New York Islanders at New York Rangers [Game 49 thread]

Nothing more needs to be said about the importance of tonight’s game: The Islanders, despite a pretty gaudy 28-15-5 record, have been up and down since their 17-game points streak and are suffering through a tough January. Tonight’s there last chance to hit the All-Star break and bye week feeling like they’ll rebound.

Oh, and: victories against the rival Rangers are always nice, too. They’re 0-for-2 on that front this month.

From morning skates reports, it looked like the Islanders would be using the same lineup, including Thomas Greiss in goal for a rare back-to-back start and Josh Bailey in despite leaving Sunday’s game in Carolina with illness.

That means Ross Johnston and Sebastian Aho would sit again.

The Rangers will largely stick with what’s working, including starting Alexandar Georgiev again, because they’ve downed the Isles twice — once by blowout, once by backbreaker.