Isles Day-to-Day: Schaefer, Shabanov and Sorokin Take Maintenance Days

The New York Islanders hit the ice for practice at UBS Arena on Friday morning. 

See below for lines, news, photos and media availabilities.

SCHAEFER, SHABANOV, SOROKIN TAKE MAINTENANCE DAYS

Matthew Schaefer, Max Shabanov and Ilya Sorokin took maintenance days on Friday. They are all expected to play on Saturday against Ottawa. 

While Schaefer and Shabanov did not skate, Sorokin worked with goalie coaches before practice, but did not stay on for the full-team session. 

SOROKIN EXPECTED TO START VS OTTAWA

Sorokin is expected to start in goal against the Senators and Head Coach Pete DeBoer left the door open for Sorokin to also start again on Sunday.

"In a perfect world if we're playing in the in November, in the regular season, that would be a split automatically for us," DeBoer said. "I wouldn't want to play our starter back to back, but we're not in the middle of November, and it's a different situation. All bets are off at this point in the year."

LINES AT PRACTICE:

Anders Lee - Bo Horvat - Simon Holmstrom
Brayden Schenn - Mathew Barzal - Cal Ritchie
Ondrej Palat - JG Pageau - Emil Heineman
Anthony Duclair/Kyle MacLean - Casey Cizikas - Marc Gatcomb

Isaiah George/Adam Boqvist - Ryan Pulock
Adam Pelech - Tony DeAngelo
Carson Soucy - Scott Mayfield

David Rittich
Semyon Varlamov

ISLES ON PLAYOFF CHASE:

The Islanders took care of business on Thursday and got a little help on the out-of-town scoreboard.

The Isles (91 points) are now one point back of the Philadelphia Flyers (92 points) for third in the Metropolitan Division. That felt like a big momentum shift after Tuesday's out-of-town results, which unanimously went against the Islanders - and a reminder that things can change quickly.

"We woke up two days ago and we were three points out, and the standings looked almost insurmountable," DeBoer said. "We won one game yesterday, and we wake up today and we feel pretty good. We're right there."

"That's pro sports," DeBoer added. "You've got to take one game at a time [and have] that playoff mentality of flushing what happened yesterday, and be prepared to win tomorrow night. And if you keep doing that, you'll keep waking up and feeling good about where you're at."

While the Flyers are the closest team within reach of the Islanders, Saturday presents an opportunity to close the gap with the Senators (94 points) and bring the second wild card berth into play. A regulation win narrows the gap to one point with two games remaining for both teams, while a regulation loss would widen the gap to five points, a distance the Isles would be unable to make up. 

"Tomorrow's obviously huge," Mathew Barzal said. "The last two weeks, really, we've been playing these kind of games. So it seems like every game just means a little more than the next one. We checked the standings last night and, obviously, we got a little bit of help throughout the league, and we're right back in the fight. So tomorrow's huge and for both teams."

The Isles are 1-1-0 against the Senators this season, winning 5-4 at home on Oct. 18 and falling 3-2 in Ottawa on March 19.