Islanders vs. Lightning: Middle game of a series

The New York Islanders are in Tampa tonight to take on the Lightning as part of their two-game Florida swing.

{checks schedule} They won their last game, 4-2 over the hapless Vancouver Canucks.

{checks roster health} There are no new injuries, so...

{checks lineup} ... yep, lineup remains the same.

Jaroslav Halak starts his fourth consecutive game, playing well since relieving Thomas Greiss during the last meeting between these two teams, a 6-1 implosion in Brooklyn.

Anthony Beauvillier is the healthy scratch again and fellow 19-year-old Mathew Barzal is no longer an option after being returned to WHL Seattle after two whole games played.

That means we’re looking at:

Bailey - Tavares - Clutterbuck
Lee - Nelson - Chimera
Prince - Strome - Quine
Ladd - Cizikas - Kulemin

Adam Pelech will appear in his second game of the season after pairing with Nick Leddy in his season debut to replace injured Travis Hamonic.

Ice Controversy! Intrigue!

This tweet got a lot of...uh...unexpected attention today:

For the Lightning side of things, check out Raw Charge, now under new but quite familiar (to LHH readers) management.

Sounds like the Lightning will start Andrei Vasilevskiy. Hopefully the Isles give him a little more work than they gave Ben Bishop.

Jonathan Drouin is still out after that hit by Calvin de Haan which sent that game in the wrong direction just two minutes in.

In one of those schedule oddities, this is the second of three games with the Lightning in a 14-day span this month. The previous meeting did not help shake the memories from last spring.

Game Details

7:30 p.m. EST, [French film or insurance or something] Arena
MSG+, 60AM, 101.9FM WFAN, 88.7FM WRHU, WRCN 103.9 FM

FIG Picks: Leave your First Islanders Goal picks here by gametime.