to add something different to the Islanders bottom-six that desperately needs a shakeup. With a hat-trick in his last AHL game, maybe Koivula can even add some offense that the Islanders desperately need.

Lee-Nelson-Eberle
Beauvillier-Barzal-Bailey
Koivula-Brassard-Kuhnhackl
Martin-Komarov-Johnston

Leddy-Pulock
Toews-Mayfield
Dobson-Boychuk

Greiss (Varlamov)

Detroit Red Wings

Jeff Blashill says Red Wings Dylan Larkin, Frans Nielsen & Patrik Nemeth (didn’t practice today) all expected to play Tuesday.
— Helene St. James (@HeleneStJames) January 13, 2020

Bertuzzi-Larkin-Fabbri
Erne-Filppula-Zadina
Helm-Nielsen-Glendening
Abdelkader-Ehn-Smith

Nemeth-Green
Hronek-Bowey
Lashoff-Biega

Howard (Pickard)

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A poor season is going even worse for Detroit. Most of their regulars are banged up in some way. The trio of Dylan Larkin, Frans Nielsen, and Patrik Nemeth will play but Danny DeKeyser, Anthony Mantha, and Andreas Athanasiou are all out.

Now add goalie Jonathan Bernier to that list. Bernier is out till after the All-Star break. Meaning the Red Wings have to run with Jimmy Howard (4.09GAA, 0.880SV%) and Calvin Pickard (2.90GAA 0.902SV% in AHL) as their tandem.

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