
Players to Watch
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.
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.