Game Preview: Islanders vs. Penguins

NEW YORK ISLANDERS (3-4-2) VS PITTSBURGH PENGUINS (5-4-1)
7PM | NASSAU COLISEUM
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The New York Islanders host the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night in their first meeting of the season and the first of six meetings which will take place during the month of February.
Both the Islanders and the Penguins have had prolonged time off due to their respective opponents postponing games teams due to COVID-19 protocols. The Islanders last played on Sunday, Jan. 31 against Philadelphia and were scheduled to host the Buffalo Sabres on Feb. 2 and 4. The Sabres did not make the trip out initially due to a blizzard that struck the northeast, but then on Tuesday the NHL announced that the games would be postponed due to Buffalo having to pause play through Feb. 8 as a result of two of its players entering the NHL's COVID protocols.

The Islanders are looking to get back in the win column after losing 4-3 in overtime to the Flyers on Sunday in their final game of a five-game road trip. During their road swing, they were winless and only picked up two points with back-to-back overtime losses to Philadelphia on Jan. 30 (3-2) and Jan. 31 (4-3), respectively.

With the time off, the Islanders have been diligent this past week in finding a balance between resting and fine-tuning the details of their game. The gameless stretch was also a nice opportunity for the team to mentally reset.
"We've got to get ourselves back in the fray here and that starts with tomorrow night," Head Coach Barry Trotz said following Friday's practice. "You get one win and you're back in the fold. Just going forward, just have a real productive and positive outlook from the game. Have a good start, work through the first period, work through the first 10 minutes of the second [period]. Just get everything in small increments rather than looking at the big picture. Sometimes we look to far ahead. When you look too far ahead you run into different obstacles that you didn't see. Let's just worry about the process of having a good start, having a good first shift for each line and stay to the process of doing things right all of the time."
In Sunday's game, despite falling 3-1 heading into the second intermission, with a power-play goal from Nick Leddy, the Islanders rallied with a two-goal third period from Josh Bailey and Mathew Barzal to take on the Flyers in overtime for the second night in a row. Their efforts weren't successful in picking up the extra point as a Barzal high-sticking penalty gave the Flyers a 4-on-3 man advantage and Kevin Hayes delivered the dagger. Ilya Sorokin made 25 saves in his third start.
The Penguins played on Monday night and suffered a 3-1 loss to the New York Rangers. Pittsburgh was scheduled to host the New Jersey Devils on Feb. 2 and 4, but after having players named to the League's COVID protocol list, the Devils had to pause their season until Feb. 6.
Against the Rangers, the Penguins opened up scoring with a goal from Jason Zucker in the first period, but relinquished three-straight goals, including a power-play goal, over the course of the next two periods. Casey DeSmith made 21 saves between the pipes.

