EBERLE FACES FORMER TEAM:
Tuesday's game is an important one for Jordan Eberle, as he faces off against the team he spent seven years with. Eberle addressed the topic at Monday's practice and talked about what Tuesday night will mean to him.
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STROME PLAYS FIRST GAME VS ISLANDERS:
Things were familiar, but different when former Islander Ryan Strome took morning skate at Barclays Center. He was walking into a building he'd played two seasons in, but to the visitor's locker room. He noted that the colors - blue and orange - on his jersey were the same, but that was about it.
This was Strome's was back in New York for the first time since being traded from the Islanders to the Edmonton Oilers on June 22, which brought back a flood of emotions and memories.
"Obviously a lot of mixed feelings, especially seeing some friends last night brings back a lot of good memories," Strome said. "All in all it's been good. Great staff here, great teammates and everyone has made the transition pretty easy."
Strome had 126 points (45G, 81A) in 258 games with the Islanders over four seasons. Strome, who was drafted by the Islanders 5th overall in 2011, has five points (2G, 3A) for the Oilers this season.
Strome was asked to reflect on his time with the Islanders. Strome said the team's success, making the playoffs in two of his three full seasons was one of the highlights.
"Just the success we had," Strome said. "I was drafted to a team that was struggling. I'm not saying I'm the reason, but for some reason when I came, we kind of pulled things together. We had a great group of guys, we had a lot of fun and won a ton of games. We went to the playoffs a couple of times and a lot of firsts, first goal, first game, that's stuff you're going to remember forever."
The same goes for the friendships he made along the way. He was especially close with John Tavares, even living with the Isles captain, and lining up against him may be the weirdest part of the game.
"It'll be really, really weird playing against him," Strome said. "He's the best pro I've ever seen. He takes care of himself. He works hard, he's successful, he does all the right things and he's like a brother to me."
Strome said it'll ultimately be the friendships that he thinks of most about his time with the team.
"Some of those guys are some of my best buddies obviously," Strome said. "It'll be good to square off with them tonight and I'm sure it'll be a lot of fun seeing those guys on the other side."
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