Islanders Gameday News: B2B in O-Hi-O; Follow the Lee-Ders; Pricing Tavares

Last night’s game sucked and there’s a strong chance tonight’s game will suck, too. Lots of Islanders fans (i.e. me) have a tendency to dwell on the negative so here are a couple of positives.

With his two goals against Dallas, Anders Lee now has 19, good for third in the NHL and two behind both Alex Ovechkin and Nikita Kucherov. Fourth on the list is John Tavares at 18. Josh Bailey is part of a four way tie for first in assists with 30. And Mathew Barzal you already know about.

Via Eric Hornick’ Skinny: “Tavares and Lee are the first Islander teammates to score 18 goals before Christmas in 25 years (Derek King and Pierre Turgeon in 1992-93) and are the first teammates since Mike Bossy and Brent Sutter in 1984-85 to have scored 18 goals by December 13th.”

Anyway, use that information as you wish. FIG picks for tonight’s game against the Blue Jackets can be left here.

Oh. One More Thing: If you want an LHH t-shirt for you or a loved one before Christmas, today is the last day to order. Web Community Tee is offering both free standard shipping (a savings of $4.95), and a free upgrade to Rush Guaranteed (a savings of another $7). If you want the shirts next week, use the code FREESHIPDAY and select the Rush Guaranteed option. Gotta do it by the end of today, though. If you do order today and you don’t get it by Christmas, the shirt is free. Thanks for buying.

Islanders readings

• Recaps: LHH | Newsday | NY Post | Islanders | NHL.com | DBD. It was kind of a big one for Kari Lehtonen. It was his 300th NHL win and if you can remember any of the previous 299, you’re a better person that I am.
• Thomas Greiss will get the start tonight and the team has been trying to correct his issues. [Newsday]
• Whatever issues Ryan Pulock was having seem to have been dealt with, and he’s playing with more confidence than ever. [Islanders]
• What is John Tavares’s actual worth? It’s a good question and Rob Vollman at ESPN takes a very thorough and objective look at it. I’m sure most of us would say the answer is, “Whatever the hell he wants,” but the real answer is a little more complex than that.
• Kids at the Medicine Hat Regional Hospital got a visit from the Tigers, and David Quenneville delighted some of his biggest fans. [Chat News Today]

Other Stuff

• Last night’s NHL scores. Hey, at least the Rangers lost, too, in the only other Metro Division game of the night.
• Oh boy. So Kyle Turris says management wanted to keep him in Ottawa but ownership didn’t want to spend the money. That prompted owner Eugene Melnyk to open his mouth, which has never solved anything ever. [Ottawa Sun]
• More fun Senators stuff: an oral history of their awful first season. With special appearance by Al Arbour and the 1992-93 Islanders. [Sportsnet]
• Matt Johnson, who played for the Kings and Wild, is currently homeless and lost, and his parents and friends are desperate to help him. [TSN]
• You know what’s a big pastime for players these days? Risk, the game of world domination. Remember: Ukraine is not weak. [SI.com]
• How about some other games they can play? More Portal 2 is never a bad idea. This Islanders season feels like a giant game of Jenga. [SBN]

PK is magic.