Islanders Gameday News: The Islanders need to get back on track tonight in Minnesota

The Islanders continue a three-game road trip this evening in Minnesota. They play a Wild team tonight that had struggled badly to start the season but that got hot toward the end of November and into December to put themselves back into the playoff conversation.

FIGs go here. Puck drop is at 6:00 p.m. tonight.

Islanders News

Recaps from the loss to Chicago: LHH | Islanders | Newsday | NHL | NYI Skinny

• Barry Trotz isn’t a fan of how the NHL scheduled the end of the holiday break, having the Islanders play an inter-conference game and not being able to travel as a team the night before. [Newsday]
• But he’s certainly even more disappointed with his team’s play over the last few weeks. [Newsday]
• Before the game, the Islanders announced they had sent Andrew Ladd back to Bridgeport. [Islanders]

Robin Lehner shared a heartfelt moment with an Isles fan after the game on Friday night, taking selfies with her. [NHL]

• Lehner still loves his Isles fans, and he’ll always remember how they supported him from Day 1. [Newsday]
• It was his honesty with New York that made him such a fan favorite here. [Chicago Sun-Times]

As we now know, Anna Kendrick has responded to Anthony Beauvillier’s tweet. I can’t believe how much attention this got. [NHL | Newsday | Buzzfeed (never thought I’d link Buzzfeed to an LHH Bits post but here we are) | NY Post]

• Okay, now that we’ve covered the last game and all the old news, let’s preview tonight’s game. [Islanders]
• Kieffer Bellows is still smoking hot, and last night scored all three Sound Tigers goals—including one to tie it up and force OT with about 30 seconds left—for his first professional hat trick. Bridgeport did lose to the Springfield Thunderbirds, though, in OT. [Sound Tigers]
• LISTEN: PTIsles discusses Beauvillier’s shot, Friday’s lame effort, Bellows’s heat, and the background of the Santa brawl sixteen years ago. [LHH]
• As the decade winds down, Andrew Gross ranks each Islanders team by decade. Crazy to think we just witnessed the third-best decade in Isles history (so far). [Newsday]
• And Newsday recounts the top 25 sports stories of the decade from the local area, and the Islanders’ juggling of arenas was no. 2. It was the worst decade, in terms of championships, in a century. [Islanders]

World Juniors Updates

• On Friday afternoon, the USA and Germany played a game that was probably a bit too close for the US’s standards, but they blew it open in the third and Oliver Wahlstrom scored a beautiful goal as a part of that third period. USA next plays Russia at 1:00 p.m. EST today. [Islanders]
• The Canadians got destroyed by Russia 6-0 yesterday, but the bigger concern is that Alexis Lafrenière may have seriously injured his left knee. [NHL]

Elsewhere

Last night and Friday night’s NHL scores here. On Friday, the Rangers beat the Hurricanes, the Capitals beat the Blue Jackets, and the Penguins beat the Predators. On Saturday, the Rangers beat the Maple Leafs, the Hurricanes beat the Capitals, the Penguins beat the Predators (again) and the Flyers got whooped by the Sharks. Not a great weekend in the Metro Division for the Islanders.

• The Maple Leafs will be without Jake Muzzin for a couple weeks at least. He suffered a broken foot. [TSN]
• They’ll also be without Ilya Mikyehev for a period of weeks after a scary arm laceration similar to the one Cal Clutterbuck suffered. These injuries will test Toronto’s resolve. [Sportsnet]
• Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Zack Kassian present tricky decisions for their teams ahead of the deadline, but they really shouldn’t. If a UFA-to-be is having a career year in a contract year on a bad team, they should be dealt! [TSN]
• Is Brent Seabrook done as a member of the Blackhawks? [THN]
• Andrei Vasilevskiy is the latest goalie to struggle under goalie coach Frantz Jean of the Lightning. [Raw Charge]
• Hall of Fame referee Bill McCreary called Wayne Gretzky’s last game in the NHL. Hear what he has to say about it. [Sportsnet]
• Alex Steen and his father, Thomas Steen, returned to Sweden with the Stanley Cup this summer. [Winnipeg Free Press]