The Islanders face a team coming into Brooklyn on a traveling back-to-back tonight. The St. Louis Blues did the Isles a favor (again) by beating the Capitals (again), and continuing a strong run of form that is completely uncharacteristic of their 2018-19 squad thus far.
The Blues have won three in a row and are suddenly stingy on defense. (If you recall, they held the Isles to very few chances in St. Louis a couple of Saturdays ago, but fell to #goaltendingproblems.) They’ve won six of their last seven on the road, and allowed only four goals in those wins. David Perron is on an 11-game point streak.
Leave your First Islanders Goal picks for tonight here. Check back later this morning for the latest Islanders Anxiety podcast from Dan and Mike.
Islanders Reading
- In praise of the fourth line that is really the third line and has been for a while. [Newsday]
- Devon Toews gives the Isles a wonderful problem to have. [Athletic]
- Lars from Denmark dives into advanced stats/analytics and has some thoughts. [LHH FanPost]
- The PTIsles podcast talks to Andrew Gross about the win over the Lightning and more. [Sound Cloud]
- The international youth hockey tournament initiated by Charles Wang comes to Long Island again. [Isles]
- Prospect Report: Noah Dobson recorded four assists in his first three games with his new team, so no adjustment there, we imagine. [Isles]
- Sound Tigers report: A bump in the road. [BST]
- Bridgeport made a couple of recalls from Worcester ahead of their two-game trip to Charlotte. [BST]
- Speaking of which, Steve Bernier draws a three-game suspension.
Elsewhere
Last night’s NHL scores include the Caps’ regulation loss, while the Flyers and Devils picked up wins just because. Oh also, the Leafs blew a 2-0 lead at home and lost to the reeling Avalanche, so that’s funny. [NHL]
- How worried are Oilers fans about what Peter Chiarelli might do next? [Edmonton Cult of Hockey]
- What chips do the Penguins have to use at the trade deadline? [PensBurgh]
- Apparently the Stars believe that B.S. last-minute Art Ross for Jamie Benn was the beginning of their “culture of mediocrity” downfall. [Athletic]
- The Ducks keep losing but they made a trade instead of firing the coach. [THN]
- Apparently a Flyers beatwriter (or perhaps the Flyers, via him) fell prey to some fake screenshot action:
Thanks, Bob. It got the attention of the #Flyers’ brass, which I guess is what some loser was trying to do. https://t.co/RXIGs5cBhH
— Sam Carchidi (@BroadStBull) January 15, 2019