Game Preview: NY Islanders vs Nashville Predators

The NY Islanders continue their road trip in Nashville when they take on the Predators from Bridgestone Arena. 

Last Game

Following another come-from-behind win on Saturday against the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Islanders traveled north of the border to face the Ottawa Senators. Unlike most of their wins so far in 2022-23, the Isles avoided needing a late rally to pick up the two points. Goals from Oliver Wahlstrom, Noah Dobson, and Jean-Gabriel Pageau had New York ahead by two goals midway through the third period. Claude Giroux would get one back for Ottawa before Brock Nelson’s empty-net goal capped off a 4-2 win for the Isles. Semyon Varlamov made 36 saves en route to his fourth win of the season. 

In what has been a roller coaster start to the season for the Nashville Predators, they find themselves entering their meeting with the Islanders on a two-game winning streak. The Preds hosted the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday, the second of a five-game home stand. It didn’t take long for Nashville to jump ahead, as goals from Nino Niederreiter and Matt Duchene gave the home squad a 2-0 lead. That score would hold up until Freddy Gaudreau cut the deficit in half just 32 seconds into the third period. Predators’ goalie, Juuse Saros, would make sure that nothing else got past him the rest of the night to hold onto a 2-1 win. 

Historical Matchup

In both meetings last season, it was the Predators who got the best of the Isles. The first meeting on October 30th saw the Preds take home the win via the shootout, 3-2. Then in Nashville’s first trip to UBS Arena, it was a heartbreaking loss for the Islanders as they gave up a tie breaking goal with just 12 seconds left, resulting in a 4-3 Predators win. 

All-time, the Islanders are 11-17-0-3 against the Predators and have not beaten Nashville since October 28th, 2017. 

Players to Watch

Noah Dobson has gotten off to another hot start this season, the same way he did in 2021-22. Dobson is fourth on the team in points with 12 and plays a huge role on the Islanders’ first power play unit. If the Isles can continue to draw penalties and earn opportunities to go on the man advantage, Dobson will keep finding his name on the scorer’s sheet. 

In 14 career games against the Islanders, Filip Forsberg has 11 points (six goals and five assists). The Isles were able to keep him off the scoreboard in the two meetings last year, but Forsberg this year leads Nashville in points with 15, in just 16 games played.

Projected Lines

Islanders

Zach Parise-Mathew Barzal-Oliver Wahlstrom
Anders Lee-Brock Nelson-Anthony Beauvillier
Josh Bailey-JG Pageau-Kyle Palmieri
Matt Martin-Casey Cizikas-Cal Clutterbuck

Adam Pelech-Ryan Pulock
Alexander Romanov-Noah Dobson
Sebastian Aho-Scott Mayfield

Ilya Sorokin
Semyon Varlamov

Predators

Filip Forsberg-Juuso Parssinen-Mikael Granlund
Nino Niederreiter-Ryan Johansen-Matt Duchene
Yakov Trenin-Mark Jankowski-Tanner Jeanot
Cole Smith-Colton Sissons-Eeli Tolvanen

Roman Josi-Dante Fabbro
Mattias Ekholm-Alexandre Carrier
Ryan McDonagh-Jeremy Lauzon

Juuse Saros
Kevin Lankinen

Lineups via DailyFaceoff