Islanders Preseason Game 1 at Rangers Preview: Lines, Goalies, How To Watch

The New York Islanders will open their preseason schedule tonight when they make the short trip into Manhattan to take on the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden.

The Islanders held an intrasquad scrimmage today at Northwell Health Ice Center. Based on who skated in the scrimmage, here’s who we can infer will be playing later tonight.

Forwards: Lee, Nelson, Engvall, Fasching, Clutterbuck, Pageau, Maggio, Dufour, Johnston, Cates, Durandeau, MacLean

Defense: Pulock, Mayfield, Aho, Bolduc, Cholowski, George, Hutton

Goal: Varlamov, Skarek

“I think we’re excited,” Islanders forward Hudson Fasching said, who is confirmed to be playing tonight. “It’s a long summer of just waiting and waiting for the first real game. To go into MSG, it’s a big atmosphere off the start, we’re excited.”

Players To Watch:

If that lineup holds true, Tuesday’s matchup will be the preseason debut for Islanders defense prospect Isaiah George.

George has stood out during his second NHL training camp, showing ability beyond his years at just 19 years old. George has been paired with veteran Islanders defenseman Ryan Pulock throughout much of camp, so expect that to feature in tonight’s game.

Up front, both William Dufour and Matthew Maggio are lined up to be in action tonight. Both prospects came into camp highly touted and have impressed so far. Now, it’ll be interesting to see how they perform against live competition.

Meanwhile, we know the Rangers will be without Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad and Filip Chytil. All three forwards are reportedly dealing with injuries early on this preseason.

Islanders Scrimmage No. 2:

As for that scrimmage mentioned earlier, here were the teams.

Blue: 

Holmström-Horvat-Barzal

Newkirk-Kuhlman-Wahlstrom

Bardreau-Kubiak-Asselin

Piercey-Gill-Jenkins

Mitchell-Dobson

Salo-Krygier

Helgeson-Garat

Appleby

Lennox

White:

Iskhakov-Cizikas-Gauthier

Martin-Pinho-Liukas

Calder-Fritz-Timashov

Cosgrove-Pivonka-Cippollone

Pelech-LaDue

Romanov-Odelius

Sevigny-Fulp/Kulakov

Sorokin

Tikkanen

The scrimmage was Alex Romanov‘s first action against live competition since undergoing shoulder surgery this offseason.

“I feel good,” Romanov said. “No leashes with shoulder, so good energy. Just good motion.”

Mathew Barzal and Bo Horvat were once again impressive, as the chemistry they showcased early in their partnership last year appears to be back.

Horvat especially looked good to Islanders head coach Lane Lambert.

“He’s playing with confidence, but he’s doing the right things,” Lambert said. “I would say he’s probably the best guy out there today. Hunting pucks down, battling,  being physical, so that breeds confidence when you’re doing the right things.”

By the looks of things, Barzal and Horvat will once again be attached at the hip this season, however, it’s unclear who will be the third member of that line. Arnaud Durandeau has spent much of training camp on that left wing, but it was Simon Holmström who skated with them on Tuesday.

“It really shouldn’t matter [who it is],” Barzal said. “It may be nice to have some speed and skill and a guy who wins battles.”

How To Watch:

Puck drop from Madison Square Garden tonight is scheduled for 7 p.m. The game can be seen locally on MSG Network and nationally on NHL Network. There will be no radio broadcast of the game.

Follow Andrew Fantucchio on Twitter: @A_Fantucchio

Follow NYI Hockey Now on Twitter and Facebook