Islanders Gameday News: An Afternoon with the Isles

The Islanders will host their annual Columbus Day matinee game today when the Sharks come to visit. San Jose is a tough opponent, especially since they acquired the magnificent Erik Karlsson, but puck drop will be at 10:00 a.m. as far as they’re concerned. Hopefully, they’re able to catch them sleeping.

Leave your FIG picks here for the daytime affair. Don’t pick Tanner Fritz.

Islanders News

• Before we get too ahead of ourselves, let’s revisit the Isles’ defeat at the hands of the Predators in Saturday’s home opener. Much better effort than Thursday at the Hurricanes, but they still end up on the wrong side of the ledger, because hockey. [LHH | Newsday]
• Eric Hornick’s Skinny reveals that Anders Lee has tied Josh Bailey for the career lead in goals among active Islanders, with 125. [NYI Skinny]
• Mark Herrmann hopes that Saturday was the last home opener at Barclays Center. It was definitely a sparse crowd for a home opener. [Newsday]
• Robin Lehner had no issue playing backup for the first two games of the season, adding that he’s part of a “real team” here. Also, Barry Trotz still gets all tingly when he faces Nashville. [Newsday]
• Lehner won’t have to wait long for his first start with the team; he’ll go this afternoon. Tom Kuhnhackl will replace Fritz, and Trotz shuffles the D-pairs, taking Luca Sbisa out for Scott Mayfield. [Newsday | Islanders]
• The Islanders are looking to improve upon last season’s disastrous penalty kill; they’re off to a 4/4 start. [The Athletic]
• Fans with Lee or Bailey jerseys can get a ‘C’ or an ‘A,’ respectively, stitched on for free at the Pro Shop at Northwell Health Ice Center or the Swag Shop at Barclays Center. [Islanders]
• The Sound Tigers defeated the Hershey Bears for their first win of the season, thanks to goals from veterans Chris Bourque and Steve Bernier. Stick tap to JBotte for the LHH recap. [LHH | Sound Tigers]
• The night before, they lost 6-3 to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in their season opener. But, Kieffer Bellows scored his first professional goal. [Sound Tigers]

Elsewhere

• Here are the rest of the scores from Saturday’s games, as well as yesterday’s. In a wild 7-6 battle, John Tavares recorded his first hat trick with Toronto as the Maple Leafs defeated the Blackhawks Sunday evening. Late Saturday night, young Elias Petterson gave Canucks fans two more reasons to be excited about him, even though they lost the second half of the home-and-home to the Flames 7-4.
• His Devils teammates like Taylor Hall’s chances of repeating as the Hart Trophy winner. [NHL]
• ESPN sits down with new Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour to discuss coaching a bunch of kids on a team he once captained to a Stanley Cup. [ESPN]
• A nice long read of how the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim first took flight, from the silver screen to the white ice and everything in between. A little ‘90s nostalgia for your day off, if you’re off. [The Athletic]