Islanders Game 41: ‘Salvaging The Trip’ in Calgary, ‘It’s A Big Game’

The New York Islanders (22-16-2)  have a chance to salvage their four-game road trip with a .500 record as they take on the Calgary Flames (18-14-7) Friday night. Puck drop is slated for 9 PM ET at The Saddledome.

The New York Islanders have played a few horrendous games on this road trip, with Thursday night’s 4-2 loss to the Edmonton Oilers as bad as it gets. The Islanders, on short rest, will now have to beat a team that has been off for two straight days.

“We get to get right back at it tomorrow, salvage the trip,” All-Star Brock Nelson said following Thursday’s loss.  We want to come out with a better performance, a better effort in Calgary, and try to win a hockey game.”

“It’s an opportunity to go .500 on the road trip,” head coach Lane Lambert said. “Respectable road trip and it’s a big game.”

The Islanders will not skate ahead of their contest, but we expect Semyon Varlamov to be in-between the pipes. This will be his first game since leaving the contest against the Vegas Golden Knights on Dec. 17 with a lower-body injury eight games ago.

On the season, Varlamov is 8-3-1, with a 2.65 GAA and a .919 SV%, along with a shutout.

Forward Kyle Palmieri took part in the team’s morning skate on Thursday but does not seen likley to play tonight as he will miss his 10th straight game.

NEW YORK ISLANDERS LINES (PROJECTED)

Josh Bailey-Mat Barzal-Casey Cizikas
Anders Lee-Brock Nelson-Hudson Fasching
Zach Parise-Jean-Gabriel Pageau-Anthony Beauvillier
Matt Martin-Aatu Räty-Cal Clutterbuck

Parker Wotherspoon-Ryan Pulock
Alexander Romanov-Noah Dobson
Sebastian Aho-Scott Mayfield

Semyon Varlamov
Ilya Sorokin

CALGARY FLAMES LINES (PROJECTED)

#Flames at practice Thursday, Brett Ritchie still not skating:

Dube-Lindholm-Toffoli
Lucic-Kadri-Huberdeau
Mangiapane-Backlund-Coleman
Ruzicka-Zohorna-Lewis
 
Hanifin-Andersson
Weegar-Tanev
Zadorov-Stone
Mackey

Markstrom
Vladar

— Pat Steinberg (@Fan960Steinberg) January 5, 2023

ISLANDERS NOTES

Tonight, the New York Islanders visit the Calgary Flames in the second and final matchup between the two clubs this season.

The last time these teams met was November 7, 2022 at UBS Arena, when Mathew Barzal recorded three assists and Noah Dobson recorded the overtime game-winner in a 4-3 Islander win.

Tonight is the final matchup of a four-game road trip for the Islanders. It is the back end of their eighth back-to-back series of the season, after they visited the Edmonton Oilers last night. Tonight’s game is also the Islanders’ 41st game of the 2022-23 campaign, the halfway point of their regular season schedule.

DRAFTKINGS BETTING CORNER

Do you think the New York Islanders will beat the Calgary Flames? You can get the Islanders at +185 & -140 on the reverse puck line. The Flames come in at -215 & +120 on the reverse puck line.

The over for the contest is 5.5 at -120, with the under at +100.

Head over to DraftKings to place your bets now!

HOW TO WATCH

Friday’s contest will be available on MSGSN. On the radio dial, the game can be heard on 1050 AM ESPN, 88.7 FM WRHU, and 103.9 FM LI News Radio.