Islanders vs. Avalanche: Betting odds, lineups, Isles desperate for win

The New York Islanders are in Colorado to finish off their four-game road trip desperate for a win against the 15-9-5 at home Colorado Avalanche.

If the New York Islanders road trip was disastrous before losing to the Arizona Coyotes 2-1, what is it now? Sure, they scored a goal, but they still lost the game and with it, the Islanders have lost three regulation games in a row for the first time under Trotz.

And now they’re in Colorado where they hope to end the road trip on a winning note. Thankfully, the Avalanche aren’t what you would term “hot” right now. They may be 6-3-1 in their last ten, but they’re 0-3-1 in their last four. The only win came against the Ottawa Senators.

Making things worse for the Avalanche are all the injuries that are starting to pile up. In their last game, they lost star-winger Mikko Rantanen who joined Nazem Kadri, Matt Calvert, and starter Philipp Grubauer on the injury list.

Maybe the Islanders are catching the Avalanche at the right time?

The Season Series

These two teams last played at the start of January where the contest ended 1-0 after Anders Lee found the back of the net 6:54 into the third period.

With 65 shots on net between two teams, it was somewhat of a shooter’s gallery out there. That was likely aided by the 34 giveaways through-out the game. Most of those giveaways came from the Islanders who had 22 on the night (65 percent).

Barzal was particularly sloppy with a team-high five giveaways. Barzal was great in Glendale just a few days ago, hopefully, that continues tonight in Denver.

Tale of the Tape

This is a fairly evenly matched game when you look at the big-picture numbers for these teams. Their records are almost identical. Both power plays aren’t very good and they don’t allow very many shots against.

But like with most teams, the Avalanche out-power the Islanders when it comes to goal-scoring. What happened to the New York Islanders team from Jan 21 to Feb 11? They were scoring 3.86 goals-for per game and went 5-1-1? Can we have them back, please?

Betting Odds

The Islanders are once again underdogs here. Courtesy of The Action Network, the Money Line for an Islanders win opened at +144. But with all those injuries to the Avalanche, a bet for the Islanders isn’t a bad idea.

I feel the Islanders finally come away with one. I don’t think it will be pretty, but they’ll push to end the road-trip on a positive note with a win.