New York Islanders vs. Los Angeles Kings: Tonight I'll dress my lineup again, play the game and pretend

The New York Islanders continue the trickiest section of their California swing tonight with a visit to the Los Angeles Kings, the first half of a back-to-back in the land of "the" highways.

After a pretty strong albeit somewhat fortuitous win in San Jose, the Isles dress their same lineup except with Jaroslav Halak back in net for Thomas Greiss.

The Isles keep having a game or so more played, and a point or so less, than Pittsburgh and Washington. Assuming New Jersey starts to fade a bit -- hardly a sure assumption, but preseason narrative -- you can see that top four in the Metro already separating.

By just about any measure, the Kings are the toughest opponent on this three-game trip. Taking a gander through underlying numbers at this early stage, rumors of their aging demise have been greatly exaggerated.

But you might take solace in them going with Jhonas Enroth in goal over Jonathan Quick. However, Quick has struggled this year -- as he sometimes does -- and in two starts Enroth is 2-0 with one goal allowed. Take that for however you like your samples and superstitions.

Like the Sharks, the Kings have avoided an extra time loss this season; just going to keep noting that and the Simon & Garfunkel thing until something goes wrong. {ducks} {no pun about tomorrow intended}

Speaking of Enroth, between Halak and him, that means we'll have two of the smaller goalies in the league in net. Here is an interesting read from LA Kings Insider with Enroth and Kings coach Bill Ranford talking about equipment sizes.

(By the way, if you're a Kings fan visiting here, you might enjoy this old story from Butch Goring about nearly lighting the Kings bus on fire.)

It also looks like technically one-time Islander Christian Ehrhoff will be in the lineup for the Kings, who have not been happy with their blueline depth thus far this season.

As for the Isles blueline, will Jack Capuano keep the top four shuffle he did last game? Who knows. But he says he did it for what I hope you'd expect by now are obvious reasons:

"When you go through a drought like that, it's good to switch it up. We did it on special teams as well and it sparks your team. I thought [de Haan] and [Hamonic] were playing well up until that point too. Again, you have a big strong guy with a puck-moving guy on each side of those pairings."

Hey, if Nick Leddy keeps rushing and Johnny Boychuk keeps blasting by goalies, I'm all for it.

FIG Picks

Another late one, so you have lots of time yet to register your First Islanders Goal pick, so help you Bossy.