Still Looking for a Win: New York Islanders Lines & Game Notes vs. Ottawa

It’s been over a month since the New York Islanders last won a game. They’ll try to end that streak on Tuesday in Canada’s Capital City when they face the Ottawa Senators.

New York has managed to see minor improvements in their game, which had been struggling even before COVID decimated their roster. The Islanders have picked up points in three straight games and have shown flashes of their signature character in back-to-back comebacks over the weekend.

Still, the Islanders face a large uphill battle to get back into the playoff picture as they face an Ottawa team that is tied with them towards the bottom of the standings, but has won three straight games. Their latest victory came on Monday night against the New Jersey Devils.

The Islanders have gone to at least overtime in their last three games, which included a dramatic shootout loss to the Chicago Blackhawks.

“I think we’re all trying to get things on the right track,” Jean-Gabriel Pageau said ahead of Tuesday’s game. “We know what kind of challenges we have in front of us, but I know with this group of guys the amount of character that we have and the amount of leadership there’s no quitters in this room. The bigger the challenge is the bigger I know the guys are going to come up and we’ll do everything we can to climb as much as we can.

“One game at a time we’ll try to win every night.”

The Islanders are still without Casey Cizikas, who is in COVID protocol, and Ryan Pulock and Brock Nelson, both of whom are injured. Matt Martin didn’t play on Sunday, but is available for New York on Tuesday.

Martin is dealing with a lingering issue. Ross Johnston skated in Martin’s spot against Chicago.

“I thought Ross Johnston came in and he hadn’t played for a while, came out of COVID and he looked like he had some real good juice,” Head coach Barry Trotz said. “I thought he had some impact in the game and moved around the ice really well for his first game. I thought all the things that were stacked against Ross, I thought he performed really well.”

It’s unclear if Johnston or Martin will play Tuesday night.

New York Islanders Lines (Projected)

Anders Lee — Mathew Barzal — Josh Bailey

Kieffer Bellows — Jean-Gabriel Pageau — Kyle Palmieri

Anthony Beauvillier — Austin Czarnik — Oliver Wahlstrom

Matt Martin — Zach Parise — Cal Clutterbuck

Adam Pelech — Scott Mayfield

Andy Greene — Noah Dobson

Zdeno Chara — Sebastian Aho

Ilya Sorokin

Semyon Varlamov

Ottawa Senators Lines (Projected)

Brady Tkachuk — Josh Norris — Drake Batherson

Nick Paul — Tim Stutzle — Connor Brown

Alex Formenton — Chris Tierney — Tyler Ennis

Zach Sanford — Dylan Gambrell — Austin Watson

Thomas Chabot — Nikita Zaitsev

Nick Holden — Artem Zub

Victor Mete — Lassi Thomson

Anton Forsberg

Filip Gustavsson

Game Notes

The New York Islanders are 6-1-0 in their last seven meetings with Ottawa. … New York is 16-for-18 on the penalty kill in their last five games. They killed all three penalties on Thursday night vs. San Jose, and on Saturday night in Detroit. … The Islanders are 5-3-4 this season when scoring first this season. They have found the back of the net first in 12 of their first 20 games this season. … Brady Tkachuk has scored 11 points in his last eight games for Ottawa. … Drake Batherson is Ottawa’s leader with six goals at home while Thomas Chabot maintains the club lead with six assists at Canadian Tire Centre. … Ottawa is 13 for 75 (17.3%) on the power-play in 2021-22.

How to Watch

The Game will air on MSG+ locally and MSG GO. On the radio dial, the game can be heard on 1050 AM ESPN, 88.7 FM WRHU and 103.9 FM LI News Radio.