New York Islanders at Montreal Canadiens [Game 45]

			-AT-
			7:30 PM EST
Radio	Network		Arena		Network	Radio
88.7 FM WRHU	SN		Centre Bell		FS-CAR	690 AM CKGM
League	Value		Metric		Value	League
22nd	54.5%		Points Percentage		47.7%	26th
23rd	14.38%		Net Power Play Percentage		17.83%	9th
30th	76.81%		Net Penalty Kill Percentage		81.43%	22nd
27th	91.20%		Combined Special Teams Percentage		99.26%	17th
2nd	3.48		Goals for per Game (All Situations)		2.58	29th
31st	3.64		Goals against per Game (All Situations)		3.09	22nd
12th	.18		Penalty +/- per Game (All Situations)		-.26	22nd
20th	48.64%		Shot Attempt Percentage (5V5 Score Adjusted)		50.52%	15th
27th	46.79%		Scoring Chance Percentage (5V5 Score Adjusted)		51.36%	12th
7th	101.05%		P.D.O. (5V5)		98.72%	26th
1st	9.55%		Shooting Percentage (5V5)		6.29%	29th
27th	91.50%		Save Percentage (5V5)		92.43%	15th
Data from Hockey-Reference.com and Natural Stat Trick
The Enemies' Lair
Eyes On The Prize

The New York Islanders brief road trip continues as they take to the ice against the Montreal Canadiens. They'll look to stay undefeated since their bye week and move. There's still plenty of work to be done as they're still seventh in the Metropolitan in points percentage and have a long way to go if they wish to push themselves into a playoff spot.

The Islanders finally broke out of their slump Saturday thanks to the New York Rangers. The Islanders lit up Ondrej Pavelec by a score of seven to two. Perhaps more importantly, they finally won a possession battle - it was the first time they lead their opponents in score adjusted unblocked shot attempts during five-on-five play in over a month.

Unfortunately they lost Casey Cizikas to an injury in that game. They've recalled Tanner Fritz to play on the fourth line. Tanner Fritz is probably fine for a fourth line player, but the Islanders are already paying something to the tune of 13 million dollars in fourth-line caliber players between Cizikas, Cal Clutterbuck, Jason Chimera, and Nikolay Kulemin - if they don't go for broke before the trade deadline, they should probably look to cut some of that dead weight and see what some of the individuals with a considerably smaller cap hit can do for them so they can acquire the talent needed to truly compete in the off-season. There are far too many replacement level players on this team to remain truly competitive.

Montreal comes in as one of the most disappointing teams in the league. They have some mediocre possession numbers (though they are higher than the Islanders in that regard), but have had some terrible shooting luck as they sit at 29th in the league. They've also been pretty bad in net with Carey Price getting injured and then putting up numbers that are closest to James Reimer with Reimer's numbers actually being slightly better.

Thomas Greiss will get the start tonight, perhaps due to Montreal's lackluster shooting percentage. He'll go up against the aforementioned Price. Price's price tag goes up to ten million dollars next year and if he doesn't start to turn it around, he's going to get some Rick DiPietro comparisons.

Game time is at 7:35 P.M. E.S.T. as it will be featured on NBC Sports. Brendan Burke has the call on the national broadcast, so hopefully it won't be too abhorrent. For now, everyone gets to enjoy their yearly dosage of Mike Milbury covering the Islanders.

New York Islanders Lineup

Montréal Canadiens Lineup