New York Islanders vs. Colorado Avalanche [Game 41 Thread]

When the Islanders take the ice tonight, they’ll be hosting the Colorado Avalanche. The Avalanche re-tooled their roster considerably this summer, swapping out Tyson Barrie and Alex Kerfoot for Nazem Kadri and signing Joonas Donskoi away from the Sharks.

All of these moves have paid immediate dividends in supplementing their already-talented roster with Gabriel Landeskog, Mikko Rantanen, and the NHL’s First Star of the Week, Nathan MacKinnon. So, too, have the maturation of defenseman Samuel Girard and, perhaps most importantly, the promotion of Cale Makar to the NHL. Makar left college last spring and joined Colorado for their playoff run and was an important part of the Avs forcing the Sharks to a seventh game in the second round.

Also key to the Avalanche’s success is that they’ve gotten excellent goaltending from both Philipp Grubauer and Pavel Francouz, the latter of whom we’ll see tonight.

The Islanders, meanwhile, will send out Semyon Varlamov against his old team for his fifth straight start. Thomas Greiss will be back between the pipes tomorrow night against the Devils on the back-to-back in New Jersey.

They also appear to be rolling out the same personnel and lines as Saturday night’s game against the Maple Leafs.

Last chance FIGs go here. Puck drop is at 7:00 p.m.