Game Preview: Islanders vs Ducks

NEW YORK ISLANDERS (0-1-0) VS ANAHEIM DUCKS (1-0-0)
7:30 PM | UBS ARENA | BUY TICKETS
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The New York Islanders look for their first win of the season Saturday as they host the Anaheim Ducks at UBS Arena.
The Islanders lost their season opener against the Florida Panthers 3-1, with Noah Dobson scoring the Islanders only goal of the game on the power play. The Ducks won their season opener 5-4 in overtime against the Seattle Kraken, coming back from a 4-2 deficit in the third period.

The Ducks finished seventh in the Pacific Division last year, but return talent like Calder finalist Trevor Zegras and All-Stars Troy Terry and John Gibson. The Ducks have also added 2021 third-overall pick and 2022 World Juniors Tournament MVP Mason McTavish, free agent defenseman John Klingberg and former Islander Ryan Strome.
In the opener, the Islanders found success with both special teams units, killing five penalties and scoring on the power play, but despite generating chances at five on five, they struggled to finish.
"I thought our pace, we knew it was going to be a little bit of a different level from exhibition games," Head Coach Lane Lambert said of his takeaways from the game. "I wasn't pleased with the way we transitioned the puck today...I thought we moved the puck too slow at times. We went D to D instead of going quick up and it allowed (the Panthers) to get into their structure. It's a two or three second hockey game out there. We just had to move a little bit quicker at times."

ISLANDERS NOTES

• Noah Dobson scored the only goal for the Islanders Thursday against the Panthers on the power play. Last season, Dobson scored 13 goals, becoming the first Islanders defenseman since Mark Streit in 2008-09 to score more than 12 goals. His 51 points also made him the highest scoring Islander defenseman since Streit's 2008-09 campaign. Twenty-two of his points and three of his goals last season came on the power play.
  - In his debut, Alexander Romanov led the Islanders and set a career-high with nine blocked shots, the second-most in franchise history. He played 5:55 on the penalty kill, which went five-for-five against a Panthers team whose power play ranked fifth in the league last season. He also played a team-high 22:24.
  - Brock Nelson and Mathew Barzal, last season's co-points leaders, picked up assists on Dobson's power-play goal on Thursday. Both players scored three points in four preseason games, and 59 points last season, with Nelson leading the team in goals with 37 and Barzal leading the team in assists with 44.
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  GAME EXTRAS
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  Getting Here
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  - Last season, the Islanders swept the season series against the Ducks. Ilya Sorokin posted a 4-0 shutout on the road at the Honda Center in Anaheim, and Kyle Palmieri scored two goals in a 4-3 win at UBS Arena. The Islanders are 4-0-2 in their last six home games vs Anaheim.
  - Anders Lee is slated to play in his 598th game with the Islanders on Saturday, moving past Kenny Jonsson for sole possession of 18th in games played in franchise history.

DUCKS NOTES

• Mason McTavish picked up two primary assists in the Ducks' season opener. The 2021 first-round pick played nine games for the Ducks last year and scored three points (2G, 1A) in those games. Since then, McTavish led his Hamilton Bulldogs team to the Memorial Cup finals and co-led the tournament in scoring alongside Islander prospect William Dufour, and led the 2022 World Juniors in scoring, earning Tournament MVP honors.
  - Trevor Zegras scored a goal and tallied an assist for two points in the Ducks' opener. Zegras was a Calder finalist last year, scoring 61 points (23G, 38A) and found viral success for his creative moves. The opener was his 100th career NHL game.
  - Ryan Strome, a former Islanders fifth-overall pick, had three points (1G, 2A) in his Ducks debut in the opener. Strome signed a five-year deal with the Ducks last offseason after four years with the New York Rangers. Strome played four seasons with the Islanders from 2013-17, racking up 126 points (45G, 81A) in 258 games.
  - In the opener, Anaheim's power play went 2-for-3, but their penalty kill went 2-for-5. Their opponent, the Seattle Kraken, had the 29th ranked power play in the NHL last season. The Ducks had the 10th ranked penalty kill and 14th ranked power play in 2021-22.
  - New addition John Klingberg tallied two assists in the Ducks' opener. Klingberg signed a one-year deal to join Anaheim after spending the first eight years of his career with the Dallas Stars. Last season, Klingberg scored 47 points (6G, 41A).
  - The Ducks will be without longtime captain Ryan Getzlaf, as the veteran center retired over the offseason. Getzlaf holds the record for most games played (1,157), assists (737) and points (1,019) in Ducks history. Saturday marks the first time since the 2004-05 lockout that the Islanders will play a Ducks team that did not have Getzlaf on the roster.