At the Rink: Islanders at Kings

At the Rink: Islanders at Kings

Kings' Enroth to start in goal against Islanders

NHL.com

Los Angeles Kings goaltender Jhonas Enroth will start his third game of the season when the Kings host the New York Islanders on Thursday at Staples Center (10:30 p.m. ET; MSG, FS-W).

Enroth, who confirmed his start to LAKingsInsider.com, is 2-0-0 with a 0.50 goals-against average and .984 save percentage in two games. He last played Nov. 3, making 24 saves in a 3-0 shutout of the St. Louis Blues.

He credited Kings goaltending coach Bill Ranford with helping him stay fresh during long layoffs.

"He's been great," Enroth told LAKingsInsider.com. "He's been pointing out a couple of things that made a lot of sense to me and some small things that we've been working on since training camp and I'm feeling pretty good about it. So he's been great, and obviously his track record has been pretty good too with a couple of the goalies here that he mentored, pushed them to another level."

Islanders coach Jack Capuano said Jaroslav Halak will start in goal. That will be the only lineup change as Capuano said he would stick with the same 18 skates that played in a 4-2 win against the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday.

That means leaving intact the new-look defense pairings of Nick Leddy and Travis Hamonic, and Calvin de Haan and Johnny Boychuk. Capuano said he hoped the switch would generate some offense from his defensemen; the result was a goal from Boychuk for the second straight game.

"When you go through a drought like that, it's good to switch it up," Capuano told the Islanders website after their morning skate at Staples Center in Los Angeles. "We did it on special teams as well, and it sparks your team. I thought [de Haan and Hamonic] were playing well up until that point too. Again, you have a big, strong guy with a puck-moving guy on each side of those pairings."

Here are the projected lineups:

ISLANDERS

Brock Nelson - John Tavares - Kyle Okposo

Anders Lee - Frans Nielsen - Josh Bailey

Nikolay Kulemin - Mikhail Grabovski - Steve Bernier

Matt Martin - Casey Cizikas - Cal Clutterbuck

Nick Leddy - Travis Hamonic

Calvin de Haan - Johnny Boychuk

Brian Strait - Marek Zidlicky

Jaroslav Halak

Thomas Greiss

Injured: Eric Boulton (lower body), Thomas Hickey (lower body)

Scratched: Taylor Beck, Jean-Francois Berube

KINGS

Tanner Pearson - Anze Kopitar - Marian Gaborik

Milan Lucic - Jeff Carter - Tyler Toffoli

Dustin Brown - Nick Shore - Trevor Lewis

Kyle Clifford - Andy Andreoff - Jordan Nolan

Brayden McNabb - Drew Doughty

Jake Muzzin - Alec Martinez

Christian Ehrhoff - Jamie McBain

Jhonas Enroth

Jonathan Quick

Injured: Matt Greene (upper body), Dwight King (foot)

Scratched: Derek Forbort, Jordan Weal

Status report: The Kings held an optional skate at their practice facility, Toyota Sports Center in El Segundo, Calif. … Forbort and Weal stayed on after the regulars left for extra work with Greene and Quick. Forbort had played the past two games in place of Ehrhoff.

Who's hot: Tavares scored two goals against the Sharks, his first multi-goal game of the season. … Toffoli scored his 10th goal Tuesday; he's tied for the League lead.