Game Preview: Islanders vs Lightning

NEW YORK ISLANDERS (2-2-0) VS TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING (3-1-0)

7:30 P.M. | UBS ARENA | BUY TICKETS

HOW TO WATCH/STREAM: MSGSN, MSG+ ON DAZN

HOW TO LISTEN: 88.7 FM WRHU | 103.9FM LI NEWS | 92.5FM THE BEACON | ISLES + UBS ARENA APP

The New York Islanders are coming off a commanding 4-1 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday and return to UBS Arena for a meeting with the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

Bo Horvat scored twice and has four goals in four games. Emil Heineman and Anthony Duclair recorded goals and Ilya Sorokin carried a shutout streak of 165:31 into the final minutes of the third period.

Read a full game recap here

Read the Isles Day-to-Day from Friday

It’s America 250 Night at the arena and proceeds from game-issued autographed jerseys will go toward the Islanders Children’s Foundation.

Sign up to participate in the jersey auction or make a donation to the Islanders Children’s Foundation here.

After dropping the season opener, the Lightning took advantage of their three-game homestand with a trio of wins. They’re coming off a 3-2 win over the Minnesota Wild and snapped an 0-for-14 start on the power play as John Carlson’s two goals helped the Lightning to their third straight victory.

The Lightning have been a model of consistency with at least 98 points in each of the last five seasons after winning back-to-back Stanley Cups, but have lost in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs each of the last four years.

They still boast a roster full of talent including 2025-26 Hart Trophy winner Nikita Kucherov – who had 44 goals, 86 assists and 130 points last season – and two-time Vezina Trophy winner Andrei Vasilevskiy.

It’ll be an early season measuring stick game for the Islanders who are still looking to put a complete effort together according to Head Coach Pete DeBoer. That’ll be a challenge against a physical and talented Lightning team that likes to mix it up and throw other teams off their game.

“We've been building towards a game like this,” DeBoer said. “This is one of the top teams in the league so we've got to try and put all the pieces together tomorrow night. I think we've slowly made improvements every night out in different areas. We haven't put it all together for 60 minutes yet, and this is a team that we're going to be forced to do that if we want to have a chance to win.”

PROJECTED LINEUP

The Islanders held an optional skate on Friday and didn’t hold line rushes.

Stay tuned until after Saturday’s morning skate for an updated line chart.

MACCELLI PROVIDING BALANCE, STABILITY TO FORWARD LINES

The Islanders wanted to generate more depth scoring heading into the offseason and added Matias Maccelli who had 14 goals and 39 points over 71 games with the Toronto Maple Leafs last season.

Through four games he’s delivered exactly what DeBoer and the Islanders expected from him with a pair of assists and he’s bought into his role on the fourth line alongside Ondřej Palát and Casey Cizikas.

Maccelli showed some of his offensive prowess in the win over Chicago on Thursday as he caught a pass along the wall and made a pass to a trailing Heineman while abosbing a hit. Heineman then ripped one past the Blackhawks goaltender to give the Isles a 2-0 lead.

Heineman called Maccelli “a really skilled player” and that dynamic has brought a sense of balance to the Islanders lines. He’s also factored into the Islanders top power-play unit that has a goal in three straight games.

“He's brought exactly what we wanted him to bring, which is speed and skill, the ability to make a play, create offense,” DeBoer said. “What I've liked the most about him is he's done it in the depth of our lineup which has given us a four-line attack and four lines that have the ability to create offense which was something that was a goal we talked about in the summer that that we needed to get some offense from the depth of our lineup.

Having a guy like that in the depth of our lineup, have him handle the fact that he's playing on a depth line as opposed to a top line and still coming out and playing as hard as he is and producing how he is has been really critical for any success we've had here early.”

LIGHTNING OFFSEASON ADDITIONS

It was a relatively quiet offseason for the Lightning who signed Carlson to a two-year contract after trading defenseman Darren Raddysh to the Toronto Maple Leafs for a 2026 fifth-round pick in a sign-and-trade move. Raddysh recorded 22 goals and 70 points last season.

Tampa Bay also acquired Hildeby and a pair of picks from Toronto for forward Nick Paul. They’ve have benefited from the return of veteran defenseman Victor Hedman who played just 33 games after stepping away last season to prioritize his mental health.