New York Islanders
SHOT AT REDEMPTION! Islanders Lineup, Matchups and Game Notes vs. Boston
Take a deep breath Islanders country, Semyon Varlamov is able to be part of the New York Islanders lineup in today’s game against the Boston Bruins.
The veteran netminder will be available for the Islanders when they host Boston this afternoon at the Nassau Coliseum. It will mark the first time the Islanders have played at home since March 7 of last year when they lost to the Carolina Hurricanes 3-2 in overtime.
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More importantly, it will be a chance for the Islanders lineup to redeem themselves after an ugly loss to the New York Rangers on Saturday.
“Obviously that wasn’t the game that we wanted, the outcome we wanted,” Scott Mayfield said this morning. “I think this season another wrinkle in it is that every game is pretty much a four-point game. You’re right on to the next one. You don’t have a lot of time to think about it and we just have to focus on Boston now.”
Despite some thought to the contrary, it appears as though head coach Barry Trotz will use a similar Islanders lineup to the one that was on the ice against the Rangers. The Islanders coach said that he wanted to give the group a chance at a bit of redemption.
News that Varlamov is also welcomed news after he missed his scheduled start on Saturday after taking a shot up high in warmups. Ilya Sorokin made his NHL debut and allowed five goals in the shutout loss to the Rangers.
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Trotz was not happy with the team’s performance all around that night, from injuring their own goaltender to the sloppy play in the game.
“The game wasn’t lost in terms of the Xs and the Os of the game,” Trotz said. “The game was lost in terms of the focus and the mindset that we had going into that game. Our team has always been pretty resilient and we started focusing on the wrong things. … where we went off the rails was our mindset and those are the things you can control internally.”
While Boston isn’t coming off a lopsided loss like the Isles, they did suffer a heartbreaking one on Saturday in overtime to the New Jersey Devils. Boston also has not scored a five-on-five goal through the first two games of the year.
Boston will start Tuuka Rask in net against the Islanders and Odrej Kase will be out with an upper-body injury. Jack Studnicka will take his place in the lineup.
New York Islanders Lineup (Projected)
Anders Lee — Mathew Barzal — Jordan Eberle
Anthony Beauvillier — Brock Nelson — JosBailey
Ross Johnston — Jean-Gabriel Pageau — Kieffer Bellows
Matt Martin — Casey Cizikas — Cal Clutterbuck
Adam Pelech — Ryan Pulock
NickLeddy — Scott Mayfield
Andy Greene — Noah Dobson
Semyon Varlamov
Ilya Sorokin
Boston Bruins Lineup (Projected)
Brad Marchand –- Patrice Bergeron –- Jake DeBrusk
Nick Ritchie –- David Krejci –- JackStudnicka
Anders Bjork –- Charlie Coyle –- Greg McKegg
Trent Frederic –- Sean Kuraly –- Chris Wagner
Jeremy Lauzon –- Charlie McAvoy
Matt Grzelcyk –- Brandon Carlo
Jakub Zboril –- Kevan Miller
Tuukka Rask
Jaro Halak
Game Notes
The Islanders have three players who have active consecutive game streaks of at least 200 games (Lee 270, Nelson 247, Barzal 234). … Ilya Sorokin was the first Islanders’ goaltender to make their NHL debut against the New York Rangers. … The Islanders have struggled against Boston. They are 1-7-2 in their last 10 games against Boston and the Islanders have not won against them at home since 2013. … This afternoon wraps up a three-game road trip for Boston, which played the New Jersey Devils twice to open the season. … Brandon Carlo is playing his 300th NHL game and Matt Grzelcyk is playing his 200th NHL game today. … David Pastrnak is one assist shy of 200 in his career.
How to Watch
Today’s game will air locally on MSG+ or it is streamable on MSG Go or on NHL.tv outside of the New York market. NBCSN will also air the game nationally outside of the market. On the radio dial, the game can be heard on 1050 AM ESPN, 88.7 FM WRHU and 103.9 FM LI News Radio.