Coyotes at Islanders preview

COYOTES (36-32-7) at ISLANDERS (43-25-7)
3 p.m. ET; SN, MSG+, FS-A, NHL.TV

The Islanders are one point behind the Washington Capitals, who play at home against the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday (12:30 p.m. ET; NBC). New York defeated Philadelphia 4-2 on Saturday to move within one point of Washington with seven games remaining for each team.
The Coyotes got one point in a 2-1 shootout loss at the New Jersey Devils on Saturday and are tied in points with the Minnesota Wild, one point behind the Colorado Avalanche, who hold the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference. The Wild lost at the Carolina Hurricanes 5-1 on Saturday.
Arizona is 0-2-2 and has scored six goals in its past four games.

Players to watch

Arizona center Derek Stepan played 19:39 and went 13-6 in face-offs against the Devils, his first game back after missing 10 with a lower-body injury.
Islanders forward Josh Bailey scored two goals in the third period against the Flyers on Saturday, ending a 12-game goalscoring drought.

They said it

"I find we're a tight hockey club and even when we have the puck offensively we're just not relaxing with the puck. We're skittish and this is a learning lesson. … We need to relax and it's my job to get these guys to relax a little bit." -- Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet
"Obviously we're going to play a desperate team [Sunday] in Arizona, see if we can have a little more mojo and go after them the same way as we did [Saturday] and go from there." -- Islanders coach Barry Trotz

Coyotes projected lineup

Richard Panik -- Christian Dvorak -- Clayton Keller
Lawson Crouse -- Derek Stepan -- Josh Archibald
Michael Grabner -- Brad Richardson -- Vinnie Hinostroza
Alex Galchenyuk -- Mario Kempe -- Conor Garland
Oliver Ekman-Larsson -- Niklas Hjalmarsson
Alex Goligoski -- Jason Demers
Jakob Chychrun -- Jordan Oesterle
Darcy Kuemper
Calvin Pickard
Scratched: Kevin Connauton, Ilya Lyubushkin, Christian Fischer, Nick Cousins
Injured: Antti Raanta (lower body), Nick Schmaltz (lower body), Kyle Capobianco (lower body)

Islanders projected lineup

Anders Lee -- Mathew Barzal -- Jordan Eberle
Josh Bailey -- Brock Nelson -- Andrew Ladd
Anthony Beauvillier -- Tanner Fritz -- Leo Komarov
Matt Martin -- Casey Cizikas -- Cal Clutterbuck
Nick Leddy -- Johnny Boychuk
Ryan Pulock -- Scott Mayfield
Devon Toews -- Adam Pelech
Thomas Greiss
Robin Lehner
Scratched: Michael Dal Colle, Ross Johnston, Tom Kuhnhackl, Thomas Hickey, Luca Sbisa, Dennis Seidenberg
Injured:Valtteri Filppula (upper body)

Status report

Tocchet didn't say if Kuemper or Pickard would start. Kuemper made 31 saves against the Devils in what was his 16th consecutive start.

Stat pack

The Islanders are 10-1-1 in the second half of a back-to-back this season. Arizona is 5-4-0 in the second half of a back-to-back.