Game Preview: Islanders at Lightning

NEW YORK ISLANDERS (2-2-0) AT TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING (2-3-0)
7 PM | AMALIE ARENA
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The New York Islanders travel to Tampa for their first road game of the season against the Tampa Bay Lightning, for the first leg of a back-to-back set in the Sunshine State.

The Islanders (2-2-0) come into Saturday's contest off the heels of a 4-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils, where the Islanders were out-shot 41-17. Prior to that loss, the Islanders had won two games in a row against the Anaheim Ducks and San Jose Sharks, and scored 12 goals over those two games.
"I'm not going to make any excuses," Head Coach Lane Lambert said of the loss to the Devils. "It's unacceptable. If that's the case, and it appears that we just weren't ready to go as good as we should have been, so it won't happen again."
The Tampa Bay Lightning (2-3-0) enter Saturday's game on the second leg of a back-to-back, after scoring a 3-2 OT win against the Florida Panthers on Friday for their second win of the season. Despite a slow start, the Lightning are the team to beat in the Eastern Conference as Tampa made it to their third consecutive Stanley Cup Final last year, and lost to the Colorado Avalanche in six games.

ISLANDERS NOTES:

• Anders Lee extended his point streak against the Devils with a goal late in the third period. He now has goals in two consecutive games, and leads the Islanders in scoring with five points (2G, 3A) in four games.
  - Kyle Palmieri scored his first point of the season against the Devils with a primary assist on Lee's goal. Last year, Palmieri struggled to find the back of the net early in the year but ended with 33 points (15G, 18A). According to Natural Stat Trick, across the first games of the year, Palmieri has the team's second highest corsi percentage 56.99% at five-on-five and has been on the ice for 11 high-danger chances.
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  - The Islanders' penalty kill remains perfect on the year, killing off three penalties against the Devils to bring the kill to 15-for-15 on the season. Just three other teams remain perfect on the penalty kill so far this season.
  - Ilya Sorokin and Semyon Varlamov both started the season off strong on the homestand. Sorokin earned only one win across three games, but posted a .935 save percentage and a 2.02 GAA. Varlamov won his only start, posting a .929 save percentage and allowing two goals.
  - The Islanders have six goals coming from defensemen, with Robin Salo, Scott Mayfield and Noah Dobson scoring two each. No other NHL team has more than four goals from their blue line this year so far.

LIGHTNING NOTES:

• Vezina Trophy and Conn Smythe winner Andrei Vasilevskiy started against the Panthers on Friday, so the Islanders are likely to face Brian Elliott in net. Elliott is in his second season with the Lightning, and posted a .912 save percentage and a 2.43 GAA in 2021-22. In his only start so far this year, Elliott made 39 saves on 44 shots in a loss to Pittsburgh.
  - Steven Stamkos picked up right where he left off after a career-best year last season where he scored a career-high 106 points (42G, 64A), which was seventh-best in the NHL. This season, Stamkos already has seven goals in five games, and nine total points.
  - Brayden Point scored a pair of goals in the OT win over the Panthers, including the OT winner. Point has four points (3G, 1A) in five games this season.
  - Nikita Kucherov had two assists in Friday's win, notching a pair of assists for a third straight game. Kucherov now has seven assists in five games this season.
  - The Lightning went 2-for-7 on the power play against the Panthers on Friday night. The Bolts are 7-for-22 with the man advantage this season, converting at 31.8%.