Game Preview: NY Islanders vs. NY Rangers

The NY Islanders are visiting the NY Rangers in their second matchup of the season at Madison Square Garden Tuesday night.

Last Game

The Islanders are coming off an overtime victory over the Calgary Flames Monday night, winning 4-3 on the stick of Noah Dobson in extra time. Mathew Barzal tallied three assists, helping both open the scoring for the Islanders and then closing out the game by setting up Dobson for the game-winner. All four Islander goals were scored by four different skaters between Sebastian Aho, Anders Lee, Kyle Palmieri, and Dobson. It was yet another impressive come-from-behind performance trailing 3-1 heading into the third period. Ilya Sorokin made 43 saves on 46 shots.

The Rangers are on a two-game slide losing back-to-back games to the Boston Bruins and Detroit Red Wings respectively, the latter in overtime. Jaroslav Halak started for the Rangers and 33 saves on 36 shots in 62:43 of play. Kaapo Kakko and Mika Zibanejad scored in the first period, however, the Rangers couldn't solve Detroit goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic for the remaining 42:43 of the game. Matt Luff and Pius Suter scored in the second frame to tie things at two apiece. Dominik Kubalik provided the overtime winner sending the Rangers to their second straight loss.

Historical mathcup

The Rangers visited the Islanders on Oct. 30th at UBS Arena. Ilya Sorokin was brilliant, shutting out the Islanders' cross-town rivals and making 41 saves in the performance. A pair of goals by Kyle Palmieri and a tally from Josh Bailey propelled the Islanders to a 3-0 win.

Players to watch

Sorokin started Monday nights game against the Flames which means Semyon Varlamov will be in net for the Islanders on Tuesday night. Varlamov has put together a career 12-8-2 record against the Rangers in 22 contests, putting up a .913 SV% and 2.60 GAA.

Whether with the Rangers or one of the other two clubs he's played with in his career, Artemi Panarin has always enjoyed a bit of success against the Islanders. In career games, he's scored 12 goals and 18 points against the Isles. Panarin has four points in his last five games and looks to stay hot against a rival Islander team.

Projected Lines

Islanders:

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

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

Semyon Varlamov
Ilya Sorokin 

Lines via Daily Faceoff

Rangers:

Artemi Panarin - Mika Zibanejad - Kaapo Kakko
Jimmy Vesey - Vincent Trocheck - Alexis Lafrenière
Chris Kreider - Filip Chytil - Vitali Kravtsov
Sammy Blais - Ryan Carpenter - Barclay Goodrow

K'Andre Miller- Adam Fox
Zac Jones - Jacob Trouba
Libor Hajek - Braden Schneider

Igor Shesterkin
Jaroslav Halak

Lines via Mollie Walker, Nov. 6th