At the Rink: Islanders at Senators

OTTAWA -- Defenseman Travis Hamonic will return to the New York Islanders lineup Friday when they play the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre (7:30 p.m. ET; MSG+, RDS, TSN5).

Hamonic missed the past four games with a lower-body injury. He will be reunited with Calvin de Haan. They played together for the first 15 games of the season before coach Jack Capuano shuffled his pairings.

"It's only been four games, but it certainly feels a lot longer than that," Hamonic said.

"I'm excited to play (with de Haan) again. He's one of those guys that certainly each and every game he's getting better and better and I think we're starting to see that right now. People are talking about it now, but in our organization, certainly in our locker room, he's someone that we rely on a lot. He plays a lot of tough minutes."

Hamonic said he hopes the pair won't waste any time finding the solid play they enjoyed earlier this season.

"When you put the two of us together, we both move really well," he said. "We've built up a bit of chemistry over the years. Hopefully we can hit the ground running again."

The Islanders are 2-0-1 in their past three games and are coming off a five-day break. Capuano used the break to work on conditioning and special teams, but he would have preferred to be playing games.

"We played better when we play a lot of hockey. I don't like the time off," he said.

The Islanders lost twice earlier this season coming off breaks of at least three days.

Jaroslav Halak will start in goal for the Islanders.

The Senators lost 6-3 to the New Jersey Devils on Thursday to complete a 2-3-0 road trip. They trailed 5-0 after the first period.

Poor starts have been a problem for the Senators, who have given up the first goal in 32 of their 48 games this season.

"It's happening too frequently. Our starts are costing us games," wing Bobby Ryan said. "They're not only costing us games, they're embarrassing ourselves. If you could put your finger on why it happens it would be so easy to solve."

Senators coach Dave Cameron instructed the media to ask the players how they would show up to start the game Friday.

"We show up. You don't take the first five or six shifts off and dig yourself a hole, not only at one or 2-0, but to get to five is embarrassing," Ryan said. "We have no lower to go than we did in the first."

The Senators have been inconsistent from game to game and even from period to period this season.

Cameron used analogies from other sports to explain how he wants his team to play.

"I want them to play 50-50 hockey when the situation dictates it. That's what I want them to do. When you golf, you've got a set of clubs for a reason. You can't hit the driver all the time. When you play baseball, you go up every time probably thinking, 'Geez, I'd love to hit a home run,' but the pitcher doesn't throw you a ball down the middle of the plate. Unless you're a real Barry Bonds type guy, you're not going to hit a lot of home runs.

"So 50-50 means pucks in, pucks out. Manage the puck. It means you're not going giving anything up. You might not be getting anything, but you're not giving anything up.

"It's a mindset, it's a focus, it's an attention to detail thing. That's what it is. It's as simple as that."

Goalie Andrew Hammond, who allowed one goal on 12 shots after replacing Craig Anderson on Thursday, will start for the Senators.

Here are the projected lineups:

ISLANDERS

Mikhail Grabovski – John Tavares – Ryan Strome

Nikolay Kulemin – Frans Nielsen – Kyle Okposo

Anders Lee – Brock Nelson – Josh Bailey

Matt Martin – Casey Cizikas – Cal Clutterbuck

Calvin de Haan – Travis Hamonic

Brian Strait – Nick Leddy

Thomas Hickey – Marek Zidlicky

Jaroslav Halak

Thomas Greiss

Injured: Johnny Boychuk (upper body), Eric Boulton (lower body), Jean-Francois Berube (lower body), Adam Pelech (upper body)

Scratched: Steve Bernier, Scott Mayfield

SENATORS

Mike Hoffman– Zack Smith – Mark Stone

Milan Michalek – Mika Zibanejad – Bobby Ryan

Curtis Lazar – Jean-Gabriel Pageau – Alex Chiasson

Shane Prince – Max McCormick – Chris Neil

Mark Borowiecki – Erik Karlsson

Patrick Wiercioch – Cody Ceci

Jared Cowen – Chris Wideman

Andrew Hammond

Craig Anderson

Injured: Kyle Turris (lower body), Marc Methot (lower body), Chris Phillips (back), Clarke MacArthur (concussion)

Scratched: Matt Puempel

Status report: Cameron said Turris' injury is one that keeps getting aggravated. He will miss his second game in a row after seeing his streak of 307 consecutive games, the second longest in Senators history, ended Thursday.

Who's hot: Zibanejad and Ryan each have two goals and two assists in their past three games. … Ceci has a goal and three assists in his past three games. … Leddy has a goal and an assist in his past two games.