Shark Bait Ooh Ha Ha, Gm 3: Islanders vs. Sharks, Line Combos, Updates & More

The New York Islanders continue their 2022-23 season Tuesday night as they face the defeated San Jose Sharks (0-4-0) at UBS Arena. Puck drop is slated for 7:30 PM.

The New York Islanders head into Tuesday’s contest following their first win of the young campaign, a 7-1 rout of the Anaheim Ducks. Head coach Lane Lambert wants to see his team continue to build on that performance tonight, as there are a few areas of their game that need to be cleaned up.

“Well, again, we’ve got to just continue to build our game,” Lambert said. “You know, there are certain areas that we want to clean up in the Anaheim game as well, certain opportunities they got and a couple of different areas that we feel we need to clean up and we talked about those.”

The New York Islanders did not run line combinations Tuesday morning but the expectation is that it will be the same lineup from Saturday night.

Ross Johnston, Kieffer Bellows, and Nikita Soshnikov were on the ice prior to the morning skate, and along with Sebastian Aho, remained on the ice after.

Mathew Barzal was the lone player missing from the optional morning skate, as Lambert shared that “He took his option.”

READ MORE: Islanders Not Sacrificing Defensive Structure Despite Aggressive Style, ‘Defense First’

Semyon Varlamov grabbed his sticks from the bench first but he and Ilya Sorokin left the ice together. The expectation is that Varlamov will start, and if not tonight against the Sharks, he will make his season debut against the New Jersey Devils before the weekend back-to-back against the Florida teams.

Per Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now, netminder James Reimer  will make his third start of the season tonight. He left their practice on Monday in some discomfort but returned before the conclusion of the Sharks skate. Forward Alexander Barabonov is a game-time decision.

NEW YORK ISLANDERS LINES (PROJECTED)

Zach Parise — Mathew Barzal — Kyle Palmieri

Anders Lee — Brock Nelson — Anthony Beauvillier

Josh Bailey — Jean-Gabriel Pageau — Oliver Wahlstrom

Matt Martin — Casey Cizikas — Cal Clutterbuck

Adam Pelech — Ryan Pulock

Alexander Romanov — Noah Dobson

Robin Salo — Scott Mayfield

Ilya Sorokin

Semyon Varlamov

SAN JOSE SHARKS (PROJECTED)

Sharks lines during the pre-power play part of practice (the last two lines had four guys rotating) …

Meier-Couture-Kunin
Barabanov-Hertl-Lorentz
Lindblom-Bonino-Labanc-Nieto
Gregor-Sturm-Svechnikov-Gadjovich

— Corey Masisak (@cmasisak22) October 17, 2022

GAME NOTES

Tonight, the New York Islanders host the San Jose Sharks in the first of two matchups between the two clubs this season.

The last time these teams met was February 24, in San Jose, when Zach Parise and Mathew Barzal each tallied multi-point games and the Islanders recorded a season-high 47 shots on goal.

The Islanders continue their four-game home stand tonight after earning their first win of the 2022-23 campaign on Saturday night vs. Anaheim, Lane Lambert’s first win as Head Coach.

BETTING CORNER

Do you think the New York Islanders will beat the San Jose Sharks tonight on home ice? You can get the Islanders at -195, +140 on the puck line. The Sharks are the road underdogs at +166, -165 at +1.5.

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

New York Islanders defenseman Noah Dobson has scored in each of the first two contests. Do you think he scores a goal? He is +2500 to be the first goal scorer of the contest and is +425 to score in the game.

Head over to DraftKings to place your bets now!

HOW TO WATCH

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