Columbus Blue Jackets at New York Islanders [Game 53]

			-AT-
			7:00 PM EST
Radio	Network		Arena		Network	Radio
97.1 FM WBNS	FSOH		Barclays Center		MSG+	88.7 FM WRHU
League	Value		Metric		Value	League
17th	56.9%		Points Percentage		52.9%	23rd
29th	11.89%		Net Power Play Percentage		14.29%	24th
29th	76.87%		Net Penalty Kill Percentage		77.12%	28th
30th	88.75%		Combined Special Teams Percentage		91.41%	28th
27th	2.63		Goals for per Game (All Situations)		3.33	3rd
13th	2.80		Goals against per Game (All Situations)		3.63	31st
9th	.18		Penalty +/- per Game (All Situations)		.15	13th
15th	50.67%		Shot Attempt Percentage (5V5 Score Adjusted)		47.54%	25th
14th	50.18%		Scoring Chance Percentage (5V5 Score Adjusted)		46.23%	28th
18th	99.95%		P.D.O. (5V5)		100.98%	7th
25th	6.80%		Shooting Percentage (5V5)		9.33%	1st
6th	93.15%		Save Percentage (5V5)		91.65%	27th
Data from Hockey-Reference.com and Natural Stat Trick
The Enemies' Lair
The Cannon

The New York Islanders are back at Barclays trying to get themselves out of last place. A win tonight against the Columbus Blue Jackets would allow them to jump the Carolina Hurricanes and potentially the New York Rangers if they lose to the Nashville Predators tonight. With that being said, that would require the Islanders to actually win a game and that's proven quite difficult as of late.

The Islanders have just two five-on-five Fenwick victories dating back to December 11th and are dead last in the N.H.L. in Fenwick since that time coming in at 43.27 percent after score adjustments. That's a completely arbitrary date, but that's still a 22 game sample size and is relatively large. The two opponents that they did beat in that category, the Rangers and the Chicago Blackhawks, were teams that were fresh off their bye weeks.

Things are going to have to turn around quickly and Doug Weight has decided to try and light a fire under the Islanders by switching out Thomas Greiss for Jaroslav Halak. Anthony Beauvillier and Anders Lee might switch places, but no other changes will be made to the lineup meaning Islanders fans get more Dennis Seidenberg and more Tanner Fritz tonight. Accountability is important or something.

The Islanders have a rare special teams advantage in this one as the Blue Jackets come in with their 30th ranked special teams. Columbus has a huge advantage over the Islanders at even strength as the Islanders drift from bad to comically bad with their possession numbers. Drawing penalties would be exceptionally useful tonight, but the Islanders top two players in penalty differential are missing with Nikolay Kulemin being injured and Joshua Ho-Sang being held accountable for the team having the worse possession numbers in the N.H.L. in his absence.

Once again, Halak gets the start for the Islanders. Sergei Bobrovsky is expected to go for Columbus. The game will be on MSG+ and puck drop is at 7:05 P.M. E.S.T.

Columbus Blue Jackets Projected Lineup

New York Islanders Projected Lineup