Islanders Gameday News: Due for a win against the Bruins

8 months ago  /  Lighthouse Hockey

Brock’s been heating up lately. | Photo by Mike Stobe/NHLI via Getty Images


After getting some help in the race last night, the Islanders need to capitalize. On Friday, the New York Islanders’ playoff push had as good a night as they could’ve wished for on the out-of-town scoreboard.
First, the Washington Capitals rallied back to beat the Philadelphia Flyers in regulation—this after Philly took a 2-0 lead in the first period. The Flyers don’t blow leads, and the Caps don’t really ever come back, so that was the Hockey Gods smiling upon us.
And they kept the light on us late at night, as Lukas Dostal stole the game for the Anaheim Ducks over the New Jersey Devils. He made 51 saves, including a penalty shot for Jack Hughes with two seconds left, to swipe the regulation win.
Thanks to the Flyers’ regulation loss, the magic number and tragic number are only six points apart, which seemed unlikely this time last week.
But the Isles need two points of their own, and their task doesn’t get any easier. They’re hosting the Boston Bruins tonight. Boston hasn’t been as dominant on the ice as last season, but they keep finding ways to win games. The Islanders haven’t had nearly as much success against them as they did in the 2021 Second Round. The Islanders will need to bring their ‘A’ game like they did when they hosted Boston back in December, but a win would be nice this time.
FIGs go here.
Islanders News

A preview of this evening’s game. The Isles practiced yesterday, but Ilya Sorokin and Ryan Pulock got the day off. [Islanders] No morning skate today, but Sorokin starts.


#Isles won't skate this morning. We'll chat with players and Roy though. Host #NHLBruins tonight at 7:30 PM. Roy said Friday that the plan is for Ilya Sorokin to start, which would be his fourth straight.— Stefen Rosner (@stefen_rosner) March 2, 2024





The Islanders haven’t beaten the Bruins in their last six meetings. But another way to look at it is that the Islanders are due for a win against the Bruins. Right? [NY Post]
The line reshuffling has given the team some juice over the last couple of games. [Newsday]
Same thing with the slightly revamped penalty kill, which seems to have figured something out of late. The Bruins have a great power play, so let’s keep that going. [NY Post]
Patrick Roy didn’t change up his lines right away because he wanted to get to know his new players. [THN]
The last episode of Weird Islanders was Chris Osgood; it only made sense that the next one would be the guy acquired for Osgood, Justin Papineau. Carey Haber guested. [LHH]

Elsewhere
Last night’s NHL scores include the games I described above and the Coyotes snapping their 14-game winless streak by topping the Senators.

Elias Pettersson is officially not going anywhere, signing an eight-year extension with the Vancouver Canucks this morning. [NHL | Sportsnet]
The deadline is less than a week away. Several contenders or would-be contenders have had a goaltending problem all year and been in the market for a new one, but none of note have moved. Maybe, just maybe, this will be the year of the goaltender after all. [THN]
One of the better goalies that could be on the move is Jacob Markstrom. The Calgary Flames said this week he wouldn’t be moved before the deadline, but that was before Markstrom went off on them in the media yesterday. Hmm. [NHL] The Flames insider seems to think Markstrom’s comments may have altered Calgary’s plans. [Sportsnet]
The Flyers still say that “everything is on the table” ahead of the deadline despite holding onto a playoff spot. [NHL]
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