Preseason: Islanders Shut Out 2-0 by Predators, Camp to Divide in NHL/AHL Groups

The New York Islanders sent the other half (mostly) of their training camp roster to Nashville, but like the half that faced the Devils in Brooklyn Saturday night, they came up empty.

Another shutout loss, this by 2-0, was the result in a game viewed by few and broadcast by no one.

Judging by smoke-signal notes from the Islanders and Predators' Twitter accounts, the Islanders had one late goal called back because it was hit with a high stick.

Notes from the boxscore:

• Shots were even 25-25
• Both teams misfired on the power play: 0/2 for the Isles, 0/3 for the Preds
• That means the Isles PK at least kept them scoreless, in contrast to last night
• Johan Sundstrom, who played both nights, was 8-for-13 (62%) on faceoffs. Brock Nelson was 4-for-12, Peter Regin 5-for-12.
  
• Chris Bruton (vs. Rich Clune) and Matt Carkner (vs. Matt Hendricks) each fought, and Carkner and Eric Boulton each took minor penalties.
• First-round 2013 pick Seth Jones led the Predators with 23:26 (!) of ice time; Thomas Hickey led all players with 24:05 (2:35 on the PP) of ice time. Calvin de Haan had 21:11 (2:08 on the PP), Ryan Pulock had 21:17 (1:36 of PP).
• Anders Nilsson played the full game and stopped 23 of 25 shots.

Once again, here were the combos tonight:

Forwards
40 Michael Grabner - 16 Peter Regin - 96 Pierre-Marc Bouchard
27 Anders Lee - 29 Brock Nelson - 18 Ryan Strome
40 Mike Halmo - 28 Johan Sundstrom - 38 Chris Bruton
36 Eric Boulton - 61 Riley Wetmore - 49 Justin Johnson

Defensemen
52 Joe Finley - 4 Radek Martinek
14 Thomas Hickey - 6 Ryan Pulock
44 Calvin de Haan - 7 Matt Carkner

For whatever half-squad preseason games are worth, the powerplay has been an issue so far. In Newsday, Arthur Staple has notes on that (basically, the team hasn't worked on it much yet), as well as notes on Kyle Okposo's cut by the eye and news on how the camp is expected to divide into NHL and AHL versions when things resume Tuesday, including possibly "nine or 10" defensemen.

Suffice to say, the prospects you are probably highest on are most likely to get longer looks with the NHL side of camp, including the top Sound Tigers youngsters as well as Griffin Reinhart, who has impressed many so far. The next game on the schedule is Friday at home against the Predators.