Islanders Gameday News: New York will try to clip the winged wheel tonight in Detroit

The Islanders will take on old pal Frans Nielsen and the Red Wings, who enter the game with a 7-19-3 record, this evening in Detroit. They need to go in there and take care of business. FIG picks for that game go here. Puck drop is at 7:30 p.m.

Remains to be seen whether we’ll get Thomas Greiss or Semyon Varlamov—it would normally be the latter’s turn in the rotation, but the former played less than a period before removing himself on Saturday night.

Tomorrow night, they’ll be in Montreal to face the sliding Canadiens. They’ll enter the game with an 11-10-6 record, but are 0-5-3 in their last eight.

Islanders News

• Let’s preview the damn thing, shall we? [Islanders]
• The trip to Detroit is always a homecoming for Matt Martin, who grew up across the Detroit River in Windsor and rooted for Detroit teams. [Newsday]

Sounds like everybody had questions about his Detroit fanhood:

• The Islanders are up to no. 3 in The Athletic’s monthly power rankings.
• LISTEN: Haven’t been able to listen to this myself yet, but based on the title, I’m guessing that Brian Compton joined Hockey Night in New York to discuss the Isles’ west coast struggles and to wonder aloud about Taylor Hall? As an Islander or just in general? Not sure!
• The Railers played the Indy Fuel for the first time ever, losing 4-2 at home on Nickelodeon Night. [RailersHC]

Want to stick handle like Mathew Barzal? Watch this tutorial, with Mathew Barzal:

Elsewhere

Last night’s NHL scores include the Wild beating the Stars in the shootout, and the Oilers defeating the Canucks behind Leon Draisaitl’s two goals.

• Tomorrow night’s opponent, the Canadiens, are 0-5-3 in part because they can’t hold a one-goal lead—like last night, where they entered the third period up 1-0 and lost to the Bruins 3-1 in regulation. [NHL]
• So all eyes are on Montreal GM Marc Bergevin to help the Habs out of this hole. [Sportsnet]
• The injury that knocked Zach Werenski out of Saturday’s game was a sprained AC joint, and he’ll be out four weeks. [The Athletic]
• And the Penguins’ injury woes continue: now they’ll be without Brian Dumoulin for at least eight weeks after ankle surgery. [NHL]
• Artemi Panarin has been everything the Rangers thought they were getting when they signed him. [NY Times]
• Sean Avery claims that Marc Crawford kicked him while they shared a bench with the Kings back in 2006-07. [Yahoo]
• The 5:00 p.m. December 1 deadline has passed and unsigned RFAs Jesse Puljujarvi and Julius Honka are ineligible to play in the NHL this season. [Sportsnet]
• It’s looking more and more likely that Taylor Hall gets traded, but who suits him, or vice versa? [The Athletic]
• NHL legend Guy Lafleur had successful lung surgery over the weekend. [Sportsnet]