The holiday break has ended and the NHL resume's play on Tuesday night. The Pittsburgh Penguins come to town to take on the NY Islanders at UBS Arena.
Last Game
The Islanders went head-to-head with Matthew Tkachuk and the Florida Panthers on the eve of Christmas Eve. En route to five goals, rookie Aatu Räty scored his first NHL goal in his first NHL game. Parker Wotherspoon joined Räty, playing his first NHL game as well while the Islanders deal with a plethora of injuries. Anthony Beauvillier opened the scoring and closed the scoring for the Islanders scoring their first and fifth goal of the game. Ryan Pulock and Zach Parise added goals of their own to help the Isles dominate the Cats giving Islander fans something to be cheerful about heading into the holiday break. Ilya Sorokin made 22 saves on 23 shots.
Unfortunately, the Islanders lost Simon Holmstrom in a knee-on-knee collision with Panthers forward Sam Bennett. The timetable for his return is unknown.
The Penguins are 8-1-1 in their last 10 games played. On Dec. 22nd, the Penguins lost to the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3 on the stick of Carolina's Jacob Slavin in overtime.
Historical Matchup
It's the first meeting of the season between the Islanders and the Penguins. Last season, the Penguins had the Islanders' number taking two out of three games in the season series. Sidney Crosby enjoyed plenty of success against the orange and blue scoring a goal and five assists in six contests.
Ilya Sorokin made all three starts for the Islanders and despite going 1-2-0, he accrued a .913 SV% and 2.97 GAA.