ISLANDERS NOTES:
• Leddy scored his first goal of the season and his fifth point, which is tied with three other players for the second-most points on the Islanders leaderboard. Leddy's power-play goal was his first of the season and the sixth scored by the team.
• Bailey posted a two-point night with an assist on Leddy's goal and his first goal of the season scored on a redirect from Ryan Pulock's initial point shot. Through nine games this season, Bailey has five points (1G, 4A).
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• Barzal produced a two-point outing with his goal and assist, on Bailey's goal. The center also extended his point streak to four games where he has six points (2G, 4A) during that span. Through nine games this season, Barzal leads the Islanders across the board with his 10 points, six assists and four goals. Barzal also appeared in his 241st consecutive game, passing JP Parise for eighth on the all-time club list.
• Lee had the sole assist on Barzal's goal as he won a foot race to create a meaningful two-on-one for the Islanders in the third period. Lee now has five points (3G, 2A) through nine games.
• Sorokin made his third start of the season and has still yet to record a win in his rookie season with a record of 0-2-1. The Russian netminder has a 3.65 GAA and a .871 SV%.
• Michael Dal Colle drew back in the lineup on Sunday. Dal Colle logged 8:50 time on ice, threw two hits and had one block in his second game of the season. Barry Trotz said he is looking to pair up Dal Colle with Brock Nelson and Jordan Eberle for Saturday's game.
• Austin Czarnik and Dymtro Timashov made their Islander debuts against the Flyers. Czarnik skated alongside Dal Colle and Jean-Gabriel Pageau. Czarnik totaled 14:12 time on ice including 5:21 on the power play and 1:05 shorthanded, he also had one shot and one block. Timashov skated alongside Brock Nelson and Jordan Eberle. The winger logged 7:13 time on ice, had two hits and one shot.
• The Islanders power play went 1-for-6 against the Flyers and their penalty kill was 3-for-4. In the NHL, the Islanders extra-man unit is ranked 20th overall (15.8%) and their PK is ranked 21st (77.8%).
• The Islanders are ranked third overall in the NHL for draws with their 55.2 FOW%.
• The Islanders are 3-1-0 when scoring first and are 0-3-2 when allowing the opening goal.
• The Islanders have lost six-straight road games (0-4-2) since winning on Opening Night.
• Anthony Beauvillier has skated on his own during the past week, but has yet to rejoin the Islanders at practice. Beauvillier suffered a lower-body injury on Jan. 24 vs New Jersey. Trotz ruled Beauvillier out for Saturday's game.
• Semyon Varlamov's next game will be his 500th NHL contest. The 32-year-old is 235-185-57 in 499 career games with a 2.66 GAA, a .916 SV% and 29 shutouts. Since joining the Islanders, Varlamov is 22-16-7 with a 2.54 GAA, .915SV%, four shutouts and one run to the Eastern Conference Final.
Update: Coach Trotz confirmed ahead of the game that Semyon Varlamov will start in net for the Islanders against Pittsburgh.

PENGUINS NOTES:
• The Penguins have a long list of casualties, with the bulk of their injuries coming from their back end. The Penguins are without Kris Letang, Brian Dumoulin, Marcus Pettersson, Mike Matheson, Juuso Riikola and Zach Trotman. Zach Aston-Reese has yet to dress in a game this season after having shoulder surgery in August. John Marino was placed on the COVID protocol list on Thursday, but participated with the team on Friday.
• Of the group of injured Penguins, Letang, Matheson and Aston-Reese are expected to make the road trip to Long Island,

Letang suffered a lower-body injury against the Rangers on Jan. 30, Matheson has missed the last eight games with an upper-body injury that he sustained in their second game of the season on Jan. 15 and Aston-Reese is preparing to make his season debut.
• Against the Rangers, Zucker scored his third goal of the season and second goal in as many games. The winger has five points (3G, 2A) through 10 games this season with the Pens.
• Chad Ruhwedel picked up the primary assist on Zucker's goal and earned his first point of the season through nine games.
• Evgeni Malkin posted his second assist in as many games on Zucker's goal. Through 10 games this season, the Russian center has five points (1G, 4A).
• DeSmith made his fourth start of the season, but suffered his first loss in his 3-1-0 record this year. The 29-year-old goaltender has a 2.85 GAA and a .882 SV%.
• The Pens power play went 0-for-6 against the Rangers, while their penalty kill was 3-for-4. In the NHL, Pittsburgh ranks 24th on both the power play (13.9%) and the PK (74.3%).
• Against the Rangers, the Pens dominated the circle as they finished the night with a 71% of faceoff wins. In the NHL, Pittsburgh is ranked eighth (52.1) in FOW%.
• Across the league, the Penguins relinquish the fourth-most goals against with their nightly average of 3.70. Conversely, their offense generates a nightly average of 2.80 goals for that is ranked 20th overall.
• Sidney Crosby leads his team in points with eight (4G, 4A) through 10 games this season. The Penguins captain is six games away from suiting up in his 1,000 game played.
PROJECTED PITTSBURGH LINEUP:

Guentzel-Crosby-Rust
Zucker-Malkin-Kapanen
McCann-Blueger-Tanev
O'Connor-Jankowski-Lafferty (Sceviour)
Letang, Joseph (Ruhwedel)
Matheson-Ceci
Czuczman-Weber
DeSmith
Jarry
Update: Penguins Head Coach Mike Sullivan confirmed ahead of the game that Tristian Jarry will start in net against the Islanders.Jarry's last start was on Jan. 28 in Pittsburgh's 4-1 loss to Boston. The 25-year-old goalie has a record of 2-3-1, a 3.92 GAA and a .859 SV%.